First Aid Beauty makes products for sensitive skin without artificial fragrance or drying alcohols, and its Ultra Repair Cream is the one most people start with. Here is the Ultra Repair family, the gentle cleansers and exfoliants, and the body care that fills out the line.
First Aid Beauty and the Oatmeal Cream That Built a Sensitive Skin Brand
First Aid Beauty launched in 2009 out of Newton, Massachusetts, with a premise that sounds obvious now and was not then: products built for sensitive skin, made without artificial fragrance or drying alcohols. Founder Lilli Gordon stayed on as chief executive after Procter & Gamble bought the brand in 2018, and the line still feels like it was designed by someone who reads ingredient lists for a living. The hero is Ultra Repair Cream, a thick, fast-absorbing moisturizer for face and body whose active ingredient is 0.5 percent colloidal oatmeal. It carries the National Eczema Association's Seal of Acceptance, and it is the jar I would hand to anyone who says every cream stings. The rest of the first row builds on it. The face lotion is the lighter daily version, the Rescue balm is a 1 percent dimethicone barrier layer for patches that feel raw, and the Hydration Boost serum adds hyaluronic acid under the cream. Start with the cream alone for a week before adding anything.
The Ultra Repair family
Ultra Repair Cream Intense Hydration – Face and Body Moisturizer for Skin Repair
First Aid Beauty
$42
Ultra Repair Face Lotion Daily Hydration with Colloidal Oatmeal
First Aid Beauty
$28
Ultra Repair Rescue Skin Barrier Balm + Mask with Dimethicone
First Aid Beauty
$39
Ultra Repair Hydration Boost Serum with Colloidal Oatmeal + Hyaluronic Acid
First Aid Beauty
$39
Cleansing and exfoliating, gently
The second row is where people with reactive skin usually get nervous, and First Aid Beauty keeps it calm. The Pure Skin cleanser is fragrance free and turns from cream to foam, the one for mornings. The Brighten + Glow pads use glycolic and lactic acids, and I would start with them twice a week at most. The KP Bump Eraser is a body scrub with 10 percent AHA for rough, bumpy skin on the backs of arms, and the Brighten + Glow gel cleanser uses jojoba pearls for a gentle buff. Pick one exfoliant, not all three. Patch test anything new on your jaw first.
Cleansers and gentle exfoliants
Ultra Gentle Pure Skin Cream-to-Foam Face Cleanser with Colloidal Oatmeal + Glycerin
First Aid Beauty
$27
Brighten + Glow Facial Radiance Pads with Glycolic + Lactic Acids
First Aid Beauty
$39
KP Bump Eraser Body Scrub with 10% AHA – Body Exfoliant for Keratosis Pilaris
First Aid Beauty
$30
Brighten + Glow Gentle Exfoliating Gel Cleanser with Jojoba Pearls
First Aid Beauty
$29
The body side
The last row is the body care, which I think is underrated. The ingrown hair pads combine glycolic and salicylic acids and come compostable, useful after shaving or waxing. The Body Acne Clearing Mist sprays 2 percent salicylic acid onto hard-to-reach places like the back. The Whole Body Deodorant Cream is aluminum free and invisible, and the brand means whole body. The sunscreen milk is SPF 45 with a serum-like feel, light enough for daily use. What I would skip is using the acid pads and the mist on the same patch of skin on the same day. Acids add up, even gentle ones.
Where I would start
Start with Ultra Repair Cream, then add the cleanser, then one exfoliant if your skin is calm. The brand's pads are made from wood pulp rather than plastic, a small detail that tells you how carefully the line is put together. If anything stings, stop and go back to the cream. That is the whole philosophy in one sentence. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Sunscreen for Sensitive Skin, from Glacier Cream to Zinc and Cetaphil Lotion, a Texas Pharmacist's Answer to Sensitive Skin.
