Bonjour et bienvenue à Paris! As the beauty capital of the world, Paris is sort of the ultimate place to take an ultimate beauty tour. Walking through the city, it's obvious enough—the pharmacies on every block carry more skincare than one person could try in a lifetime. But the pharmacies are a given. They're everywhere! Which is why this list is not the Pharmaceutical Beauty Tour de Paris. If you, like packages ordered on Glossier.com, are now arriving in France, please consider this your itinerary for the next couple days. Feel free to stop at a pharmacy for Bioderma on the way to your first Hammam experience. But this list will be your insider’s scoop, culled from recommendations of friends and employees of Into The Gloss. Trust, every single one is worth the hop across the pond. Neither you nor your skin will be forgetting this beauty trip anytime soon.
Tuesday
3:00PM: First things first: You just got off a flight, so you’re in desperate need of a facial. Good thing Joelle Ciocco is the single facialist every French woman swears by—no exaggeration. (A handful of New Yorkers do, too.) She’s gentle, she’s a Biologique Recherce connoisseur, and she’ll leave you glowing, ready to embark on a beauty tour of Paris. You're jetlagged and tired, so once you're done here, go take a nap and wake up tomorrow.
Wednesday
11:00AM: Start your day fresh—which is to say, fragrance free—in the Second and head to Nose, the most comprehensive fragrance boutique on the face of the planet. With a collection spanning every brand worth knowing about (along with very exclusive blends and lines), you’ll start out feeling overwhelmed. Don’t worry, this is where the technology comes in. For the full experience, you’ll be handed an iPad and asked to catalog every scent you’ve ever called your own. When that’s done (it’ll go into a database attached to your profile for perpetuity), a specialist will pick a series of scents based on what you’ve liked, what you haven’t liked, and what you don’t even know you like yet. You’ll whittle away at that selection until you’re down to four favorites, at which point you’ll be sprayed and asked to leave. Not to be rude, but rather to go out and experience the scent as it lives on you. Thirty minutes later, you can come back and make your final selection. Or purchase sample sizes of the ones you want to keep testing. Either way, you leave smelling better than you started. Oh, and they have an espresso bar, too!
3:00 PM: Phew, that was a lot of work. Bet you could go for a scalp massage right now. Good thing Christophe Robin’s salon is literally right next door to Nose and he has a shampoo bowl waiting to cradle your precious head. Book an appointment for the full La-Z-Boy reclining chair experience, or stay towards the front of house where there is a Birth of Venus-esque setup meant for customers to come in a try out products. Are you still waiting to pull the trigger on Christophe’s world-renowned salt shampoo? Now is the time to try before you buy! An assistant will come and help you suds, and then you’re welcome to blow dry at your own convenience. Surrounded by all of his styling products to boot. Aren’t you lucky?
5:30PM: While you’re at it, you may as well go all in with a mani-pedi. No time like the present. Since you’re still in the Second, try Mozoe—near Place Vendôme. Perhaps you’d like to wax your eyebrows while there? By all means. Now on to the next. Day, that is.
Thursday
10:00AM: Good morning! Nothing sounds better right now than a pain au chocolat, which you can find at the nearest boulangerie. Take a café allongé with that and enjoy it outside. Then, head over to the Champs Élysées. You can get your tourist on or make a beeline for the Biologique Recherche flagship spa. So long Paris’ “best kept secret,” you’d be hard-pressed to find a Top Shelf lacking at least one bottle of P50 Lotion these days. Wander into the flagship though, and it’s an another experience altogether. Stock up on all the products you’ve been trying to buy in the states for ages, plus a few for your friends back home. But the space doesn’t even smell like P50! How disappointing.
1:30PM: Since you’re dying of thirst and also hungry, time for a pit stop. Take the metro on over to the Eighth and stop in Wild & The Moon, which is perhaps something along the lines of Paris’ very own Moon Juice. The Moon Juice that we at ITG all know and love (especially Tom). With its seasonal menus full of cold pressed juices and other delicious-and-healthy-looking food items, it’s the perfect thing to give you the energy you need to continue throughout your very long day of self care.
2:30PM: Be honest with yourself—you’ve always wanted to try a Turkish bath, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a bit nervous about sharing a jacuzzi with unfamiliar nude butts. But doing it in Paris feels right, for the same reason you suddenly feel emboldened to try topless sunbathing. This one, Hammam Pacha, features colorful tiles, a steam room that looks like a starry night, and French women of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Come for a massage, or stay all day—you’ll fit right in.
6:00PM: If you’ve ever perused Sephora and thought, ‘Gee, this is great, but what it’s really missing is a deli counter,’ try Monoprix. You’ve heard about the French pharmacy, but what about the French version of a Super Target? This place has everything—chic cardigans, embroidered pillows, jars of gourmet olives, and every French girl’s first blush purchase (by Bourjois). Grab an Isabel Marant lipstick and a bottle of wine and call it a day.
Friday
10:00AM Happy Friday! Nice day for it. Start out with a breakfast of toast and jam, eggs, ham, and coffee outside. Then, on your way past the Seine and through the Saint-Germain-des-Prés, stop by Oh My Cream, every French girl's dream beauty shop. Prepare to lose your mind over the product selection when you do. Then wander around the pretty little neighborhood that is the Saint Germain. Don't miss Officine Universelle Buly 1803 while you're there. If you were thinking Buly has been around for much longer than four years—like, a couple hundred maybe–you probably weren’t the only one. But given that the business’s owner Ramdane Touhami, according to the New York Times, wants it to feel like it has “one foot in the past and one foot in the future” it makes sense. And the storefront is really not like anything else you’ve seen. Gaudy, to say the least, but in a very authentic and intricate way. Pick up a bottle of your favorite handcream and a bar of soap. But no need to rush. Buly’s worth spending some time in.
5:00PM: You must really be exhausted at this point in your Parisian self-care journey, so why not take a load off and go for a swim at the pool at Diane Barrière spa? It’s beautiful. And very fancy. And very French.
