When it comes to skincare, the French know best! Here are some of the best French skincare products that will help you achieve that enviable glow!
The history of skincare product development in France dates back to the 16th century, when the first cosmetics were created by French apothecaries. These early products were made from natural ingredients such as herbs, flowers, and oils. In the 18th century, French chemists began to experiment with new ingredients and formulas, leading to the development of the first modern skincare products. These products included creams, lotions, and powders that were designed to improve the appearance of skin.
In the 19th century, French skincare products became increasingly popular among the upper classes. This period saw the emergence of some of France’s most iconic skincare brands, such as Guerlain and Lancôme. These brands developed a selection of luxurious products that were designed to deeply nourish the skin using inventive research and technology.
The 20th century saw a further expansion in the range of skincare products available in France. This period saw the emergence of new technologies such as emulsifiers and preservatives, which allowed for more sophisticated formulations. It also saw an increase in research into natural ingredients, leading to more effective treatments for skin conditions such as acne and eczema.
Today, France is home to some of the world’s most advanced skincare products. French brands are renowned for their innovative formulas and luxurious textures, making them popular with consumers around the world.
1. Caudalie Beauty Elixir: This cult-favorite face spray is perfect for refreshing and replenishing your skin. It contains grape extracts from Bordeaux and rosemary essential oil to tone and brighten your complexion. Use it to tighten your pores, reduce dullness, and even set your makeup!
2. Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micellar Water: This gentle French face cleanser is perfect for sensitive skin types. It removes makeup and impurities without stripping the skin of its natural oils.
3. La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo+: This spot-fighting serum is a lifesaver for blemish-prone skin. It helps to unclog pores and reduce the appearance of acne scars.
4. Avène Thermal Spring Water: This soothing face mist is perfect for calming irritated or dehydrated skin. It contains minerals and trace elements that help to improve the skin’s barrier function.
5. Lancôme Advanced Génifique Serum: This anti-aging serum is perfect for those with mature skin. It’s made with a blend of probiotics and antioxidants to help improve the skin’s texture and radiance, while also helping to reduce the look of fine lines and wrinkles.
6. Sisley-Paris Black Rose Cream Mask: This indulgent face mask is perfect for a pampering at-home spa day. It’s made with rose and blackberry extracts to hydrate and brighten the skin.
7. Klorane Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk: This dry shampoo is perfect for days when you don’t have time to wash your hair. It absorbs excess oil and leaves your hair looking and feeling fresh and clean.
8. Clarins Double Serum: This anti-aging serum by trusted luxury skincare brand Clarins is perfect for those with mature skin. It’s made with a blend of plant extracts to help improve the skin’s elasticity and firmness, while antioxidants help to protect the skin from free radical damage.
9. Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Dry Oil: This multi-purpose oil can be used on the face, body, and hair. It’s made with a blend of almond, hazelnut, and camellia oils to nourish and soften the skin. It’s considered to be one of the best French skincare products sold in pharmacies across the country.
10. L’Occitane Immortelle Divine Cream: This luxurious face cream is perfect for dry and mature skin types. It contains a blend of immortelle, almond, and shea butter to nourish and revitalize the skin.
11. Guerlain Abeille Royale Advanced Youth Watery Oil: This lightweight luxury face oil is perfect for those with oily and acne-prone skin. It’s made with a blend of essential oils to help unclog pores and reduce blemishes, while also helping to control excess oil production. It’s considered one of the best French skincare products across Europe.
12. La Roche-Posay Anthelios Ultra-Light Sunscreen: This sunscreen is perfect for those with sensitive skin. It’s lightweight and non-greasy and provides broad-spectrum protection against harmful UV rays.
13. Caudalie Vinoperfect Serum: This powerful serum is perfect for those with oily and acne-prone skin. It’s made with salicylic acid to help unclog pores and reduce blemishes, while grape seed polyphenols help to mattify the skin. It’s one of the cult-favorite French skincare products you must try.
