Bastille Day is Saturday, July 14, and to celebrate France’s national day, we’re dedicating the week to the very best French things. You may be familiar with stories we’ve done on French pharmacy products and cookbooks, but we’re going even deeper this week, from the best books on Paris and French baking to the greatest French pantry essentials and lesser-known French beauty products. Welcome to Made in France week.
Nuxe’s Huile Prodigieuse is, in my opinion, the best beauty product in the world. And I’m not alone; you’ll find it in any pharmacy in France and in plenty of homes, too. Living there in my early 20s, I splashed out on what was then for me a big-ticket purchase after a pharmacist recommended it to me as the best moisturizer; I’ve never looked back.
Huile Prodigieuse is, yes, a prodigiously awesome dry-oil with a velvety texture. You can use it as a post-shower moisturizer for shimmery, baby-soft skin. You can put it on the ends of your hair, wrap the whole business in a warm towel, and find the resulting tresses shiny and supple. You can dribble it in your bath. When your face is dry, add a few drops to your moisturizer or day cream. I use it every day in some form: always as a body moisturizer, and usually for something else, too — to tame my eyebrows, to smooth the ends of my hair, to moisturize my cuticles. Those days I don’t wear perfume, it imparts a touch of scent that isn’t overpowering. Basically, anything argan oil can do, HP can do, too — only it’s somehow sexier. And like all Nuxe products, it’s made from natural ingredients.
I haven’t even gotten to the intoxicating smell — warm, slightly sweet, subtle. This signature mixture — it includes borage, St.-John’s-wort, sweet almond, camellia, hazelnut, and macadamia — has such a following that Nuxe actually makes a perfume scented exactly like it. If you want to really up the sex appeal, Nuxe also makes a gold-flecked version of the oil. (I’ll be honest: That’s too sexy for me to handle.)
Nowadays, it’s increasingly easy to find in the States. But I also highly recommend seeking out the travel-size bottle online: There’s absolutely nothing better for getting you through a long-haul flight, and doing the job of five other products once you get where you’re going.
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