German Drugstore Must haves

If you are anything like me, one of the most important things when traveling to another country is shopping for make up and skincare products that are not available in your country or just are a lot cheaper there than where you live.

Just in case someone comes to Germany: here is what you need to know!

Where to shop:
For drugstore products you want to look out for "dm", "Rossmann", or "Müller". All of them have a slightly different selection, but most things are sold in all of them.
For high-end makeup and perfume you want a "Parfümerie". The most common one is "Douglas", but there are smaller ones as well, most of them will have the word "Parfümerie" in their name.
Beauty stuff, high and low end, is also sold in some departement stores. Find "Karstadt" or "Galeria Kaufhof".

General information:
Germany is not the cheapest place to buy beauty. Especially when you are from the US or UK it is not worth looking for high end makeup or even things like Maybelline, L'Oreal etc. We also normally have a smaller colour selection. I suggest that you stay with the Germany-only brands. If you are from somewhere else in the world, it may be worth comparing the prices before you go. Anyways, I am going to concentrate on brands and products that are basically just sold here.

What to buy:
First of, the mustest have of all must haves: essence studio nails better than gel nails top sealer. Long name but THE best topcoat of all time. I never tried Seche Vite, but from what people say about it, this is probably a great dupe for it for just the tiniest fraction of the price. A quite gloopy, thick formula, super glossy, dries very quick and makes your polish last for up to seven days on me!
More from essence: Multi Action Mascara. This is one of my all time favourites and a best seller here!
The colour & go nail polishes are nice as well. Especially if you like girly colours... Lastly: the Smokey Eyes Brush. Basically a relatively big pencil brush with purple bristles. Very soft and perfect for blending out liner or shadow along your lashline.

One of my most favourite brands in the german drugstore is Catrice. Their eyeshadows are super pigmented and soft (there may be even some dupes...). The nailpolishes have a great quality and a very nice colour selection, for just 2,50€! I also really like the Lashes to Kill Mascara. The Defining Blushes have two shades, so you can do exactly this, define your cheeks (check out 030 Love and Peach!).

Next up: Alverde (dm only!). Best product is definately the Powder Blush in Apricot. Has a nice sculpting effect without beeing too brown, and not too much pigmentation so it is basically impossible to overblush. This is one of the very very few blushes that I actually hit pan on. Their eyeshadow quads are great as well, I use the brownish one a lot (Chocolate), and definately want to buy the Fairy Forest one the next time I'm there! The colours are pigmented enough to show up and look good with not too much effort, but not so pigmented they are hard to work with.

If you are looking for a good eyeshadow base, check out Manhattan. It has a bit of a weird texture, but I found it to be nearly as good as UDPP. Their Powder Rouges are very nice as well. What I love about them, is that they look more or less matt on your skin, but have the tiniest amount of shimmer in them to make them extremely flattering and more natural than a pure matt.

That is it for now. Hope it helped someone!

Note: I was not sure if I am allowed to put pictures of the differnet stores and products here. If you want to know how everything looks like so you know what to look out for, just google it! :)