Dr. Althea and Menarini are skincare brands known for their thoughtful formulas and reliable care. The former offers moisturizers, gentle cleansers, effective makeup removers, and nourishing serums featuring soothing ingredients, while the latter is beloved for advanced serums. The first brand suits dry skin and acne-prone skin best, and the second suits sensitive, dry, and combination skin best. They differ primarily in their product types and targeted solutions, such as the Amino Acid Gentle Bubble Cleanser and A-Ret Gel.
Dr. Althea is a Korean skincare brand founded in 2014 and owned by The Pure Lab Co., Ltd..
This page compares some of the most popular Dr. Althea and Menarini products; for every product of both brands, with a fit score for your own skin, use the Lovi app.
Dr. Althea is better for most shoppers on this page because it offers a wider range of gentle cleansers, soothing moisturizers, and high-fit options across skin types, whereas Menarini features only one product with cautious fits for dry or sensitive skin. Vitamin C helps brighten and protect the skin, while tretinoin helps restore collagen formation in photodamaged skin.
What is the difference between Dr. Althea and Menarini?
Dr. Althea offers a wide range of gentle cleansers, soothing moisturizers, and vitamin C serums with high fit levels for dry and acne-prone skin, whereas Menarini features just one retinoid gel that is better suited for oily and acne-prone skin. Tretinoin helps restore collagen formation in photodamaged human skin.
The page does not provide pricing information for either Dr. Althea or Menarini, so it is not possible to determine which brand is more affordable.
Which causes fewer breakouts, Dr. Althea or Menarini?
Dr. Althea is unlikely to cause as many breakouts as Menarini because its products on this page are rated as having a Superior fit for acne-prone skin, whereas Menarini's A-Ret Gel carries only an Average fit for that skin type.
Which brand has been established longer, Dr. Althea or Menarini?
Menarini has been established much longer than Dr. Althea, having been founded in 1886 compared to Dr. Althea's founding in 2014.
Do any products from Dr. Althea or Menarini contain added fragrance?
None of the products on this page from Dr. Althea or Menarini contain added fragrance in their ingredients.
Which skin types does Dr. Althea's A-Ret Gel or 345 Relief Cream best suit according to their Lovi fit levels?
Dr. Althea's 345 Relief Cream achieves a Superior Lovi fit for acne-prone and oily acne-prone skin, and a High fit for dry, combination, mature, dry sensitive, dark spot, oily, and sensitive skin types. Menarini offers A-Ret Gel rather than 345 Relief Cream, which is not a Dr. Althea product.
Dipotassium glycyrrhizate · Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2026
Behind this comparison
Lovi compares products by their fit scores, calculated from the full ingredient list with brand-independent rules our dermatologists and cosmetic chemists build and review, and personalizes every pick with AI trained on the real results of millions of users. Lovi trains its fit score models on a proprietary dataset built from more than 10,000 expert-labeled products and more than 100,000 simulated examples, following an internally consistent methodology presented at Cosmoprof, AMWC, and Skin of Color Update.
