If you had chickenpox as a kid, you might have taken a bath in oatmeal to soothe the itchiness. It might not be weird that oatmeal is a common ingredient in skin soothing and barrier repair formulations if this were you. The Aveeno Calm + Restore Oat Gel Moisturizer for Sensitive Skin is a soothing product containing hydrocolloidal oat and several other hydrating and calming ingredients. The Aveeno Oat Gel Moisturizer is formulated to soothe and hydrate sensitive, irritated facial skin. In my opinion, it does that well. However, let’s talk about why.
About The Aveeno Oat Gel Moisturizer for Sensitive Skin:
I bought the travel-sized version of this product specifically for a skiing trip that I was planning to take. The cold, dry air and the wind from skiing can be rough on your skin, and I knew that I would need a soothing product to combat the harshness of a day of skiing on my skin. I love when a brand offers a travel size option for their product because it is less of an investment to try a product.
The product’s travel-sized version comes in a glass jar with a twist-off lid. There are 0.5 ounces of the product in the trial container, and it costs $9.99. The full-sized product comes in a 1.7-ounce jar and is about $20.00, so it is a better deal to purchase the full-sized product. Since I liked this product and felt like it was soothing, I would have bought the full-size product, so let’s talk about what makes this such a soothing product on the ingredients list.
Things I Loved:
- The cooling feel of the product when you apply it to your skin felt good to me, especially since my skin was a little raw from all of the wind from skiing.
- The product was not scented. Fragrance can be sensitizing for some people. This makes the Aveeno oat gel moisturizer a good gel moisturizer for sensitive skin. So if you tend to have irritation with scented products, this could be a good option for you to try.
Thing To Be Mindful Of:
- The jar does not come with a lot of product. The product does go a long way, and you only need to use about a pea-sized amount to cover your entire face.
What Makes the Product Soothing and Great for Nursing a Damaged Skin Barrier?
From a soothing and moisturizing point of view, the product has quite a few ingredients known to be powerhouses. Whenever your barrier is damaged or your skin is irritated, providing hydration and then sealing the skin off while it heals itself are two of the best things you can do for your skin. The ingredients in this gel moisturizer do both of those things.
Oat Kernel Flour
Oat kernel flour is the ground oat used to make hydrocolloidal oat. When it is ground into tiny particles and water is added, the oat flour and particles form an emollient film on the skin that can lock in moisture and soothe dehydrated or sensitized skin.
Related Post: Colloidal Oatmeal Skin Benefits: Should It Be In Your Skincare Routine?
Glycerin
Glycerin is a hydrating workhorse in so many skin care formulations. Although it is not as popular as hyaluronic acid, almost no moisturizing product is available that does not contain glycerin. Glycerin is a humectant, which means it holds on to water molecules. This is important in moisturizing formulations because humectants like glycerin act as water reservoirs and keep the skin hydrated for longer.
Research shows that glycerin can increase the penetration of other actives, so formulators will include it sometimes to help make a product more effective. In this gel moisturizer for sensitive skin, glycerin is included to increase the water available to maintain the protective emollient layer that the hydrocolloidal oat forms.
Related Post: Using Glycerin for Skin: Glycerin vs. Hyaluronic Acid
Synthetic Beeswax
Synthetic beeswax is becoming an increasingly popular skincare ingredient. Bee by-products like honey and beeswax are not new to skincare. However, with bees being endangered, cosmetic chemists have begun using synthetic beeswax as a sustainable alternative that offers the same benefits as natural beeswax. Natural and synthetic beeswax are high molecular weight polymers with a heavy oil/ wax consistency. When it is incorporated in skincare products it behaves like an occlusive. This means it creates an impermeable barrier and seals in moisture.
Other Beneficial Actives in the Formulation
Several extracts present in the formulation are included to provide some additional benefits. I think it’s important to briefly cover extracts in general before we talk about the extracts in the formulation and their benefits. Extracts in product formulations can be tricky. Every plant has a different concentration of “desirable” ingredients, and every extraction can yield different concentrations of compounds. This inconsistency in the source and processing method means you cannot guarantee ingredients and their concentration from batch to batch. So while extracts can seem like an excellent natural source of ingredients, they can fall short of including the exact beneficial ingredients you want or think you are getting when you see them on the ingredients list.
Oat Kernel Extract
In addition to the benefits of the hydrocolloid that finely ground oat flour forms when it is added to water, there are also molecules in oats that can be beneficial for the skin. Several antioxidants are present in oats like tocopherol, vitamin E, flavonoids, ferulic acid, and avenanthramides.
Chrysanthemum Parthenium Flower Leaf Stem Juice
Feverfew is another name for Chrysanthemum Parthenium. It is a commonly used plant in traditional medicine, and there is some evidence that it can be an antioxidant. The antioxidant function comes from the triterpenes and flavonoids. While there is some evidence that this ingredient can be beneficial, it can also be sensitizing. There is one chemical present, parthenolide, that can be sensitizing. However, Aveeno’s website discusses how they process their extract to eliminate the sensitizing chemical.
Centella Asiatica Extract
Centella Asiatica is a well-known and widely used soothing ingredient. Coming from traditional Eastern medicine and then making its way into K Beauty and some American beauty products, there is no surprise that soothing products would have Centella Asiatica on the ingredients list. Just like Chrysanthemum Parthenium, Centella Asiatica contains triterpenes, which are antioxidants.
Related Post: Centella Asiatica: Best K Beauty Skincare Ingredient?
All of the extracts included in this formulation are probably included for their antioxidant function. Antioxidants are great to help prevent additional damage while your skin barrier heals. So it makes sense why they would be included. All in all, this is a well-formulated product that felt great on my skin and that I would repurchase.