The 7 Cult Skincare Products French Girls Swear By

Dr Marine Vincent is a French docteur in pharmacy and started her career working at La Pharmacie du parc in Neuilly sur Seine, Paris; before moving to London. After several years working as Head of Pharmacie at Medicare Français the idea for Make Me Feel French pharmacy was born and she set up her London Parapharmacie and dedicated online store Thefrenchpharmacy.co which, due to its ongoing success, is now being franchised.

 

The 7 Cult Skincare Products French Girls Swear By

By HANNAH COATES
 
 

“A good skincare routine for a French girl will involve cleansing, moisturising, putting on an SPF and a bit of lipstick…et voilà!” says Dr Marine Vincent, founder of The French Pharmacy and French girl herself, of the simple 4-part beauty regime we all long to adopt in our everlasting quest to be as insouciant as a real French girl. “We want simplicity; we stick to our favourite products and are loyal to the essentials which we love forever once we’ve found them. Plus, there is a really strong intergenerational loyalty to a brand,” she continues.

Many of us Brits seek the latest big skincare trend or product du jour, enjoying a roster of different brands on our shelves – and, why not? – but, as Vincent points out, our French sisters take a more measured approach to their routines: “They use few products but choose them carefully for their quality rather than based on hype, taking their mother’s and grandmothers’ advice for skincare tips and regimen. Their bathroom cabinets are usually full of pharmaceutical dermocosmetics.” 

 

The French aesthetic has always been minimalistic when it comes to beauty, with healthy, fresh skin being a key element to any look; the cardinal rule, however, is never to look too “done”: “It’s rare to see fake eyelashes, fake nails or self tan on a French girl,” says Vincent. “She embraces her imperfections, which make her unique, but will take time over her skin, deploying a preventative approach.” With an innate knowledge of what their skin needs – and conversely what it doesn’t – French women rarely go too far on the sun exposure (guilty) or forget to remove their make-up at night (guilty again).