Turkish Cosmetics: The Brands Worth Buying

Turkish cosmetics have quietly gotten very good, and a few of these brands genuinely belong in your bathroom cabinet.

Here is the short version: yes, you should buy cosmetics in Turkey. The pharmacy-grade skincare, the rose water, the olive-oil soaps and at least one serious perfume house all punch well above their price. A decade ago most of this did not exist, or it existed and nobody trusted it. That has changed. Turkish cosmeceuticals (the acid serums, vitamin C, niacinamide crowd) now sit comfortably next to the European brands you already know, and they cost a fraction of the price.

What follows is my honest run-through of the names I would actually point a visitor toward, what each one does best, and roughly what you will pay. Prices in Turkey move with the lira, so treat every number as “at the time of writing, around” rather than gospel. If you are using a trip to stock up, this pairs nicely with our wider Istanbul shopping guide and the list of souvenirs worth bringing home from Istanbul.

A quick orientation before we get into brands: most of the skincare-focused names below are sold in pharmacies (eczane), in the drugstore chains Watsons, Gratis and Rossmann, or online. The perfume and soap houses have their own boutiques. None of this is hard to find once you know what you are looking for.

Turkish skincare and cosmeceutical brands

Dermoskin

If you buy one therapeutic brand here, make it Dermoskin. It is the one Turkish dermatologists themselves tend to recommend, and you will find it behind the counter at pharmacies rather than on a beauty-hall shelf. The company runs its own research centre, so the formulas are built by dermatology professionals around well-established active ingredients rather than marketing buzzwords.

The Be Bright line is the anti-wrinkle and anti-acne range to look at: an AHA/BHA cream, a vitamin C cream and a peptide cream all sit in the same family. There are also food supplements and vitamins, sunscreens running from factor 30 up to very high protection, plus general skin and hair care. As a rough guide, creams start around 120 lira, tonics and serums from about 250 lira, and the supplements from roughly 100 lira. It is unglamorous packaging doing genuinely good work, which is exactly why I trust it.

Cyrène Cosmetics

A younger brand, founded in 2011, that made its name on acne-prone and hypersensitive skin. The founder, Sirin Koseoğlu, spent years as a chemist at one of Turkey’s big cosmetics companies, then went back to university for a master’s in pharmacy at De Montfort in the UK before launching her own line. That pedigree shows in the formulas.

The motto here is cruelty-free, and they mean it: Cyrène has never tested on animals, and half the proceeds from each purchase go to children’s charities. The products that stand out are the vitamin C, AHA, BHA and enzyme exfoliant mask (it behaves more like a liquid serum, with added plant extracts and a prebiotic), the AHA/BHA cleansing wipes with glycolic and salicylic acid, the 15% vitamin C serum and the peptide-plus-hyaluronic serum. Mid-range pricing, found in pharmacies and online. Plenty of salons use these professionally, but they are fine for home use if you follow the instructions.

The Purest Solutions

Pure cosmeceuticals, on the local market for years now, with a small catalogue where nothing is filler. The whole pitch is acids, the ingredient category that has dominated skincare lately, and the brand leans hard into AHA, BHA, hyaluronic and glycolic acid, plus arbutin, niacinamide and argireline. No alcohol, no parabens, no dyes, no animal testing.

If you have a specific skin problem and you have been priced out of the famous international acid brands, this is the one to try. Creams, toners and cleansers start around 190 lira and serums from about 200. You will find it at Watsons and Rossmann as well as online.

Procsin

Procsin is the budget hero of this list, and it is genuinely good value. The brand develops its products in its own lab, mixing plant and herbal extracts, medicinal herbs and oils, several types of clay and thermal water, all aimed at skin dealing with pollution, dry air, wind, sun and stress.

The range is enormous: face and body, hair, even fragrance. The serums are where I would start, especially the vitamin C, the bakuchiol (a gentler retinol alternative), the AHA/BHA, and the various moisturising serums in 20 to 30 ml bottles. There are also numbered perfumes in 30 ml and a full hair-care line of shampoos, masks, oils and conditioners. Prices are refreshingly democratic: creams and serums in the small 20 ml sizes start from around 40 to 50 lira, which is why you see this brand all over Turkish bathroom shelves. It is widely sold online and through StyleTurk and similar shops if you want to order from abroad.

Rosece

Rosece is the one with a story you actually remember. Nurgul Dirlik, a botanist by training, could not find a product with natural ingredients for her daughter’s atopic dermatitis, so she started blending her own from scientific literature and her own knowledge. What began as homemade herbal mixes for her children became a full brand.

