A yellow tin with a tendril of flowers – this is the presentation in which the cream classic came onto the market more than 100 years ago, invented in 1911 by the Hamburg company Beiersdorf. Shortly before, people there had become aware of a new type of emulsifier called Eucerit, affectionately known as the “beautiful wax”.
This emulsifier made it possible to develop the world’s first stable fat and moisturizing cream suitable for industrial production: Nivea. The packaging design changed fundamentally in 1925, towards the later world-famous blue and white tin. The cream, however, remained largely the same in terms of consistency, ingredients and fragrance.
What a romantic idea that our grandmothers sniffed the same mix of rose and lily of the valley oil and felt the same creamy feeling on their skin . And maybe they were thinking, just like we are today, of carefree childhood days. Success in numbers: 1,200 Nivea Creme cans were sold in 1911. In 2010, 123 million pieces were sold over the counter worldwide.
Nivea smells of carefree days, childhood and the beach. For generations.
Still at a mini price: 150 ml for around 1.80 euros. Incidentally, the face and body cream owes its name to its snow-white color, because in Latin, snow and snow flurries are translated as “nix, nivis”. And of course the blue and white can goes much better with the idea of snow than the yellow one.
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Long eyelashes like a star
Julia Roberts, Eva Longoria: Your eyes are great cinema. Or is that just what the mascara does? We don’t have to envy them, we can buy them – the absolute best-selling mascara “Great Lash” from Maybelline Jade only costs around 8.50 euros.
A look like a star: Maybelline invented mascara almost 100 years ago
The beginnings
Since its introduction in 1971, top stylists from all over the world have sworn by it. Then as now, the recognition factor is the pink-green packaging.
Lilly Pulitzer, an aspiring fashion designer at the time and known for her colorful designs, inspired Maybelline to create the design. However, in 1913 – when the chemist TL Williams invented mascara – product design was not yet a factor. The mascara itself was a sensation! He developed the mixture of coal dust and petroleum jelly as a gift for his older sister Maybel.
When her friends also wanted it, he founded the company Maybelline, New York. The current coup is the “Colossal Volum’ Express Smoky Eyes Mascara” (approx. 12.50 euros), which gives the eyelashes a seductive look thanks to matt pigments.
The Oil Of Olaz couple
Of course we know great men. They renovate the apartment or cook us a delicious menu. But have you ever heard of a man who agreed to work with his wife to develop a facial care product for her problem skin?
Through the love of the skin
That’s exactly what the inventor of Oil of Olay (German Oil of Olay), the South African chemist Graham Wulff did. He could empathize with his wife Dinah’s complaints: all the viscous creams that were sold in shoe polish jars at the time put a strain on her delicate, sensitive skin. So together, the couple created a silky texture with the signature scent and soft pink color that remains to this day.
A married couple created the Oil-Of-Olaz-Beauty-Fluid together
Dinah was thrilled: the care felt light and optimally moisturized her skin. That was in 1952. The brand has belonged to Procter & Gamble since 1985, the product is now called Olay Essentials Beauty Fluid (200 ml approx. 6.50 euros). In the meantime, the owners have built up a series of currently 41 Olay care specialists. One is sold every ten seconds worldwide. But the big favorite of many women is still the classic, non-greasy beauty fluid in its gorgeous soft pink .
Happy hair
Small quiz question: What did people use to wash their hair around 1900 – with coarse soap or with expensive oil? Both answers are correct, it just depended on whether they were rich or poor. The fact that almost everyone washes their hair with shampoo today, regardless of what they earn, can be credited to the chemist Hans Schwarzkopf.
It all started in Berlin
As early as 1903 he was selling a shampoo in powder form in a Berlin pharmacy. In 1927 Schwarzkopf developed the first liquid shampoo and in 1949 the first cream shampoo in a tube. How comfortable! It was given the name by which we still know and love it today: “Schauma”. It became something of a synonym for shampoo, like Tempo for handkerchiefs and Uhu for glue.
With Schauma, washing your hair finally became more comfortable
In 1958, market research revealed that Schauma was Germany’s most popular shampoo – one of those typical branded products of the time that no middle-class household could do without.
Did you wash your hair with it when you were a kid? You may also remember the television commercial in which a mother soaps her daughter’s head in the bathtub. It aired in the 1970s. We can now choose between 27 types of foam for every imaginable hair type. The latest product innovation is a silicone-free shampoo with marine collagen that does not weigh down fine and sensitive hair (400 ml approx. 2.30 euros).
