This Affordable Drugstore Cream Might Be The Closest Thing To La Mer

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For as long as I’ve been obsessed with skin care, there’s always been one jaw-dropping product comparison I’ve often heard being made: The Nivea Creme and Crème de la Mer. One is an affordable drugstore moisturizer first introduced in 1911, and the other, a famous luxury formula that will set you back at least $100 for just half an ounce.

With such a colossal price difference, it seemed impossible to me that these two creams could perform so similarly, much less contain a similar list of ingredients as so many people on TikTok and elsewhere had claimed. After speaking with dermatologists, I got the real scoop on their similarities and their differences.

“Nivea Creme and Crème de la Mer are likely compared to one another
because there is significant overlap in the ingredients that appear at
the beginning of their ingredient lists,” explainedDr. Brendan Camp, a board-certified dermatologist with MDCS Dermatology in New York City.

According to Camp, this order of ingredients is important to note because the ingredients listed first are the most present in a product.

Manhattan Beach, California-based board-certified dermatologist Dr. Divya Shokeen Khalsa said that both creams are designed to nourish and hydrate, improve skin barrier function as well as skin texture and appearance.

Shokeen Khalsa explained that some of these shared ingredients include glycerin, a favored humectant that draws moisture