Our look back at 100 years of Nivea Creme

With all the high-tech and luxury skincare breakthroughs over the last decade, it’s surprising (and refreshing) that Nivea’s modest all-purpose cream—the first batch of which was cooked up in Hamburg more than a century ago—is still going strong, boasting the same simple recipe. “It’s passed the test of time,” says Dr. Volker Kallmayer, product development specialist for Beiersdorf, Nivea’s parent company. “From a scientist’s point of view, my personal nightmare is that one day my boss asks me to improve it,” he laughs, explaining that brand loyalists can sniff out the tiniest change in the formula. “They feel it’s not our product, but their product… they don’t want us to mess with it.”

Until the brand’s famous blue jar of soothing salve came along, skin products were made using animal and vegetable fats⎯they had a very short shelf life and weren’t visually appealing. Nivea Creme’s oil-and-water-based formula (which has always been paraben-free) changed that. “It was the first white cream that was stable,” says Kallmayer, making it a pleasure to use, and a lifesaver for travellers on one of those epic transatlantic ocean liner voyages in the early twentieth century. “That was a revolution back then.” It was also the first affordable beauty product for the masses—prior to that, facial moisturizers were a luxury reserved for wealthy women. To celebrate this iconic product, Nivea signed Rihanna to front its anniversary ad campaign that kicks off this May. In the meantime, check out our favourite vintage ads from the brand’s archives, some of which are on display until April 5 at the brand’s pop up store on Queen Street West in Toronto.

Nivea Haus (361 Queen St. West, 416-849-3591)

Check out our gallery of vintage Nivea ads! »

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