Thirst quencher for the skin
It has been scientifically proven that wounds heal well with thermal water from Vichy. The special thing about the water from France’s most important spa: It doesn’t just bubble up to the surface, but is pressed there by a natural process – from a depth of 3000 meters. Contact with liquid, hot magma inside the French Massif Central creates high pressure. This causes the water to surge through the rock with great force.
Healthy for the skin
It is enriched with a particularly large number of minerals and trace elements that soothe sensitive skin and moisturise it. This discovery laid the foundation for the Laboratoires Vichy.
France’s best thirst quencher for the skin: thermal water from Vichy
The “Aqualia” series (formerly “Equalia”) has been a beauty evergreen since 1975. Today it also contains moisture-binding hyaluronic acid and uses a minimum of preservatives. Eg “Creme Aqualia Thermal”, 40 ml approx. 16 euros.
The secret recipe of the flowery cream
The rose cream from Dr. Hauschka is much more than an ordinary cream with rose extracts. Because it, like the other Dr. Hauschka products, contains the spirit and power of plants; when applied, they pass on their positive properties to the skin.
This works thanks to durable aqueous plant extracts, which are still produced today using a process developed by the Viennese chemist Dr. Rudolf Hauschka developed as early as 1929. Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy, had previously advised him: “Study the rhythms, rhythm carries life.”
Beautiful as a rose: the art of capturing the spirit of the flower in the cream
So freshly harvested plants are chopped up, mixed with water for seven days and alternately exposed to light and darkness, rest and movement. Rose extracts, for example, are said to have a harmonizing and strengthening effect on the skin. The success of the Swabian natural cosmetics brand is the best confirmation of this effort: Today we can find Dr. Hauschka products in health food stores in San Francisco, in luxury department stores in Singapore or in the exclusive spa resort in Barbados. First and foremost the rose cream (30 ml approx. 19 euros).
Only the best for the anti-aging cream
What a few blemishes can be good for,” smiles the now 92-year-old Annemarie Lindner. In 1947, a native of Berlin, severe acne had prompted her to start training as a beautician. The 27-year-old couldn’t believe that she had to live with this problem, as she was repeatedly told.
Herbs are good for the skin
With herbal products she developed herself, she cared for her skin to be clean and beautiful again – and that of many other women too. The first Börlind jars made by the company founder, who lived in the Black Forest after fleeing the GDR, sold like hot cakes. Then as now, they only contain natural ingredients: “What I can’t eat won’t get on my skin,” says Annemarie Lindner.
Only what you can eat is allowed in the anti-aging cream
At 53, she wanted care tailored to the needs of mature skin and in 1974 she launched the system care LL Regeneration for skin over 30 (50 ml day cream approx. 33 euros). It’s been a huge success ever since. The highlight of the series: the LL bio-complex – a mix of pure plant substances. details? Secret!
Even more classics to pass on
“Eight Hour Cream” by Elisabeth Arden (1930)
The now legendary cream got its name from a customer whose child had scraped her knees. Eight hours later the knee was visibly healed. The classic cream heals dry facial skin, chapped hands and chapped lips at least as quickly. 50 ml cost about 30 euros.
“Frei Pflege-Oil” by pharmacist Walter Bouhon (1966)
This pharmacist was ahead of his time, more than 50 years ago he suspected what is now scientifically proven: stress causes the skin to age rapidly. Bouhon’s antidote: “Frei Care Oil” with a higher concentration of vitamin A. 125 ml costs about 11 euros.
“4711 Echt Kölnisch Wasser” (1792)
The recipe, which is still secret today, comes from a Carthusian monk. Napoleon’s soldiers, who took it home as a gift for their wives, helped the “Eau de Cologne” to become famous. 100 ml for about 18 euros.
“Eudermine” by Shiseido (1897)
The fine peony fragrance of the face care lotion smells sensual when applied and then vanishes. What remains is wonderfully fresh, youthfully radiant skin. 125 ml costs about 55 euros.
“Mum” deodorant (1888)
The name of the doctor from Philadelphia who invented the first effective deodorant is unknown. He had it marketed through his nurse “Mum”. 50 ml from 1.80 euros.
“Penaten” cream (1904)
At the beginning of the 20th century, the druggist Max Riese dealt with skin disorders in children and developed a cream that protects against sores. The trick: It contains fat obtained from sheep’s wool, which sticks for a long time and repels moisture. 50 ml cost about 2 euros.
Chanel “No. 5” (1921)
The most successful women’s fragrance of all time from the world’s most famous fashion designer. Coco Chanel commissioned the perfumer Ernest Beaux with the sentence “I want a perfume for women that smells like a woman”. Among other things, he presented her with the first fragrance composition with a synthetic component (aldehyde) – Coco’s favourite. 7.5 ml of perfume costs around 108 euros.
