New
for over a century

If you want to do something really good for yourself, then this cream is a must-have. With its firm consistency, every moisturising moment is a moment of nurturing care for your body and soul. Caresses are crucial in contributing to our feeling satisfied. They give babies a feeling of togetherness and security. If we are not caressed, we know we are lacking something. Research shows that a child's emotional and mental development is encouraged by human contact. And applying a cream also means taking time to concentrate on yourself.

When NIVEA first saw the light of day well over 100 years ago, the entire research activity was done by just three people: Dr Oscar Troplowitz, Prof. Paul Gerson Unna and Dr Isaac Lifschütz. We now employ over 500 members of staff in the area of research and development to unlock the complex processes that take place in the skin and to develop ever new, effective skin care products. Thus, over the decades, we have developed many ground-breaking products such as our skin cream, body lotion, sun cream with SPF, a special men's range, pump sprays, skin care for mature skin and even anti-ageing products with Q10! And in doing so, it is important to us to always meet the needs and wishes of our customers. By engaging in direct dialogue with them, we have managed to develop products that stand for the best quality and that are trusted implicitly.

Before NIVEA Creme's success story started, something else quite different had to be invented: Eucerit. Eucerit acts as an emulsifier and combines oil and water into an extremely fine, stable mixture. Fortunately, Dr Isaac Lifschütz had developed this completely new emulsifier by 1911. Dermatologist Professor Paul Gerson Unna admired Dr Lifschütz's specialist knowledge in this area and presented it to Dr Oscar Troplowitz, the chemist and co-founder of the Beiersdorf company. He immediately recognised that the water-in-oil emulsion was the perfect basis for a cosmetic skin cream. All that they now needed was a name. And to find one, Dr Troplowitz needed to look no further than the cream itself. Once the emulsion was finished, it had a snow-white colour. The name NIVEA derives therefore from the Latin, "nix, nivis", meaning snow, and the translation of NIVEA is therefore "snow white".