From Local To Global: Bringing You Skincare Brands Catered To Arabs
In our current post-pandemic world, skincare has grown even more in popularity where in this new age, people are now placing a big focus on gaining knowledge and a better understanding of what it means to have healthy skin. That knowledge extends beyond the active ingredients found in skincare products and branches out to the outside world.
Today, many skincare brands are placing a focus on how the environment, climate, temperature and amount of UV light results in different skin types across the globe. Each part of the world is home to a widely ranging collection of skin types and with each one, a different set of skincare products with different ingredients are needed to cater for the unique attributes of each individual’s facial composition.
With that, global brands have began to pop up and have been pushing for one sole mission, of creating skincare products catered to the Middle East. In the same vein, across the Arab world, local skincare brands have been on the rise to create products suited to the Arab community. We’ve put together a special collection of local and global skincare brands with that place Arabs at the forefront.
Neuth France
With their main tagline being “Neuth France Made For The Middle East, Made For Me”, the French skincare brand is known to create everything from skin & hair care to baby care products, all with Arabs in mind. Using science, Neuth has been studying and examining the natural functioning of skin in the Arab community and from there, developed an expansive product line that caters to the Middle East.
With skincare, they set out to release products that provide remedies to everyday skin concerns. They have an entire line that offers a skincare regiment for acne as well a products like Arnica that help to lessen bruising after aesthetic procedures and comes as a gel or spray. They also have a multi-step product range for anti-acne starting with the face wash and ending with the sun screen. When it comes to aging, they crafted a Neuth Multi-dimensional Restorative System Anti-Ageing cream that re-plumps the skin, diminishes age spots while improving the elasticity and firmness of the skin.
What makes Neuth unique is that they also cater to babies with their very own baby care product line that solves skin problems including cradle cap and eczema. When it comes to prices, the brand is known to offer affordable prices ranging from 240 to 450 LE with their products available online through their website.
Hathor
Another brand inspired by Egypt’s ancient roots is Cairo-based Hathor that brings back methods used thousands of years ago and revives them through a modernized form of skincare. The founder Daly Tarek Abou Ghazala wanted to launch Hathor at a time when she sought a way to offer safe, all-natural products for her daughter. As with the other brands in this list, Ghazala relied on science and extensive research of ancient Egyptian traditions to launch a line of oils that rely fully on natural ingredients extracted from Egyptian botanicals.
With that they have released a special collection of skincare sets, each one offering a rich blend of local natural ingredients. With their “Botanical Power Set”, they relied on plant-based ingredients to create a collection of natural products including their face tonic rose water, extra virgin cold-pressed rose oil as well as their cold-pressed soap of either charcoal, papaya, grapes, lemon, coffee, honey or coconut. To counteract the effects of acne, they have also released the “Protecting Set” that is all about sun protection as well as keeping ones pores clean. The set includes cold-pressed sesame oil & tree oil, sun protection zinc oxide based sunblock SPF 50 and a face roller. Their prices are moderately reasonable with the “Botanical Power Set” costing 1300 EGP while the “Protecting Set” costs 1500 EGP.
Eva Cosmetics
With more than a 100 years under the belt of its founding entity Armanious Group headlined by Dr Riad Armanious, Eva Cosmetics has been successfully responsible for over twenty of the most popular cosmetic brands including Aloe Vera and Man Look. With its main headquarters in Egypt, the company along with the resources offered by the Armanious Group was able to go beyond the local market and excel at serving markets all around the world, exporting to over 13 countries while also launching its very own factories and offices in multiple countries.
Its range of products is quite expansive with everything from baby care and hair care to oral care and face & body care. They have every type of skincare product imaginable starting from their line of facial washes that cater to different skin types like oily and dry skin and are either enriched with yogurt & cucumber, honey, milk proteins or glycerin. When it comes to anti-aging, they offer a wide range of serums with different compositions whether its Niacinamide or Vitamin C. They even have their own sun protection line called Sun & Sea that includes sunscreens and tanning oils.
The best part about Eva Cosmetics are their affordable prices with each of these serums costing 180 EGP while the facial wash costs 40 EGP. Their products can be purchased either through their online store or at any of Cairo’s pharmacies or supermarkets.
THEKÜR
The story begins back in 2018 when THEKÜR’s founder Jessica Usenbor, moves from New York all the way to Dubai. At that time, she noticed a big gap in products catered for melanated skin and wanted to push for inclusivity in the beauty industry and that was how THEKÜR was born. Today, the modern skincare Dubai-based brand offers a multitude of self-care products catered to the Middle Eastern community. Blending data, technology and science, THEKÜR takes people through a personalized journey and helps them to identify the ideal product and regimen for them.
