French Pharmacy Haul: Favorites stock-up/My top picks

My City Pharma Rue du Four bag and my bag from Muji (gotta go to Muji, too, y'all).

My last few days in France of course resulted in a couple trips to City Pharma on Rue du Four (even though I like the one in Place Monge better (lower stress), Rue du Four/Bonaparte is cheaper when buying bulk). I restocked on a few favorites, but I also picked up some new things to try. 

First up are a couple of products from Darphin. We sell them in the store I work at, so I really wanted to try these while I could get them more cheaply. I've already been using these for a while now, and holy cow are they amazing! First of all, the packaging is absolutely gorgeous. The frosted glass jars are just weighty and glorious. 

The Aromatic Cleansing Balm is great. I massage it on dry like any other cleansing balm (although it does say to massage onto damp skin), then I rinse it off, sans hot cloth. It turns into a milk and takes away makeup with it. It's so so nice. My skin has absolutely been loving it.

I also picked up a jar of Hydraskin Light. This is the most hydrating yet light weight moisturizer I have ever used. I cannot even imagine what Hydraskin Riche would be like. The texture is a gel cream, and it applies like a dream onto the skin. I think this would be heavy for me during the day under sunscreen, but my skin just loves this at night time. 

I also picked up another La Roche-Posay Serozinc. If you're looking for a nice soothing and hydrating toner, look here. I love spraying this after my exfoliating toner before serum/moisturizer. It adds that extra hydration and helps soothe blemishes. It's also great for taking away a powdery makeup look.

 A Phytokarité Masque Brillance Nutrition Extrême found its way into my basket as well. I think this is probably one of my favorite products ever. You NEED this. I tried this mask once and my hair was perfect the next day: shiny, smooth, frizz free. It was just so healthy and gorgeous. The mask isn't too expensive for what it is, and a little goes a long way. If you're in a French pharmacy, you can't leave without this. I forbid you.

I used up a deluxe sample of the Garancia Diabolique Tomate Crème d'Eau a long time ago, so I had to pick up the full size before leaving Europe. This is probably one of my favorite skincare products. It smells good, hydrates, controls oil, is great under makeup, and makes the skin just look overall GOOD. I don't know how it does it. It's great if you have oily or dry skin. It sits in the serum/light moisturizer category, so it works great as an under sunscreen serum or as a non-SPF moisturizer for flash photography situations. I just really love it.

To try something new, I bought a Bio Beauté by Nuxe Masque Détox Vitaminé. I was skeptical at first, but I read the box and was ultimately just too curious. It's a gel that you leave on for five minutes. You then massage it into your face, it turns into an oil, then you rinse it off, turning it into a milk. I've used this mask a few times, and WOW. It. Is. SO. Cool. First of all, it smells good (like orange), but the whole gel to oil to milk process is so fun. It also does wonders for the skin! When I got off the plane coming home to the US, I had a couple under-the-skin blemishes that wanted to rear their ugly heads. I used this mask though, and they did not come up at all. I used it again this time of the month for the same thing, those pesky sub-epidermis zits, and they did not come up. I am so impressed. Plus it came with a free mini jar of the Kusmi BB Detox tea, which is delicious. So this is quite a happy purchase.

I of course had to stock up on my favorite Marvis toothpastes in the Jasmin, Cinnamon, and Whitening Mint flavors. This is the best toothpaste of all time. I buy it full price in the US, but here is much cheaper (and it's even cheaper in Italy; they sell it like Crest). I've only seen it at City Parma Rue du Four, so if you're there, I highly recommend you go get you some.

I also picked up a full size Nuxe Huile Prodigeuse. This is one of the best selling dry oils in France for a reason. It's hydrating but not greasy, you can use it pretty much everywhere (although I stick to my body and hair), and it smells AMAZING. I love how silky I feel after this, and say you wanna skip a shower or something, this stuff will cover you as far as your natural scent goes (you see how French I've become this past year?). The only draw-back was the packaging. The limited edition black glass bottle makes it impossible to see how much you have left (but hey, it's LE, so whatever), and the spray makes this really messy to use. I'd rather have a pump for this. I can deal because I love the product though.

Next cheeky buy actually came from Monoprix, but I thought I'd sneak that in here. It's the Vanille perfume from Solinotes Paris. It smells so damn good. Just like cream soda. Plus it was only 10 euro, so why not.

That's all I picked up this round, but here are my other favorites from the French pharmacies:

Vichy Normaderm 3 in 1 Cleanser

This is the only cleanser I've tried from the French pharmacy and liked (really, the others did nothing). While heavily scented, I still like how this helps smooth the skin (it wasn't too harsh for a manual exfoliant) and clear blemishes. It can be drying, but if you moisturize well, you'll just have nice skin while using this.

Vichy Idéalia Life Serum

This stuff is like perfect skin in a bottle. My skin loves this serum. It has BHA and other ingredients that help refine pores, get rid of blemishes, and really lighten any dark spots. Best serum I've tried from the drugstore, even better than the Caudalie Vinoperfect.

Caudalie Hand Cream

Caudalie is probably my favorite pharmacy brand. I thought I loved the Nuxe Rêve de Miel or the L'Occitane hand creams, but this one knocked those out of the park. This hydrates the hands without making them greasy, it has loads of antioxidants (great for anti-aging), and it smells so natural. I'm over the perfume-y hand creams. I'm sticking with this baby.

Caudalie Lip Balm

I tried this lip balm when I was looking for something like Nuxe's Rêve de Miel but in a stick for on the go. I ended up liking this even more than Rêve de Miel. I find this is just as moisturizing and long lasting, but it's smoother (sometimes Rêve de Miel feels too thick and kind of uncomfortable on the lips), and I don't feel disgusting dipping my fingers in a jar.

Caudalie Vinosource Crème Sorbet Hydratante or Moisture Recovery Cream

Caudalie makes great skincare of course. My favorite products I've tried have been these two moisturizers. The Crème Sorbet Hydratante is great as a day moisturizer  or light night moisturizer. It's not at all greasy but really injects moisture back into the skin. The Recovery Cream is great for a night cream. It makes light work of dry skin, and it still doesn't feel greasy. This saved my skin when it was all dried up in Sevilla, España.

Caudalie also makes really nice smelling shower gels. They're a bit expensive for how long they last, but they're my favorites of all the ones I've used. I like Pêche de Vigne and Fleur de Vigne the best. Their perfume in Thé des Vignes also smells incredible. The Caudalie body lotion is also really good if you're in need of one. It smells a bit cologne-y, but it's really hydrating while not being greasy.

La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo +

If you have blemishes and dark marks, this stuff will take care of it. This is probably one of the best spot treatments I've ever used, and a tube of this will last forever.

Boiron Homeoplasmine

I don't really care about this as a lip balm like everyone says. It's average as that. However, if you're sick and blowing your nose a lot, this will SAVE you and your nose. And you just need a tiny bit. You can use it to soothe anything really.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful for those of you who are looking in a French pharmacy and don't know what to buy. I feel like all of these products, even the ones from my most recent haul are amazing, and I really can't fault them. I've linked to other reviews where I can.

What are your favorite products?