14. Biafine Emulsion: This miracle cream is perfect for treating a variety of skin issues, from burns to insect bites. It helps to soothe and heal the skin while providing relief from pain and itchiness.
15. La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer: This face moisturizer is perfect for those with sensitive, dry, and irritated skin. It contains a blend of ceramides and glycerin to help restore the skin’s barrier function, while niacinamide helps to hydrate and calm the skin.
16. Vichy Mineral 89 Hyaluronic Acid Face Serum: This best-selling hydrating face serum is perfect for all skin types. It contains hyaluronic acid to help hydrate and plump the skin, while 89% mineralized thermal water helps to soothe and shield the skin.
17. Biologique Recherche P50: This is a cult-favorite French exfoliating toner that contains a blend of acids and botanical extracts to help clarify, brighten, and balance the skin. It’s known for its strong, tingling sensation and is a favorite among Parisians and professionals alike who call it a “facial in a bottle.”
18. Avène Cleanance Gel: This French face wash is perfect for those with oily and acne-prone skin. It’s made with salicylic acid to help unclog pores and reduce blemishes, while chamomile extract helps to soothe the skin.
19. Nuxe Rêve de Miel Lip Balm: This honey lip balm is perfect for those with dry and sensitive lips. It’s made with honey and propolis extract to help nourish and plump the lips, while glycerin helps to keep the lips hydrated.
20. Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentré: This multi-purpose cream is perfect for those with dry skin. It can be used as a face moisturizer, eye cream, and makeup primer. It’s made with a blend of shea butter and aloe vera to help hydrate and soothe the skin.
21. Filorga Time-Filler Eye Cream: This eye cream is perfect for those with wrinkles and fine lines. It’s made with hyaluronic acid to help hydrate and plump the skin, while a blend of peptides helps to smooth out wrinkles.
22. Homeoplasmine Ointment: This all-purpose ointment is perfect for those with dry and sensitive skin. It can be used to treat a variety of skin issues, from chapped lips to minor cuts and scrapes. It’s made with a blend of beeswax and homeopathic ingredients to help soothe and comfort the skin.
23. A313 Vitamin A Pommade: This vitamin A ointment is perfect for those with dry and sensitive skin. It’s made with a mix of retinol, vitamin A, and beeswax to treat concerns such as wrinkles, aging, and even acne.
24. La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Balm B5: The Cicaplast balm from La Roche-Posay is a multi-purpose ointment that can be used to soothe and protect skin that is chapped, dry, or irritated. It contains panthenol, zinc oxide, and madecassoside to help repair the skin barrier and promote healing. This product can be used on the face, body, and hands, and is safe for use on babies and kids.
25. Bioderma Atoderm Cleansing Shower Oil: This gentle, cleansing body oil from Bioderma is formulated with a unique complex of plant-based ingredients that work to deeply cleanse and purify the skin without stripping it of its natural oils. Suitable for all skin types, this shower oil leaves dry skin feeling clean, soft, and flexible.
26. Darphin Hydraskin Light Gel Cream: This light, refreshing gel-cream from Darphin is perfect for oily to combination skin types. Formulated with hyaluronic acid, it helps to lock in moisture and keep the skin hydrated all day long. The gel-cream texture is quickly absorbed by the skin, leaving a matte finish that is ready for makeup application.
27. Lancôme Renergie Lift Multi-Action Ultra Face Cream SPF 30: This is a best-selling anti-aging face cream that fights wrinkles, and fine lines while promoting firmness of the skin. SPF 30 protects mature skin from the sun, making it a great everyday-use cream.
28. La Roche-Posay Effaclar Purifying Foaming Gel Cleanser: If you have acne-prone skin, this purifying face wash will clean out clogged pores and prevent breakouts.
29. Clarins Total Eye Lift Firming & Smoothing Anti-Aging Eye Cream: This is one of France’s best eye creams, working to diminish crow’s feet, brighten up dark circles, and calm eye puffiness.
30. L’Oréal Revitalift 1.5% Pure Hyaluronic Acid Face Serum: This is the most affordable Hyaluronic Acid face serum from France, great for those on a budget. It’s a popular dupe for other expensive serums yet works just as hard to hydrate and plump skin, reducing the signs of aging.
