Off to Spain - what health/beauty stuff should I get?

[AppleBlossomTimeNow]

Just that really! Love exploring make up etc from overseas but what health, beauty, skincare, pharmacy OTC stuff is good to get?

Thanks

Try a 5% retinol cream called Retirides. You can buy in pharmacy's and can only buy one per transaction.

Mercadona, a supermarket chain, do the best olive oil moisturiser ever! It's about €2 and comes in a large white dispenser with a green pump.
Failing that, the huge bottles of argan oil shower gel and moisturiser from Lidl are also a good buy and cheap as chips.
Spanish anti-persperant sticks usually contains alcohol and are really effective. Forgotten the name of the brand though.
My favourites soaps are Maja (black and red) and Heno de Pravia (yellow).
Nail polish tends to be cheap. As are shoes.

Oooooh! Thanks all - that's a great starter for ten! I love finding stuff like body moisturiser on hols, when you come home & smell it, it's like being back on holiday...

Mercadona also do a 100% organic aloe Vera for about 6 euro. It's brilliant for after-sun or sunburn and insect stings.

Not really style and beauty but you can get get very strong ibuprofen, I think 600mg. They are epic if you have period pains or migraines! I stock up in Spain. I know you can take 3 nurofen but this is somehow better.

The La Toja range has lots of affordable and wonderfully scented items enriched with mineral salts.

Love the meradona in las Americas, Tenerife. I buy their Valerian and hypericum tablets to help me sleep. They are both under €5

Their lipsticks are really nice too.
I often buy a big bottle of their cologne or lavender water it's well under €2 and use it after washing undies in rinsing water.
Splash it around the apartment for a nice fresh smell.
Not all mercadona carry the vitamins though

I usually get a bottle of angel schlesser flor de naranja perfume.
It's a lovely fresh orangey smell and is about €20
Usually the perfume de Lis shops are about the cheapest.
Fundegrube are quite good with special offers.

Love having a good hoke and poke around when we go to Tenerife

Love the sound of that perfume Dowser sounds right up my alley! Plus the extra strong ibuprofen sounds great - is it odd to be fascinated by what you can get OTC in other countries?

I am going too so just placemarking! There is a kiko store near us, any recommendations please?

Spain resident here!
Kiko - stick eye shadows, matte primer
Farmacia - otc hydrocortisone creams like Adventan or Betnovate are cheap. All the French pharmacy brands are also sold in Spanish pharmacies.

Mercadona has great skincare products. There's a body scrub at the moment in a luxurious pot (kind of Sanctuary style), I think there are two "flavours" and I think it's 4€, an excellent product.

I also love their cheap as chips foot moisturiser with urea.

Their own brand shampoo and conditioner, called "Stylius", are very good value - not a luxury product but so cheap and easily as good as any of the usual brands like Elvive, Garnier, Pantène, etc. If you're going to be near a Mercadona, don't bother packing shampoo and conditioner for the family, just buy this when you arrive. All those post pool / post beach hair washes for the kids (if you have them) will work out much cheaper!

Farmacias sell a cheap soluble ibuprofen called Espidifen in 400g or 600g sachets. 20 sachets costs about 2.50€. There is mint flavour (nice) and apricot flavour (gross - in my opinion). It's the only thing that deals with period pain, in my experience!

P.S. Espidifen only works (for me) on a full stomach. Most pharmacists say to take it on a full stomach or with / after food when you buy it, although if they don't speak English and you don't speak Spanish it might get lost in translation, or they may not bother saying it. (Ibuprofen, I believe, should always be taken after eating anyway).

Not a Spanish shop, but my local H&M has a great sale on beauty items at the moment, I have bought nail polishes, eye/lip/cheek stain pencils and body splashes (really nice subtle fig scent one and another with rose and aloe vera) each for 1€.

Body Shop also has nail polishes for 2€ in the sale and - sparkly - eyeshadows for 3€ as well as many reduced products - not sure how prices translate to U.K. ones as I find Body Shop expensive when full priced.

Agree with previous posters' suggestions about Kiko and Sephora. Kiko nail polish remover is also excellent, literally gets off the stubbornest, oldest toe polish in one swipe (god knows what it's made of!) Kiko also lets you try literally everything so if you have some time it's lovely to experiment before you buy a new product.

Oh, and the cheap store-brand perfumes in Zara, Mango, women.secret, etc. are all reduced in the sales at the moment. SOME are really nice! (Try before you buy...I spritzed myself with something horrifically noxious in Zara recently. )

So, so helpful!

Mercadona does wonderful lipsticks. I wish I'd got more. Fab cheap work perfume too. Love that place.

The perfumed all-over body splashes are often "off-putting" to mosquitoes too. I wouldn't call them a repellent as they're not but many of them deliberately contain ingredients that mosquitoes don't like, meaning they'll go for the person next to you instead. Lemony ones are especially good.

We were in Madeira but I developed the most awful progesterone headache. DH got me some 600mg paracetamol from the hotel pharmacy and it blitzed it in half an hour.

Nothing I can get OTC here does that. Why are we so short changed OTC here? I know in Spain you can buy Oestrogel OTC which I could only get a script for here after seeing a private consultant. It's ridiculous.

I am going next week and have got my MIL to order the Retirides cream, 0.025% and 0.05%. This is retinol cream which you can only get on prescription in the UK. Her pharmacy will order it in and I'll go and collect it, although some pharmacies will have it in stock. Much better than buying from a dodgy pharmacy online. But you have to make sure you know how to use it.

There is also a 1% which is the strongest (there is no 5%, that would burn your face off).

Sorry I didn't read properly. Retirides is RetinA which is the super strong stuff. You might be able to get 5% retinol.

Mercadona must-haves

www.abc.es/estilo/belleza/abci-ocho-productos-belleza-mercadona-enloquecen-blogueros-201708141307_noticia.html

In Spanish, but you can use Google translate.

Thank you for that Bruja!
I need a new mascara too as my Lidl one is extremely disappointing.

The makeup brushes from Mercadona are good quality too. They don't lose shape or bristles like some more expensive brands.

I'm now googling the perfume dupes.
And DHL shipping costs.

not beauty related but i usually pick up something from Zara when we are in Spain as it works out cheaper over there, the Zara website lets you order from Spain but in English which makes it so much easier, and i usually just get it delivered to where we are staying which tends to be quick service