Tuesday, after English class I had an interesting conversation with my friend Gabriela. She is from Venezuela (South America) and has been living in Adelaide for 3 years.

Somehow we started to talk about beauty products (ah girls….) and she told me that she was in love with a famous French brand called: L’Occitane

Actually when I was living in London, my friend Joyce (from Brazil) told me exactly the same thing! Each time she had an opportunity to travel to France, she would buy L’Occitane beauty products! I mean they ship worldwide but it is way cheaper to buy the products locally! Although I would not say either that these beauty products are what I would call “cheap” in France.

Anyway, I thought since this brand seems to be pretty successful abroad, let’s write about it!

In my opinion L’Occitane is a good brand and their products have a wonderful fragrance and a good quality.

Now close your eyes and imagine the Lavender fields in Provence in the South of France! Try to picture the local Mediterranean culture, artisanal bakeries,  purple eggplants, ripe tomatoes, grapevines, lavender perfume in the air… Now you start getting a taste of the beautiful Provence in France… L’Occitane beauty products are all made there and also in Corsica (also a beautiful area)! They believe in the art of healing through plants and they use natural ingredients.

My favorite products from this brand are:

• Aromachologie repairing shampoo: I just love this shampoo, it smells amazing, it makes your hair very shiny and beautiful! Frankly all their shampoos are the best and I always get compliments when using them! I have tested other brands but so far these are my favorites and my hair is very demanding.

• Shea butter hand cream: again, it smells so good and will leave your hands as soft as a baby skin! This product is so successful it is said that they are selling this hand cream every 3 seconds around the world! For the record, it is so good that when I was living and working in Paris in finance, I was sharing my office with a man. Guess what, he had this shea butter hand cream on his desk (a present from his wife)! Sometimes his male colleagues would have a chat with him at his desk and use the cream too while talking to each other… it was hilarious to see these “macho men” having a little chat while hydrating their hands! Actually it was like watching an episode of ‘Sex and the City” except that in this situation Carrie Bradshaw was a French man named Philippe wearing big black shoes!

In my mind, all their products smell divine and a lot of my French friends like this brand too. It is quite common in France to offer these beauty products for Christmas or a birthday or any occasion actually… like I said it is popular, it is a good brand and it makes a perfect gift!

Now you are starting to get curious?! Hopefully there are many L’Occitane shops around the world so you don’t have to buy a flight ticket to go to France:  http://www.loccitane.com

What about you? What is your beauty routine? Do you have many L’Occitane products in your bathroom?

As for me, in my twenties I used to be a huge fan of their products and owned many of them (facial care, body care, soap, candles)… Now I only buy their shampoos and hand/foot creams.

Don’t get me wrong I still like them! But now I am getting older, I favour other wonderful natural beauty products to pamper my face, my body and my soul… but this is another story… coming soon 😉