Phys-AC purifying foaming gel is a gentle pH-balanced cleanser for sensitive acne-prone skin.
Texture and appearance
It has a light texture that easily spreads in the skin using water.
Once the product is cleansed with water, I have not feel that it leaves a film of product in the skin like other cleansers like cerave.
Since it is able to regulate sebium production, it could leave your skin more matte after weeks of use.
Effectiveness
This cleansing gel is able to remove dirt and purify the skin without drying it due to the use of gentle surfactants.
I’ve used it during an accutane course and it’s not drying compared to other cleanser for acne prone skin.
Compared to other acne cleansers, I feel that my skin is more calmed since it include calming and shooting ingredients.
The problem is that, since it’s surfactants are very gentle, it probably wouldn’t be the best choice of use to remove and cleanse some sticky and water resistant sunscreens.
However, for removing oil and impurities for skin is completely effective and by the way you can remove light sunscreen perfectly or you can use it twice to remove a sticky sunscreen (I wash it twice to remove ducray’s suncreen).
Ingredients analysis
Glutamic acid
Aderma claims that it has seborregulating effects, I’ve not found any study supporting it can reduce sebum production, but since it helps with skin hydration and supports skin barrier it could decrease sebum production too since dehydrated skins tend to compensate dryness with more sebum production.
Glycyrrhetinic Acid
It’s considered an antioxidant that calms down skin that comes from licorice extract.
Oat Plantlet extract
It has anti-inflammatory properties that helps supporting skin barrier function.
It’s able to provide a relief in atopic and irritated skin.
Gentle surfactants
It’s main surfactants are sodium cocoamphoacetate, sodium cocoyl glutamate and PEG-120 methyl glucose dioleate, all of them considered gentle, safe and not abrasive to the skin.
Rest of ingredients
It does not include any comedogenic ingredient, except tocopherol (vitamin e) that has a comedogenic rate of 3 and could have been replaced by tocopheryl acetate that is not comedogenic.
However since is the last ingredient, it should not cause any concern and is safe for acne prone skin.
It contains fragrance and a cosmetic colorant (CI 61565), something that’s not necessary in any product and much less cleansers.
The rest of the ingredients are completely fine and safe, but it’s not fungal acne safe since it includes fatty acids.
Odor and packaging
Packaging is completely fine, since it comes in 200ml and 400ml versions, it does not have a pump dispenser.
The odor is light and pleasant, but that’s a cleanser that probably will be followed by a moisturizer so using fragrance on cleanser is useless and only poses a risk for allergies and irritation, for this reason it receives a 8/10.
Price value
The product is cheap, since it just cost 7.5-9€ the 200ml version and 10-12€ 400ml version in Europe.
I bought the 200ml version and since I used it just in the mornings it lasted me 8 months using a normal product amount, bur for those with an oilier skin it could last 4 months.
The verdict
Aderma Phys-Ac purifying foaming gel it’s a good choice for those who have an acne prone skin, since it really does its work, it does not dry up your skin and it gentle removes skin’s dirt.
It’s formulated for reducing allergies risk and it’s not comedogenic making it the perfect choice for those with a fatty alcohols sensitive skin.
For those who plan to remove heavy water resistant sunscreens, it won’t probably be the best choice, but it definitely can remove sunscreen with 2 uses.