La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo [+]

La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo [+] - £15.50

After my disappointing encounter with the Effaclar K (by the way, I have no clue why I bought it when it didn't really address my skin concerns!) I was a bit wary about trying the Effaclar Duo, despite having heard raving review. However upon a trip to The Garden Pharmacy in Covent Garden I was talking to a saleswoman about wanting to try this and she, very kindly, gave me a huge 3ml sample. 
I loved it and bought it, then a few weeks later out came the Effaclar Duo [+]*, a newly formulated version with dark spot correcting properties!

Onto the actual product, I'm pretty impressed. It's not simply a spot treatment but it's more of a moisturising product, which you apply either all over the face or just all over the spot area, and the skin surrounding it. Perhaps for drier skin types this wouldn't suffice as a n overall moisturiser but for me, it's been pretty good at doing the job.

I use it every night after my toner, if I'm feeling like a bit of a breakout coming on. It smells a bit clinical but it's not too overbearing and doesn't irritate my skin. To be honest, it's not a miracle product in the sense that it will make your spots disappear overnight, that's what targeted treatments are for. Rather, it's more something that you have to use daily over a little period of time to balance out your skin. I find that it's a product that with prolonged use generally improves the complexion of my skin, helping with evening out of the skin tone.

I'm happy with this, as a non harsh treatment that I can rely on to keep my breakouts under control and, sometimes, stop them from coming back. I would recommend this if you have low-medium levels of breakouts, but if you're pretty acne prone it may not be the wonder product which you hope for. Saying that, I had a pretty bad breakout on my cheeks and with both this and some antibiotics I was able to control it.

It's available at Escentual for £15.50 - here and I would really recommend you go and pick it up.