Forget French pharmacy finds, it’s German skincare’s time to shine
Of all the adjustments that we make on the move from the countries, I did not expect the lack of retinol to offer the clearest shock.
A month of Berlin, I plunged my fingers into my pot of night cream from Olay Rétinol to find – nothing. The first day missing from my skin cycling ritual carefully turned by five days resembled the beginning of a dermal apocalypse. What I didn’t know then is that I was crying more than skin care.
Amazon made fun of imports at the price of almost four times what I would pay in India. Google did not offer any salvation. My backgrounds, global and domestic, were suddenly unavailable or prohibitive.
Having grown up in India, “world beauty” was a race for the American label, sometimes French (rarely made in France). My definition was shaped by the suitcases of my American aunt: St Ives Scrubs, Clinique, Kiehl’s, Sephora Lip Balms. They were incredibly chic, incredibly “international”. Adding television advertisements and the spreats of the women’s magazine that I devoured in the beauty salon, and my “global” mental card was sealed. German skin care has never been; It was just a stranger.
And then Berlin arrived. I missed things that I relied, perhaps, for things more than skin care.
Late at night, scrolling through the brilliant google carousel of overpriced imports, I found it: € 5.99 (540 ₹) “Nachtcreme with retinol and bakuchiol” at DM Drogerie Markt. It was my first real introduction to German skin care, a category that I had never considered seriously until the need to force my hand.
German skin care seemed to me clinical rather than theatrical. No ornate packaging or high claims. Just perfume -free and effective formulations with traceable ingredients for research. THE Strict EU regulations meant that each pot was already written. Beauty here has felt a pharmacy or needs. It was skin care without the theater.
My bathroom in Delhi had looked like a scholarship: creams, serums, toners, masks abandoned in the middle of a rotation, slope towards the expiration. German skin care broke this cycle. It reminded me that skin care could be less food for the show and more to help the largest organ in the body to do its job.
The timing seemed appropriate. Globally, beauty is reconident. Social media dermatologists validate simpler routines, and consumers ask if the cabinets filled with bottles mean care or simply marketing.
Berlin has already made the answer: efficiency on excess, science on the show. The legacy of German beauty has been established for a long time; It is the birthplace of Nivea, a brand that feels Indian, if not more, than local Boroline. Balea offers everything, from dry shampoo serums. The Eucerin anti-pigment illuminating eye cream is my daily Savior. Edeka Elkos hand cream, under € 2 (180 ₹), is everywhere. The supreme skin gel of biotin offers the famous effect of “Botox without needles”. And Less’s face oil is up to its name: discreet, elegant.
