After My Acne Flared On Vacation, A French Pharmacist Helped Clear My Skin With These Products (2025)

Hi! I'm Haein — and last summer, I crossed off a very special to-do off my bucket list.

Haein Jung / BuzzFeed

I traipsed around parts of Europe for two weeks and cheered on my home country of South Korea and the U.S. at the Paris Olympics.

I explored...

Haein Jung / BuzzFeed

I ate, I drank...

And of course, I didn't sleep much.

On top of all that, I ended up adopting a pretty laissez-faire approach when it came to my skincare.

Well, fair to say, it all caught up with me by the last leg of my trip. I sprouted whiteheads across my forehead and cystic-like bumps on my cheeks. I had been pretty lucky on the acne front ever since my teenage years. While I experience hormonal flare-ups from time to time, acne hasn't really been my area of concern. (My focus has been — and will probably always be — on moisturizing.)

Fortunately, the last leg of my trip was Paris — and if you're a beauty enthusiast, you know what they say about Paris pharmacies. They're amazing!

If you think Koreans know skincare, I have to say: I also think the French know something about it as well. Much like their famous fashion sense — clean, effortless, and elevated — their approach to beauty is quite similar. There's a refined simplicity to it — a ✨ je ne sais quoi ✨ — in the way that it's minimal, functional, and even quite clinical.

I had big plans to be like a kid in a candy store at the pharmacy, regardless of my skin troubles, but when I experienced the breakouts, I had a mission in place. So when I stopped by the pharmacy in desperate need of help, I asked a French pharmacist about products that could help me — and they absolutely delivered.

For background, Caudalie's Vinopure line specifically targets "acne-prone skin, oil and pores," which aligned with my skin concerns that needed troubleshooting.

The serum's key ingredient contains salicylic acid, a compound that's known to fight acne. It's an exfoliant and an acid that penetrates deeply into the skin and breaks down skin cells for exfoliation and unclogs pores. It also helps refine skin texture and help fade dark spots.

The serum had a lightweight almost watery, gel-like consistency and soaked into the skin relatively quickly. It also had this subtle cooling effect that I liked and found quite soothing.

The moisturizer's key ingredients are made up of grape seed polyphenols, silica powder and java tea extract, and Mediterranean olive squalene.

Normally, I would avoid products with the word "mattifying" in them since as a dry-skin girly, I've always geared towards promises of hydration. I was more than pleasantly surprised to find that while this was mattifying, it was also plenty hydrating. The texture was light and almost gel-like. It didn't feel heavy on my skin, and yet I glistened. It left me with the pleasant silky texture of a balloon.

I started the regimen when I got back home. I layered on the serum and moisturizer (along with La Roche-Posay Cicaplast B5 Spray as a toner) twice a day. I was mind blown when within two weeks, my skin started clearing up. My dark spots were fading, and the flare-ups stopped. I was stunned by how the dark spots were fading so quickly — and I swear, my pores were smaller!

Here is a more detailed progression — the left is maybe after a week in, the middle is a few days after, and the photo on the right is at the end of the two-week mark. The larger inflamed pimples have settled and nearly faded, and while I did have some lingering dark spots, they were fading away day by day. Overall, I felt like my skin was resetting.

After my skin healed, I continued to use it for about a month then took a break since the weather started to cool and get dry. To roughly quote Lucille Bluth, I couldn't spare the moisture. I would imagine those with normal/oily/combination skin will fare even better with these products.

But I will vouch: I turn to these two products when my skin acts up, and I'm so glad I took up on the pharmacist's recommendation. I really had no expectations, but I'm so glad I tried. I've used them on and off since when my skin goes through flare-ups. I eventually finished the first set I bought in Paris and have since repurchased them at Sephora back home the States.

(I've also cried a little about the price difference — and reminisced about my time abroad. 🥲)

• You can find theVinopure Oil-Control Moisturizer for Acne-Prone SkinatCaudalie,Sephora, orAmazonfor $38.

• You can find the Vinopure Salicylic Pore Minimizing Serum atCaudalie,Sephora, orAmazonfor $52.

What's your go-to product when you skin flares up? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!