Most pharmacies in France don’t have products locked behind plexiglass or self-checkouts instead of staff. They’re bastions of comfort and care, where anyone can walk in with clogged pores — or chapped lips or cracked heels — and leave with the exact thing they didn’t know they needed.Part of the appeal is the pharmacists, who are more like primary-care providers, but it’s also the breadth of doctor-developed products these pharmacies have on hand. “We call them dermocosmétiques — most of these French pharmacy brands are inexpensive, effective, and founded or created by dermatologists or pharmacists,” said Marine Vincent, a French pharmacist with more than 20 years of experience. “They’re all about care, not beauty.”Of course, there’s also that je ne sais quoi: “We always want what the other country has,” said French makeup artist Yacine Diallo, who has lived in Paris and New York City. “But there is something about our French pharmacy brands we trust, especially in terms of efficacy. The marketing is not like, ‘Oh my god, everything is going to be amazing if you buy this cream.’”To find the best French pharmacy products, we polled five experts, as well as Wirecutter’s beauty team, and we compiled a list of 41 contenders worthy of assessment. Then we retried personal favorites, put similar products to head-to-head tests, and spent two months slathering ourselves in the competition. In the end, we were left with 13 multipurpose salves, soothing hydrators, refreshing sunscreens, and comforting cleansers that put the care in skin care.