**REVIEW** Is German-Made Nivea Better?

How many ladies used to stock up on these tins at the drugstore?

Years ago, I used to love, love, love me some Nivea cream. I remember always having multiple little tins of the stuff to stash everywhere - in my purse, in the car console, the drawer at work, in the upstairs bathroom, the downstairs bathroom... I wanted to be able to reach and grab some no matter where I was - especially during the long, cold, dry Alaska winters. This is back when I was young and didn't have problems like extremely dry skin. I just loved the feel of Nivea.

I'm not sure when I fell out of love with the cream. I think it got to the point where Nivea just felt and looked too greasy. A little glisten to the skin is nice but looking like you're coated with grease.... Nope. I don't remember if I even wondered if the formula had changed or if it was just my skin slowly maturing and not being able to absorb the stuff. At any rate, I moved on to other body and face moisturizers. Some good and some wonderful. Some I can't even find around anymore.

When I was married, I started using a moisturizer that a friend gave me. It had an orangey-vanilla scent and my husband was mad for it. It made my skin feel amazing. I wish I could remember what it was. It's probably gone out of production just like my favorite perfume did. Does anyone remember Flori Roberts Gold fragrance? Gone. Not made anymore.

Anyway.

In the past 7, 8, or maybe 9 years, I've been using a combination of face- or body-specific products. I like trying different oils and mixing them to get the perfect blend for my skin type. But I do get tired of having so many little bottles and tubes around. It's gotten to where I've been giving away a lot of stuff to my neighbors (some of whom have never heard of moisturizers such as shea, babassu, peach kernel, etc.).  Even so, I still have a bathroom pantry full of oils and creams.

This pic from an old 2018 post
doesn't tell the full story!

A while back, for some reason, Nivea products started popping up in my "suggestions" on Amazon. And there are a lot of Nivea products on the site. I had never used any other Nivea product and the last time I'd bought a tin of the cream was probably just before I moved here to Iowa. After I used it up on my dry feet, I kept some vaseline in the tin to keep in my purse. (I actually found the empty container in the bathroom pantry just for this post. Do I have hoarding tendencies?)

So feeling a little nostalgic and seeing the Nivea suggestion (around the same time as having psoriasis on my feet acting up), I thought about getting a small tin. The Nivea that showed up on Amazon was touted as being "100% Authentic German Nivea Creme".

Wait.

What?

Okay, so my ignorant self never knew the history of Nivea (and see further down for other things I didn't know about Nivea...) 

I honestly didn't know that Nivea originated as a German brand. So, of course, I never thought about the fact that the brand I was buying here in the USA was made in Mexico, More importantly, I didn't know that there are formulation differences.

I will be smacked.

If you want to go deeper, you can peruse the timeline. Here is where I learned that Nivea means "snow white". Picture my brown-skinned face expressing some kind of feelings here. 

(By the way, the brand has had, previously unknown to me, issues with race and homophobia, but I won't go into that here.)

While learning some of this, I also started thinking about the origins of the brand name "Eucerin" but I don't want to get sidetracked so...

Moving on, let's get back to the Nivea I saw online.

After reading some of the Amazon reviews (and scanning reviews and input from some beauty pages online), I had to - just had to - try the "100% Authentic German Nivea Creme". Come on, folks, you know me by now!

Not only did I not know about "German-made Nivea", I had never even thought about where the Nivea I'd been using was made.

North American Nivea

Two things helped me feel better about buying this. First, the price isn't bad (under 10 bucks for a huge almost 14-oz tin) and, second, the item is returnable. 

I have never in my life had such a large tin of Nivea, no matter where it's made. I think the only thing I've ever bought in such a large tin container is some cooking lard.

I mean, seriously - this can is BIG...

Makes my "regular" 99 cent tin look measly.

dug up my ancient tin.

What I had to know right off was whether or not this was any different (better, I hoped) than the Nivea of my 20s and 30's. And the verdict...

Yes, Virginia, there is a difference. When I applied the cream to my face, the difference seemed subtle at first, but then I noticed it more as the minutes ticked by. 

**In the middle of writing this post - which took a couple of weeks - I found this chart via a Reddit post by u/jewishvampire. It's an old one but worth checking out.**

Link to original

One of the reasons I gave up on Nivea the first time around was that it left my skin greasy-looking and slick. It just didn't absorb well enough. I want to say that I stopped using it on my face long before I stopped using it altogether. 

This "original" Nivea smells much the same to me - even though some reviewers swear that it smells less perfumey. It might have a similar scent but my skin has a better reaction to it. I can apply it on my face and within a few minutes, it's already absorbed. After 10 minutes, I can touch my face and feel absolutely nothing but velvety softness. The one other skin cream that does that for me is Loreal's Age Perfect Cell Renew (in the gold jar). It's pricey stuff so I rarely buy it anymore and when I do, I try to water it down to make it last longer. I also do well with Korean brand skin creams like Moistfull from Etude House. We know now that, like me, my skin is not xenophobic in the least!

Anyway, I like having this "better" Nivea on hand. I like to use it before applying any too-thick sunscreens to reduce the ashy-looking white tint on my skin. (By the way, I love the Walmart brand of Baby Sunscreen SPF 50. No residue. Also, it's very moisturizing on its own.)

So, yeah, it is my opinion that the German-produced Nivea is better - at least, for some skin types. I like the absorbency and it just moisturizes my skin better. I think a lot of the preference between the 2 different products has to do with skin type. So just pick the one that works better for you.

Peace

--Free

P.S.: I am once again apologizing if this post sounds disjointed. I had to write it in between some feeling-not-so-great days. I will check back at some point to make sure all the links work.