31. L’Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream: If you have dry hands, this is the best cream in all of France. It comes in different scents like lavender and cherry blossom for a pleasant experience each time you moisturize your hands.
32. Caudalie Instant Detox Mask: This face mask from natural beauty brand Caudalie works to minimize pores fast, giving you luminous skin.
33. Lancôme Rénergie H.C.F. Triple Serum: This serum is packed with 3 of the most powerful anti-aging skincare ingredients: Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin C, and Niacinamide.
34. Clarins Extra-Firming Energy Moisturizer: This is one of the best high-end face creams for women over 40. Formulated to re-energize mature skin and boost radiance, it’s a must-have!
35. Dior Dreamskin Skin Perfector: This gentle, luxury face exfoliator will give you smooth skin in just one minute.
36. L’Oréal Collagen Moisture Filler Day/Night Cream: This affordable cream uses collagen to smooth wrinkles and hydrate the skin; it can be used day or night on mature skin.
37. Lancôme Absolue Revitalizing & Brightening Soft Cream: This brightening face cream for dull skin works to accelerate cell renewal on the skin’s surface.
38. Payot Pate Grise L’Originale: First formulated in 1947, this French blemish treatment has been a favorite among French women for decades.
39. Yves Rocher Rich Cream Intense Regenerating Care: Made in Bretagne, France of 30 precious oils, the anti-aging benefits of this rich cream will regenerate your skin using 85% natural origin ingredients.
40. La Roche-Posay Hyalu B5 Hyaluronic Acid Serum: This best-selling serum contains vitamin B5 and hyaluronic acid. It’s an anti-aging serum that can be used on its own or under a moisturizer.
41. Lancôme Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector Serum: If you have an uneven skin tone and want to fight the signs of aging, this is the serum for you. Smooth your wrinkles and even your skin tone with one effective serum.
42. Caudalie Vinosource-Hydra Moisturizing Sorbet: This is a lightweight gel-cream moisturizer that will gently hydrate your sensitive skin without leaving a thick residue. This is one of the best French skincare products to try if you have oily skin prone to breakouts.
43. La Roche-Posay Lipikar Triple Repair Moisturizing Cream: If you have damaged or irritated skin that must be moisturized, this best-selling body cream will soothe your dry and rough skin.
44. Biotherm Lait Corporel Anti-Drying Body Milk: This everyday body lotion is beloved by families across Europe. If you have dry skin prone to cracking, give it a try. You’ll be glad!
45. La Roche-Posay Anthelios Melt-In Milk Sunscreen: There’s no better product to protect your skin from the sun’s harmful rays than this gentle body and face sunscreen, safe for sensitive skin.
46. L’Oréal Revitalift Triple Power Face Moisturizer: A powerful combination of pro retinol, hyaluronic acid, and vitamin C work together to diminish wrinkles, and firm, and brighten the facial skin.
47. La Roche-Posay Toleriane Hydrating Gentle Face Cleanser: If you struggle with dry skin after washing your face, this is the gentle face cleanser for you. It’s specially formulated for extra dry skin types. The La Roche-Posay brand makes many of the best French skincare products on this list!
48. Filorga Time-Filler Face Cream: This beloved French pharmacy anti-aging cream reduces wrinkles in 5 different aspects: surface, contraction, dehydration, deep-set, and neck wrinkles.
49. Caudalie Resveratrol Lift Firming Cashmere Cream: Natural skincare lovers will adore this anti-aging, firming face cream by the clean beauty brand Caudalie. It’s a great retinol alternative.
50. Bioderma Sébium Pore Refiner Cream: If you have oily skin and the tendency to have large pores, this French pharmacy pore-refining cream will be your best friend!
So, there you have it! These are the best French skincare products at different price points, for everyday use, and for specific skincare concerns. No matter your skin type or budget, you’re sure to find a product on this list that will work for you!
Au revoir and bonne chance!
