French Beauty Products

French beauty products are admired around the world. We all wonder how French women stay so beautiful. Some of it's the fashion, some if it is the attitude, and some of the secrets lie in the products that French women use. Find out about some of the French beauty products you can find in France and online. If you're taking a trip to Paris, or just want to get the French look, explore some of these amazing French beauty products.

Kibio Gommage Exfoliant Corps (Exfoliating Body Scrub) is one of my favorite French beauty products. It’s a natural and Certified Organic scrub made with Cranberry, Shea Butter and lemongrass. The cranberry salts remove dead skin cells and the grains smooth the skin. The shea butter (Karité) softens and moisturizes, and the Lemongrass essential oil refines dull skin, and smells absolutely yummy.

I use Kibio scrub twice a week in the shower with a gant de kessa / gant de gommage / gant de hammam (exfoliating glove), like the one shown, that I got from the hammam at the Paris mosque. At the hammam, they use it with Black soap (Savon noir), to deeply exfoliate the skin, but it works great with my Kibio scrub too. (So I guess I’m using some French Beauty secrets with a little Turkish thrown in.)

Kibio French beauty products are Certified Natural and organique, not tested on animals. Kibio makes a whole line of body products including Genital Shower Gel, Skin Body Milk, Radiance Moisturizing Cream, and Gentle Cleansing Lotion.

If you know nothing else about French beauty products, you know that they make fantastic sunscreen with super-high SPFs (50+). My favorite French sunscreen products for sun protection are Bioderma Sun Fluid for Sensitive Skin for the face (SPF 30), and the popular Anthelios sunscreen by La Roche-Posay, which I use so much that I bought two tubes of it to get me through the summer.

With physical sunscreens (mineral sunscreens containing titanium dioxide and zinc oxide), you have to apply them 15 minutes before sun exposure to allow them to bond, and the physical barrier they form leaves a chalky white or gray film on the skin. But not with Anthelios! Because it’s a chemical sunscreen made with Meroxyl, you can apply it right before you walk out the door. I sometimes throw it in my purse if I’m going out for the whole day so that I can apply more later. I use the lait (lotion), which goes in light and is easy to apply all over.

The active ingredient in Anthelios is MEXORYL™ SX, which is "the most effective FDA-approved organic filter designed to protect against short UVA rays with high photostability." That means it doesn't break down when exposed to the sun, which means better skin protection.

Anthelios protects against UVA and UVB rays. It’s fragrance-free, which is another thing I love about Anthelios over American sunscreen brands

Bioderma is another major player in the French sunscreen (produits solaires) market. This summer, I've been using Bioderma Photoderm Fluide Solaire as my facial sunscreen. It's water resistant and has a light, pleasant fragrance. This hypoallergenic product leaves behind no film or white residue on the face. It protects from UVA and UVB with its patented Cellular Bioprotection for skin cells.

You can find both sunscreens in any Paris pharmacie, and some Bioderma products and their French Beauty Products are available on Amazon.

Among French beauty products I've looked into are the luscious French soaps from Savon de Marseille. I love strolling through the shop and smelling the dozens of varieties of French bar soaps with the scents of the fruits, flowers and spices of Provence.

Made of 80% fatty acids, the perfumed soaps are very moisturizing for the skin. It's true! I tried some samples in the store. I have a couple bars in my bathroom right now, serving purely as decoration until I'm ready to use them.

The original Savon de Marseille "cube" soap is made from 100% natural ingredients and a olive oil or palm oil base that gives it a very high oil content (72%), making it quite moisturizing.

Savon de Marseille soaps have no additives or other potential irritants. They make great gifts, and are wonderful French beauty products that you can pamper yourself with every day.