Shopping and beauty products i found in Taiz, Yemen

A while ago (when i started to write this ne blog), i read in lovely cosme blog about indonesia cosmetics-lulur paradise, you can read here , she remind me of  how i love indonesian products, specially body scrub/lulur, and how i ordered one box of lulur bali all varians when i first came to Yemen, because i was afraid that there would be no lulur here in Yemen. hehe.. I left a comment on her site, and she replied, asked me about yemen local cosmetic brands or beauty products..well, i swear i was gonna write about that on my first post but i was so excited writing reviews about korean cosmetic brands at that time.

Anyway, now i decided to write about shopping in Yemen and beauty products i found in Yemen. First, Yemeni women like to go shopping in Souq. What is Souq? well, if you watch sex and the city 2 where they travelled to Abu dhabi, then you know what souq is. It is more like traditional market, you can found everything there. Here in Taiz don't expect a mall like pondok indah mall or plaza senayan. There is no such thing like that. We shop in the souq. The souq in Taiz is located in 26 street, it is a loooong street. you will get tired walking and shopping here. My mom asked me what is it like, and i told her, well, maybe you can imagine Blok M behind melawai plaza or pasar mayestik, but it is a looong road with shops on your light and right. The main street is always crowded, and there are some alleys with air conditioner, one you enter, there is another long alley with shops. there are also some 3-4 storey building like ITC, cafes, Bank, restaurants, and at one end of the street is spice and foods market.

i copied this picture below from www.ycmes.or, it is a picture of souq in Yemen.

When i first came to Yemen, i bought my beauty products from Al furais supermarket, that i wrote a post about it before. I found some familiar products, like l'oreal and clean&clear for my face, sunsilk, garnier, herbal essence for my hair, dove, lux, nivea, johnsons for body. For baby&kids products, what familiar for me is only johnson&johnsons. the rest are new for me.And for your information, there is no unilever, or P&G in yemen. so all that products i mentioned are not made in Yemen. They are all imported.
For me who like trying new products, it was interesting to found many new products i never heard before and not available in Indonesia.

After a while i met some new friends here, then i started visiting souq and found my self enjoying my time in souq. Beauty stores in Souq are intersting. i was surprised to found many brands from all over the word. The seller always sell by saying, oh, this one is made in germany, this one made in france.. this one made in USA.. bla bla.. i wanted to try foundation or powder but never found a right shade for me. so i just bought lipstick, lip gloss, eye liner, eye brow pencil, from various brand i have no idea.lol
There is this interesting story, when i wanted to buy dove soap bar in the souq. I told the seller, i wanted dove soap. And the seller asked me, Dove made in germany or Dove made in UAE? i was like what? what's the difference? then the seller gave me both to compare, and yes they smell different even though they are the same dove variant. and the other day i heared a woman asked for dove made in USA. the seller said sold out.Then i heard they offered her dove made in germany and made in UAE, but she didn't want. she insisted she wants only dove made in USA. wow. then i heard they were talking about dove  made in usa is a favourite here. well, that's a new thing for me..

anyway, let's jump to some products i found here. Here are beauty products i have now;

I checked the packaging, most of them made in germany, some made in france, uae, UK, PRC..

This is my fav line products at this time.shampoo, conditioner and body cream shower. the name is "Dulgon", under the company Mann & schroder, made in germany. and of course the first reason i bought them is because they smell good..i got fade up with shampo, conditioner and soap with cosmetic-artificial smell, so when i found this i was so happy... the shampoo and conditioner i bought 3 varians. Acocado&mango, apricot and olive.

look at this. cream shower with coconut flavor? it smells yummmyyy,, i love it a lot! it smells like coconut milk (santan).

and this is Dulgon for kids. the lotion smells soooo girly and sweet. The other bottle is a hair mist, or like zwitsal hair lotion.

My fav body creams!!! the name is "soft colors", made in PRC. There are so many variants, and these are my 4th, 5th, and 6th tubes. i finished my first 3. I keep buying them because they are good in moisturizing my skin, and they smell niiiiceee...

.. while this one is my husband's fav lotion from johnson's. it is made in france.

scrubs.. the left one is from farmasi, made in turkey. Farmasi is quite famous here. not just body scrubs, they have also body spray and make up. I saw one farmasi counter in one of the shop here. the website is www.farmasi.com.tr . the right one is beauty formula, made in UK.

another products for baby,, the name is sanosan, made in germany, also under company mann & schroder

 Vaseline jelly!!! vaseline jelly is a must have here. it is a "weapon" for women here. all women in yemen have at least one in their house. hehe,, well, at least that's what i got from all my Yemeni friends here. It is like a multi purpose cream here. for your lip, very dry skin, crackes heels, etc. i am so happy that now they have varians, not just original. now they have varians in aloe and shea butter.

and this is the dove soap made in germany i mentioned before..

now for hair care... in Yemen you need more than just shampoo and conditioner, as the weather is extra dry here and your hair will become dry too. seriously, my hair was so smooth before and i have no problem brushing my hair, not it's dry and hard to brush smoothly. so you need extra treatment. you can choose hair cream, hair oil, or anyany other you like. At this time i have l'oreal elvive nutri gloss sine masque.this one is made in UK. then i have sunsilk hair fall solution hair cream. this one is available in indonesia too. and for another hair cream is eva honey hair cream, made in egypt.
I also have Vatika cactus hair oil. Vatika is one of the middle east famous brand. it is product of UAE. they have also shampoo and conditioner with many variants. oh, and hair oil is also very popular here. mow women use hair oil for their hair.. the next product with ginseng inside is banana leaf hair crystal, made in PRC, and garnier fructis oil replacement, the same function like hair oil, only in cream texture.this one is made in france.

fiuuuhhhh this is a loong post!
almost finish.. for yemeni local, they have some lotion or cream perfume. so it is actually a fragrance/perfume, but the texture is cream, it is home made, and smells oud or some arabic fragrance.They have also in oil texture where they put them in some fancy perfume bottle. But for soap, shampoo, lotions, make up, all import.