The development of NIVEA Crème over 100 years ago marked the beginning of a unique success story and the birth of the World’s No.1 Skin Care Brand*. NIVEA is the product of brilliant research, outstanding creativity, and sound business acumen. In 1890, Dr. Oscar Troplowitz bought Paul C. Beiersdorf’s Hamburg-based laboratory. Troplowitz’s scientific advisor, the leading dermatologist Professor Paul Gerson Unna, told him about an innovative emulsifying agent called Eucerit (the ancient Greek word for beautiful wax). Together, they developed the world’s first stable oil-and-water-based cream that was suitable for mass production in 1911 and called it NIVEA.
The “mother of all creams” was named for its white colour, and the word NIVEA is derived from the Latin word “nix, nivis” meaning snow. So NIVEA means “snow white.” In addition to Eucerit, which was used to bind the oils with water, the original Crème also contained glycerin and a little citric acid, fragranced with rose and lily-of-the-valley oils. Despite regular refinements to adapt NIVEA Creme’s formula to the latest scientific findings, in essence it has changed very little over the last 100 years.