I’m on my last week in Paris and the weather just turned lovely so I’m going to save the prognostications about age and work and beauty for another day. Instead I’m just going to tell you what I buy when I’m here and why.
Two caveats.
One. Some of this is available in the States now. It’s just much more expensive. Some of it’s available on the Internet, as well, but I don’t like buying skincare online unless it’s directly from the source. I don’t trust that is hasn’t expired and/or been stored badly.
Two. Skincare is personal. My best analogy for this is birth control. Birth control is incredible and necessary (to put it mildly). But just because your friend loves her birth control pill, doesn’t mean your body will, too! Maybe you will love a completely different one. I think it’s important to keep this in mind with any skin care stuff. I love reading about other people’s regimes, much like I can never get enough of reading about red lipstick. But at the end of the day, if something is working for you, just stick with it. (Hello forever fave, Russian Red).
What’s below are some basics I continue to return to. If you pay any attention to French skincare at all you will likely recognize some of them. Also, anecdotal side note: The French are not commercial the way America is. But in the past few years they have clearly got the memo that Americans are obsessed with the pharmacie because I’ve noticed a lot of the brands underwent a packaging overhaul post-pandemic. It sent me into a very small panic at first because I thought of number of things had been discontinued. But they just looked different.
Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentré. Maybe the most famous French cult cream. Also, see above re new packaging. The trick with Embryolisse, in my opinion, is not to think of it as a moisturizer, per se, though you can use it as such, but to consider it a primer, which I think is how the make-up artists use it. I put it on right before I leave the house as a sort of skin pick-me-up. It really does give your skin a glow, and also a moisture refresh. I have a big tub of their body cream as well, but am less devoted (CeraVe for me).
A313 pommade. Aka the one Gwyneth made popular in an early Goop newsletter. A sort of mild retinol that comes out looking a bit like vaseline. It’s very cheap, but you have to get it from the actual pharmacist. I don’t use retinols, as a rule. I find them too harsh. But I like this because it’s very gentle and I like how thick it is, as my skin is always dry. Note: only apply to verrry dry skin. And be especially careful about sun block the next day.
Patyka Regenerating Night Elixir This is not cheap. It was one of the products I was turned on to by the Citypharma ladies. (They also repackaged and renamed it recently…sending me into a very real small panic, I concede.) It goes on at night after your moisturizer and, I don’t know, the effect is immediate. I can feel my skin glow if that makes sense. Also, I’m not a smell person, but this smells heavenly. Like you are in a fragrant night garden. Clearly, I will never be a person who writes ad copy, but it really does smell incredible. Not a single other one of their products works for me, but I stock up on this. If you go to Citypharma they sometimes have sales.
Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse. I mean duh. But also, I am never without one. I spray it on my body after moisturizer. I spray it in the tub. I spray it on my hands and pat my hair down. I would like it here or there. I would like it anywhere. You get the picture. It’s available in some places Stateside, but at twice the price, so I stock up here. They’ve also expanded their line to include a kajillion items (including a body moisturizer I like) but this huile is my only must-have.
Caudalie Vinoperfect Glycolic Peel Mask This is a new one for me, but I’m hooked. Also, I’m almost positive you can get this in the States and probably for a similar price, but I just picked up here. It used to be that when my face felt a bit too dull, I’d use a face scrub (hello there St. Ives of my youth, and later, the Goop scrub someone gave me, which is actually quite good but ridiculously expensive) and/or one of those scrub gloves you get at the Hammam. But in recent years they’ve stopped working as well for me, and also, I feel like as I get older, I don’t like treating my skin roughly. I now use this once a week for ten minutes and my face feels like a baby’s bottom after a bath. No joke. Just be careful not to overdo.
Garnier Fructis Hair Food Masque This is for the curly-haired among you. My friend Aarti turned me on to this, and I’ve never been able to find it Stateside, though maybe I just need to look harder. It is very cheap. And it is better than anything else I’ve used on my curls (hair care for curls is another newsletter entirely). Whereas some people leave room in their suitcase for shoe and bag purchases, I leave room for tubs of this. Banane is my favorite. But I’ll take anything, really.
Bonus: My not French must-have. Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream. I am almost literally never without this. This has been true for decades. I use it on an especially dry patch of skin around my lips that I needed prescription cream for when I was a kid. When I fly, I put it all over my face. In the summer I sometimes use it on my heels. In the winter also on my elbows. Elizabeth Arden developed it for her race horses, which may have been some of its initial appeal to me. (For a long time, I wondered if I’d made this anecdote up, but I just googled and my pre-internet memory abides). When I went to replenish before this trip, the tube the Nordstrom woman gave me had this appalling new packaging that looked as though it was meant for my (admittedly brilliant) pre-teen niece. Quelle horreur! Cue now familiar panic that they had re-formulated à la Kiehl’s. But it was just some weird limited edition packaging someone probably thought was a good way to appeal to the youngs. As a formerly young person who’s been using this since they were young, I feel compelled to say, the basic, straight out of my grandmother’s medicine cabinet, packaging is part of the appeal. Old is good! Anyway, speaking of birth control, if this ever gets discontinued, cue my sponge-worthy frenzy.
What a gift. Thank you!