With their Take The Quiz feature that relies on an advanced algorithm, customers would answer a set of questions aimed at taking a comprehensive look at everything related to your skin type and skin goals. The result is a tailored product regiment catered to your skin that will include a cleanser, moisturizer, serum and mask. When it comes to their product line, they offer everything including anti-acne, anti-aging, anti-blemish and sun protection products. From their Acne Clean Cleanser that removes dirt, impurities and blemishes from the skin to their Anti-Aging Collagen Bio-Cellulose Mask that boosts the skin’s elasticity while promoting new cell generation.
When it comes to their prices, THEKÜR is more on the pricey side with products ranging from 350 to 3500 EGP and all are available for purchase through their official website.
Black Lotus
Stepping back in time to several thousands years ago, ancient Egyptians were not merely masters of distinctive practices like mummification but were also experts at beautification processes and cosmetic treatments. Using natural ingredients like castor and sesame oil, they cared for their skin in a healthy manner. Today, people crave the simplicity of those ancient times and seek to have clear knowledge of what exactly is getting applied onto their skin.
That’s where Cairo-based Black Lotus comes in, a popular Egyptian cosmetics brand that places a large lens on local and natural skin. It began all the way back in 2011, when two friends decided to promote a 100% natural skincare treatment and began decking out a range of house-made soaps. Today, their products range beyond that to include oils, scrubs, masks as well as bath care and hair products. As a skincare brand, they place sharp focus on ailing and treating common skin conditions including acne and that is why they have developed a unique products made specially to counteract those conditions.
Their most popular one is the tea tree soap which has been scientifically proven to be suitable for the treatment of acne. It contains Aloe Vera gel, chamomile extract and tea tree essential oil. Goat milk soap, coffee & dead sea salt as well as curcum soap are also part of their roster of products and are known to cater to every skin type or concern whether its cleansing, moisturizing, anti-aging and so on.
Beyond soap bars, they also offer a Moroccan facial cleanser made from Argan and Aloe Vera that cleans the skin from daily impurities as well as a natural sunscreen. Every ingredient is local and each product is handmade making the entire preparation process locally-based and natural. When it comes to their prices, you can message them on Instagram to check prices for each of their products or head to their stores that are open in two branches across Cairo, Point 90 Mall and Arkan Plaza.
Cleo Laboratories
A medical dermatology and cosmeceutical brand, Cleo Laboratories truly sticks to its name as its the kind of brand that places science at the forefront of its work. In collaboration with a group of dermatologists, it underwent extensive research to understand the fundamentals of the skin and with that create formulas that have the capacity of mimicking the natural biological mechanisms of the skin while also strengthening and improving it.
The brand’s founders, Salah Moenes and Mohamed Helmy took a risky plunge when they decided to join heads and dive into the world of cosmeceuticals and create Cleo Laboratories back in 2017. Being a cosmeceutical brand means that all their products have medicinal or drug like benefits rooted in dermatology. Back in 2017, global brands dominated the cosmeceutical industry with most of those products being extremely overpriced so Moenes and Helmy truly tapped into a market gap. Jump ahead to today, the brand has truly found its ground with its products sold in over 35,000 pharmacies across two countries.
Their product-line places a sharp focus at solving common skin concerns that include acne, pigmentation, hair loss and eczema. Specialized in creating 37 unique products, they offer everything from anti-aging day and night creams, lightening cleansing gels and serums to cleansing gels, toners, moisturizers and sunscreen for both oily and dry skin. They also offer reasonably priced bundles like for example their Super Essential Bundle for 1210 EGP that includes a super serum, hyaluronic acid sun gel cream, vitamin C serum and rich moisturizer.
Be Cleopatra
Inspired yet again by Egypt’s rich ancient history is natural beauty brand Be Cleopatra, created by the Dina El Garem Group back in 2012. Springing out from ancient Egyptian practices and remedies, the brand set out to create products with reviving, multi-healing, repairing and beautification properties using only natural ingredients including plants and essential oils. Their product line is fully handmade and catered to everything from hair to facial care, all with the purpose of helping to revitalize and strengthen the skin. With facial care, they offer a wide range of products including facial cleansers, tonics and scrubs as well as face masks, anti-wrinkle oil and moisturizing day creams.
Being a brand centered on rejuvenation and care, its products are not only sold in pharmacies but are also offered at spas, luxurious hotels as well as temporary booths across Cairo’s markets, malls & fairs. They make sure to offer their products in reasonable prices especially their sets and bundles. With their facial care set that includes a facial and body scrub, facial chocolate mask, anti-wrinkle cream, moisturizing day cream and natural lip balm, the entire set costs a total of 695 EGP. To get your hands on their products, you can either message them through their Instagram page or use the page to keep track of their next booth that may open at any location across Cairo.
With all these brands, whether local or global, Arabs are constantly placed in the forefront with products catered for their skin or created using local and natural ingredients. Today, the realm of skincare is growing even further and reaching new heights with some brands giving creative power and knowledge to its customers including eco-friendly Egyptian cosmetic start-up Samra that offers DIY workshops on how to make your own homemade cosmetics and even start your own business. Its great to see that sort of growth and progress in the skincare industry and what’s yet to come in the future.
