L'Occitane: Brand Review and Best Products

There's a whole lot of hype surrounding French pharmacy brands. Of course, the French beauty aesthetic is a lot more diverse than that typical stereotype, but there's something about French skincare brands that you just automatically trust. Quite often, like in the cases of Avène and Nuxe, the brands are steeped in history and heritage and offer simple (but good-quality) skincare that does exactly what you need it to—no fluff.

And that's exactly the case when it comes to L'Occitane, the Provence-born skincare and body range. I've always had a bit of an affinity for the brand, quite possibly because my aunt keeps her bathrooms stocked with its Verbena hand wash and cream, but its skincare formulas are definitely worth shining a light on too.

Just like its peers, L'Occitane has hunted out some of the most effective ingredients this earth has to offer skin (immortelle flower, I'm referring to you) and funneled them into sumptuous formulas you'll actually enjoy using. Ashley Arbuckle Nadon, vice president of Sales, Wholesale & B2B at L'Occitane, tells us, "We take pride in our ingredients. Our immortelle is 100% organically grown and sourced exclusively from our local producers in Corsica. We have also worked with the women in Burkina Faso who produce our beloved shea butter for 30-plus years. In 2016, we set a goal to protect 1,000 plant varieties and species by 2025. Since then, we have already exceeded our goal in protecting and promoting 1.1K varieties and 513 different species of plants, thanks to our long-term partnerships with our producers. With nature at the center of it all, committing to protecting biodiversity and the people around it is an obvious choice."

"Respecting biodiversity is just one of L'Occitane's six commitments. We are devoted to developing sustainable supply chains to help maintain our unique biodiversity of where our ingredients grow, both cultivated and in the wild. We partner with our dedicated producers to ensure we not only protect the future of our plants, but also the biodiversity that surrounds them," she adds.

L'Occitane is also the first beauty brand to create inclusive packaging featuring Braille. Arbuckle Nadon says, "Caring for Sight is another integral commitment at L'Occitane. We partner with international and local partners around the world in order to fight against avoidable blindness. We began adding Braille labels on 80% of our products since 1997 in support of accessibility for the visually impaired. Our founder, Olivier Baussan, was in the store one day and noticed a customer was feeling the bottles in an attempt to familiarize themselves with the product. Olivier was moved by this and decided that accessibility and inclusion for all was a key priority. Since then, we began the effort of putting Braille on our packaging when possible, as seen on our Almond Shower Oil, the outer packaging of our Shea Butter Hand Cream, and more."

Basically, L'Occitane offers so much more than hand soap—although its hand soap is pretty brilliant. Keep reading to learn more about my favorite L'Occitane products.