The best souvenir shops in France are marked with glowing green crosses. If you have any interest in skincare, you know how exciting it is to find French pharmacy shelves packed with clinical-grade, dermatologist-recommended beauty products priced under 20 euros and available to buy without a prescription. 

But you no longer need to book a flight to Europe for miracle French drugstore finds. Today, many are available at Amazon, albeit priced a little higher than they would be in France. One that’s achieved cult status is the A313 cream, an over-the-counter fountain of youth designed to reduce signs of aging with its potent retinol formula. Lucky for us all, the viral skincare product found its way to the virtual shelves of the Amazon Beauty storefront earlier this year. And, the under-2-ounce tube will fit perfectly in your toiletry bag, so you’ll never have to travel without it.

A313 French Pharmacy Face Cream

Anyone who’s on SkinTok has seen influencers rave over this little blue and white tube. A313 is a familiar brand of face cream in France, where it’s been sold over the counter for many years. The star ingredient of the “holy grail product” is retinol, a chemical derivative of vitamin A. The cream has a notably high concentration of retinol (0.06 percent), which makes it a particularly strong, potent formula. In the U.S., retinol products can be sold over the counter at strengths of up to 0.1 percent, but A313 has been compared to more powerful, prescription-strength retinoids like Tretinoin and Differin.

In general, retinol works to increase cell turnover, helping your skin shed the dead stuff more quickly to maintain a soft, smooth texture. For some, this comes with flaking, dryness, and possibly even peeling in the beginning, but your skin typically adjusts to the retinol over time as it gets accustomed to the faster process. The A313 cream also contains certain ingredients—PEG-8, PEG-75, and Polysorbate 80—that help the vitamin A penetrate deeper into the skin, for even better results. 

Other hydrating, nourishing ingredients include peanut oil and tocopherol, a source of vitamin E with antioxidant properties. Reviewers say their wrinkles are less pronounced and they experience fewer acne breakouts after using this cult-favorite French cream. One acne sufferer in their 30s said they saw a 90 percent improvement after one night on A313. Three days in, their skin was “already transformed.”

A313 French Pharmacy Face Cream

Many report that their skin has never been better, even with some being in their 60s and 70s. One wrote, “[It] took years off my face!” and others report a smoother, glowier complexion. A testament to its surging popularity, the product has been purchased on Amazon more than 6,000 times just in the past month. And even celebrities use it: Sienna Miller told Harper’s Bazaar it’s her “French-girl secret to great skin,” recommended to her by none other than Alexa Chung. 

The beauty of it all is that you don’t have to be on a Hollywood budget to afford it. You can buy the A313 cream for $46 right now—no plane ticket to Paris required. Discover more French beauty secrets we found at Amazon, below.

More French Skincare at Amazon:

Embryolisse Lait-crème Retinol-like Moisturizer

La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Moisturizer

Avène Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream

Vichy Mineral 89 Booster

Caudalie Vinopure Natural Salicylic Acid Pore Minimizing Serum

At the time of publishing, the price started at $46.

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Watch on TikTok as one user goes from skeptic to believer! 

BuzzFeed Shopping writer Emma Lord considers herself a fan: 

“I am not a new human to the tubing mascara game, and in fact, I readily spent $26 on the famous OG blend from Blinc every time it needed replacing. I didn’t even love it for the length half as much as the fact that tubing mascara like this genuinely never smudges, but can I just say — regardless of price, the E.l.f. tubing mascara formula blows all the others I’ve tried out of the water. It gives me way more length and volume than other brands, slides on so much more easily, stays put ALL day, and never, ever smudges. My favorite part, though, is how gently and easily it comes off with soap and water. In the past, other mascara removals have felt rough on my lashes, but this comes off so fast that I’m like ??? Was I even wearing mascara a minute ago?? Anyway, I hesitate even writing this review because I want to gatekeep the hell out of this before it sells out, but the world needed to know. I’m a big fan of the brown shade (which is what I’m wearing above!), but it also comes in black and soft black.” 

Promising review: “I’ve used Thrive Causemetics for quite a while and always had trouble with it flaking and clumping. I always just chalked it up to something that I’d deal with when using a tubing mascara or something I was doing when applying but E.l.f. says: ‘NOT the case!’ My mind is blown that a $7 mascara is so amazing. I never have to deal with flakes sticking to my contacts after applying or clean any makeup out of my eyes at the end of the day anymore! I thought it was a fluke when I first started using it, but it’s been weeks now and stayed consistent. It looks amazing, lashes are longer, fuller, and separated — I’m so happy I tried it, and you will be too!” —Adel Richardson

Price: $7 (available in three shades)