The philosophy (“our future is not only our children, but also the world we leave them”) runs through everything: organic-certified ingredients, minerals, vitamins, plant extracts, plant waters and natural oils. If you like herbal or neutral scents and you care about how a product is sourced, this is your shelf. Expect solid and liquid shampoos from around 150 lira, facial serums from about 200, natural oils from roughly 230 and sunscreens from around 250. You can buy it at the Souq Dükkan store in Istanbul’s Canyon shopping centre in Levent, at Ruby Flowers and Gifts in Bebek, in Antalya at the Bab-ı Şifa Naturel Market, and online.

Thalia

Thalia started with organic soap, which is still its best-seller, and grew into a full organic line for face, body and hair. The products built around natural oils are the standouts. It sits in the above-average price niche, but it earns it: the reviews are excellent and you will spot it in European shops too.

My picks would be the aloe cream and foam, the anti-ageing serums, and the coconut-and-argan masks for hair and face. Concrete examples: a 2% hyaluronic acid serum from around 150 lira, a 10% AHA / 2% BHA serum from about 140, a face cream with 50% aloe vera from around 150, anti-ageing day and night creams with oil extract from about 190, and shampoos and conditioners from around 100. You will find Thalia in Boyner stores across the country and online.

Turkish perfume, rose water and soap houses

Atelier Rebul

This is the premium end, and it is the souvenir I most often tell people to splurge on. Atelier Rebul was founded in Istanbul in 1895 by a pharmaceutical family, and it has stayed in that lane: beautiful perfume and organic skincare made with old-school care.

The bestseller, and the one to buy, is the Istanbul fragrance from The Istanbul Collection. It is warm and spicy, built on bergamot lifted by cinnamon, saffron and clove over floral and woody notes, and it genuinely smells like the spice bazaar in the best way. It makes a lovely gift and an even better personal treat. At the time of writing the 50 ml Eau de Parfum runs around 75 euros on the brand’s European webshop, with 12 ml travel sizes and a larger 125 ml available; in Turkey you will find the full range, the skincare from roughly 380 lira, mini hand creams from around 80, body creams from about 280 per 250 ml, and shower gels from around 130. There is a flagship boutique on İstiklal and counters in most major malls. For more gift ideas in this vein, our souvenir shopping guide covers the rest.

Rosense

If you buy nothing else on this entire list, buy Rosense rose water. It is the most popular organic product in Turkey for good reason. The brand belongs to Gülbirlik, the country’s largest rose-growing cooperative, based in Isparta, and the world’s leading exporter of rose oil. The rose water is distilled from Damascena rose petals with no chemical preservatives, no petrochemicals, nothing added.

As a toner it is brilliant: it moisturises, helps balance the skin and tightens pores without stripping. The reviews are excellent and the price is almost comically low, with a bottle of rose water typically around 20 to 30 lira in Turkish shops. Beyond the rose water, the cleansing gel, masks, tonic and day and night creams all earn their keep, and there is rose oil from around 290 lira, body butters from about 120, face cream from around 150, body spray from about 90, roll-on deodorant from around 50 and perfume from around 250. Sold at Gratis and Watsons and online. Buy two; you will wish you had.

Dalan

Dalan is the heritage soap name, and almost every Turkish bathroom has had one of its bars at some point. The story goes back to 1941, when Hamdi Dalan started making classic soap from 100% olive oil in the Namazgah quarter of Izmir. The family turned the workshop into Dalan Kimya in 1976, opened a modern glycerin and soap plant in Izmir’s Pınarbaşı district in 1981, and added cosmetics in 2006. Today Dalan exports to well over 100 countries and accounts for a large share of Turkey’s soap exports.

For travellers, the Antik (Antique) olive-oil bars are the thing to bring home: 100% olive oil, handmade, in traditional rice, white and laurel varieties, and they cost next to nothing. Beyond soap there is a full personal-care range under sub-brands like Roxy, Adalya, Cindy, Nancy and Diana: shampoos and shower gels from around 30 lira, conditioners from about 35, mini hand creams from around 10, and body lotions from roughly 80 to 125. Inexpensive, reliable, and a very easy souvenir to slot into a suitcase.

Where to actually buy all this

To keep it simple: head to Watsons, Gratis or Rossmann for the skincare and rose water (Dermoskin, The Purest Solutions, Rosense, and so on), check a pharmacy (eczane) for the dermatologist-grade lines like Dermoskin and Cyrène, and visit the brand boutiques for Atelier Rebul. The big malls cover almost all of it under one roof. If you would rather browse old-world bazaars while you shop, our guides to the best bazaars in Istanbul and the Spice Bazaar point you to the rose oils and natural soaps sold around the old city.

My honest shortlist if you only have room for three: a bottle of Rosense rose water (the single best value in Turkish beauty), a bar or two of Dalan Antik olive-oil soap, and one bottle of Atelier Rebul Istanbul to remember the trip by. Everything else on this list is a worthwhile bonus, but those three are the ones I would never skip.

For more on what makes Turkish beauty products distinctive in the first place, have a look at our piece on the traits of Turkish beauty products.