FRENCH PHARMACIES IN LONDON
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about Paris isn’t the amazing food, it isn’t the history and it isn’t the beautiful lover’s bridge… it’s the pharmacies. French pharmacies are known for stocking some of the best beauty brands and when I visit a French pharmacy I usually come out with very empty pockets.
But for those who can’t make it to Paris, there are actually some pretty decent pharmacies right here in London. So a couple of weeks ago I dragged the boyfriend around London to track down some of my favourites.
Let’s start with Zest, which is situated in Soho right next door to the best Space NK branch. It’s a little gift shop that doesn’t look like much when you first step in, but walk to the back of the store and you’ll discover the mini pharmacy. It’s packed full of French brands such as la Roche Posay, Caudalie, Avene, NUXE, Phyto… the list goes on. It also stocks Bioderma which has recently launched in the UK. This was the only place I found to have la Roche Posay effaclar duo in stock when everywhere else was sold out. I’ve shopped in here for over a year and I always pop in when I’m in town.
A few years ago I worked on Mercer Street in Covent Garden and browsing in The Garden Pharmacy was how I spent my lunch break pretty much every day. I feel like TGP is so well thought through and whoever owns it does a great job because they’re always updating it to keep it modern and fresh. They have a great loyalty card scheme and I love the email newsletters they sent out. Around the edge of the store is the high end brands such as Clarins and Clinique and down the centre are the more niche brands. I’ve found some serious gems in here and some brands I haven’t seen anywhere else. They also have a nice collection of nail polishes from brands like O.P.I and Deborah Lippmann.
John Bell & Croyden has been around since 1908…. you heard me right, NINETEEN-ZERO-EIGHT! Unreal. My mum said she remembers my grandpa driving into town when she was little and ill in the middle of the night to get her some medicine from there as it was the only place open 24/7. I used to go to school right around the corner so I know it well and it has always been one of my favourites. First of all, it’s HUGE and the list of beauty brands they stock is very impressive. They were one of the first UK stores to stock Bioderma and they have all other brands you could expect from a pharmacy, plus more. It’s on Wigmore Street, so if you’re on Oxford Street or near Selfridges this will be the best one you to visit. Trust me you’ll end up spending hours browsing the shelves.
So there it is, my rundown of the (non) french pharmacies in London. Have you visited any of these? Which one is your favourite?
