Is The German Nivea Actually Better? I Tried It So You Don⁘t Have To (Review)

While grocery shopping in Copenhagen, I was browsing the beauty aisle (I love to snoop on European beauty products) and almost screamed when I saw they had the authentic German Nivea in stock!

TikTok has been going feral the past few months over the German Nivea creme, with claims that it's 100000% better than the one sold in the United States. But, is this narrative just another ⁘Europe is better than America⁘ trope, or is the German version actually better?

I did the research and tried the creme for a few weeks to bring you my honest German Nivea review!

I've seen so much TikTok content documenting the American/Mexico Nivea compared to the German one, with claims that the German formula is not only ⁘cleaner⁘ but also the same forumal as La Mer, just at the fraction of the price.

The Nivea cream made in Germany contains ONE fewer ingredient than the American one, and that's Sodium Anisate which is a natural preservative due to its antimicrobial properties. Sodium Anisate is favored in beauty products since it prevents molds, fungus, etc from growing while also not impacting the actual integrity of the active ingredients.

Below is a comparison ⁘ please note that ingredients are sometimes named or categorized differently here based on the country they are produced in, and that doesn't mean ingredients are different. To prove this, here is a source video on TikTok by beauty expert Charlotte Palermino who documented her interaction with Nivea customer service about the formula differences.

Sodium Anisate allergies aren't the most common but they do happen. Both tins also do have a fair amount of fragrance, which can impact the results of other skincare times such as retinols .