At a glance
Texture — Thick, rich balm
Key Active — Panthenol 5%
Best For — Dry, damaged, irritated, post-procedure skin
Price Tier — $$
What stands out
This is the product for skin in trouble.
Panthenol (provitamin B5) at 5% is the workhorse — it's genuinely soothing and it accelerates barrier repair, which is why it turns up in wound care as well as skincare. Madecassoside, from centella asiatica, calms inflammation.
Where it earns its place is post-procedure: after a laser, a peel, or microneedling, skin is raw and can't tolerate anything active. Cicaplast is rich enough to protect, soothing enough to be comfortable, and free of the things that would sting.
It's also the right response to a retinoid overdose — when you've gone too hard, too fast, and your face is flaking and burning. Stop the actives, use this, and wait.
More elegant than plain Vaseline, and considerably more pleasant to wear.
Watch out for
It's rich. Too heavy for oily or acne-prone skin as an everyday moisturizer. Use it as a treatment, not a daily.
It's more expensive than plain petroleum jelly, which does the sealing job just as well (if less pleasantly) for a fraction of the price. If your skin is truly reactive and you want zero allergen risk, plain Vaseline is the safer bet.
Not a substitute for treating the cause. If your barrier keeps breaking, the problem is your routine, not your moisturizer.
Key ingredients
📋 4 key ingredients · thick balm
🌿 Panthenol (5%) — soothes and speeds barrier repair
🌿 Madecassoside — centella derivative; calms irritation
💧 Shea Butter (emollient) — nourishes and softens
💧 Glycerin (humectant) — hydrates
ℹ️ Genuinely useful after lasers, peels, and microneedling · ⚠️ Rich texture — can feel heavy on oily skin
Full ingredient list
Formulation Notes
Panthenol and madecassoside are two of the few "soothing" ingredients with a mechanism that actually holds up.
Panthenol (pro-vitamin B5) converts in the skin to pantothenic acid. It is both a humectant and genuinely anti-inflammatory — a combination most soothing ingredients cannot claim.
Madecassoside is the refined active from centella asiatica, with real supporting data for calming irritation and supporting repair.
Add a high level of glycerin and a shea and petrolatum base, and you have something that both seals and soothes.
A note on the name: La Roche-Posay sells Cicaplast Baume B5 and Cicaplast Defense B5, which are different products in the same line — one is a balm, the other a gel with glycerin as a registered drug active. The names are one word apart. Check the box.