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| Photo: Dreamtime |
After finishing my 5-blog series on what skincare travelers would find in the pharmacies of 10 countries around the world, I thought my international readers might ask what skincare brands are popular in the USA?
When I wrote the 5 blogs in our series, I listed 5 of the most popular, best-selling skincare brands in each country featured. It's all done for fun. Truthfully, if publishing a book that one gets paid to write, a journalist would have to apply even more scrutiny to verify each entry by contacting a ton of primary sources, which I couldn't do for a personal blog. Perhaps the journalist would also visit the countries to do in-person research with funds provided by her employer, ahh, even more fun! My blogs come from reading a bunch of mostly secondary sources, deciding which are credible, and drawing from the consensus of what I find. It gives us a start and an introduction to the skincare of the 10 countries I featured.
So without further ado, our extra 11th country!🇺🇸
In American skincare, we hear the word efficacy spoken a lot. It means the ingredients are high-performing and in the right amounts to deliver the promised results. Retinol, retinal, retin-A (tretinoin), bakuchiol, peptides, vitamin C, niacinamide, and ceramides are some of the ingredients in top US skincare products with efficacy to moisturize and treat the signs of aging.
For US brands, I have two lists -- 1st I'll focus on knowing ...
5 Leading Skincare Brands Popular in the USA
1) CeraVe was developed by dermatologists containing ceramides to strengthen and protect the skin barrier. Super affordable, some of its formulas also have retinol for night and vitamin C serum with or without sunscreen for day.
2) La Poche-Posey is made in France (so I put it on France's 5 top skincare products since it is manufactured and popular in France).
4) SkinCeuticals is often recommended by dermatologists as having clinical strength ingredients like vitamins C, E, B5, and Ferulic Acid. The brand is luxury priced to boot.
I wasn’t completely satisfied with the ↑above list. Why??? France’s La Poche-Posey and Canada's The Ordinary may be widely used in the USA, but we can’t claim them as US Skincare, so I did more reading. ↓Below is a 2nd list to reflect this:
5 Top Skincare Brands Manufactured and Popular in the USA are:
2) Estée Lauder, founded in 1946, specializes in luxury skincare. Today, it is the umbrella company of many other skincare brands, not only luxury brands. (See my info re: The Ordinary* to follow.) Estèe Lauder now owns MAC, Revlon, Bobbi Brown, Tom Ford, Clinique, Darphin, Too Face, La Mer, Origins, Deciem* (bought in 2021), and The Ordinary* (bought in 2024) + other brands. The woman who started the company was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in 2008, yet reinvented herself. She was the only woman on TIME magazine’s 1998 list of the 20 most influential entrepreneurs of the 20th century.
3) SkinMedica is a medical-grade brand focused on anti-aging formulas. This is a new brand to me! I’ve never used it.
5) EltaMD is known mostly for its professional-grade and lightweight sunscreen, yet it offers other skincare. A pity its superior sunscreen at $41 for 1.7 ounces is so expensive, the sun protection isn’t accessible for us common folk to use daily! Let them eat cake, eh?
Other key US brands are Aveeno and Cetaphil (the latter is another drugstore brand developed by dermatologists). I buy and like both brands for their hand and body moisturizing creams.
I have the benefit of in-person research in the US, and yes, both lists seem correct, or in the words of the late great Executive Editor, Ben Bradley of the respected Washington Post during his tenure (1968 - 1991), of getting at "the best obtainable version of the truth.”:)
The skincare brands I buy repeatedly are CeraVe (my overall favorite moisturizer - clean, thick, and never greasy), The Ordinary (for serum treatments, especially Retinal), Neutrogena, and Cetaphil.
Here’s a little insight into how the beauty industry works:
Today, Cetaphil products are primarily manufactured in Canada, specifically at a major Galderma plant in Baie-d'Urfé, Québec, which serves as a global supply hub. While the brand was originally developed in the USA in 1947, it is now owned by Galderma, a Swiss company. Making my 11-county skincare lists, at times, I had to split a few hairs. Cetaphil was created in an American lab, is widely available in US drugstores, remains a bestseller, and is widely used by Americans, so I grouped it as a US skincare brand. Nonetheless, once a skincare brand becomes part of a conglomerate, users should stay alert to notice any changes in formulas over time.
What skincare brands do you use where you live?
You may also enjoy:
10 Leading Skincare Brands In Foreign Pharmacies - Part 110 Leading Skincare Brands In Foreign Pharmacies - Part 2
10 Leading Skincare Brands In Foreign Pharmacies - Part 3
10 Leading Skincare Brands In Foreign Pharmacies - Part 4
