Although the word “moist” may make some people wince, we have nothing but affection for moisturizers. For many people, it’s the last step in a skin-care regimen, and in our daily work as beauty editors, we’ve tried various formulas. Whether you’re searching for a lighter choice to wear throughout the day or a souped-up version for an overnight glow-up. The likelihood is that the ideal face cream for you has been through our offices, regardless of whether you have dry, oily, or mixed skin.
According to Shereene Idriss, MD, a board-certified dermatologist at Union Square Laser Dermatology in New York City, “Moisturizers are a vital aspect of every skin-care routine.” “Our skin needs water to stay hydrated, just like our bodies do.” Although our skin appears more dewy nearly immediately, the true advantages take time to manifest. According to Idriss, regular use of moisturizers reduces the frequency and severity of fine lines and wrinkles.
Not just dry skin types, but all skin types, can benefit from this daily mindset. According to Divya Shokeen, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Torrance, California, “overwashing will actually promote an overproduction of oil on your skin,” she said. In other words, if you don’t rehydrate your skin, it will dry out and irritate, which will leave your skin vulnerable to a variety of issues.
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Board-certified dermatologist Doris Day, MD, of New York City, observed that “people confuse oil with moisture, thus they don’t adequately hydrate the skin.” The skin’s oil and water balance is maintained by hyaluronic acid, one of today’s truly wonderful substances. She claimed that increased hydration supports a stronger barrier, which in turn aids in reducing oil production.
To assist you in finding the moisturizer of your dreams, we’ve compiled a list of the 23 finest face moisturizers (the crème de la crème, if you will), including dermatologist picks and Allure Best of Beauty Award winners.
CeraVe Daily Moisturizing Lotion
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The best drugstore moisturizer, according to CeraVe Daily Moisturizing Lotion. Thanks to a combination of hyaluronic acid and encapsulated ceramides, this $15 daily moisturizer eliminates all signs of dryness or flakiness and instead provides a moisturized complexion.
Caudalie’s Premier Cru The Cream
Caudalie’s First Class Three active elements in The Cream are so effective that they helped this treatment win the 2022 Best of Beauty Award. Hyaluronic acid replenishes moisture, then the mixture helps reduce wrinkles, and last but not least, honey locust sugars tighten skin in three minutes.
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La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Moisturizer SPF 30
The fact that sunscreens (and even moisturizers with additional SPF) can appear ashy on dark to brown skin tones is a widespread complaint. Not Toleriane Duo Repair Moisturizer SPF 30 by La Roche-Posay. The face lotion with thermal water infusion quickly absorbs and leaves a transparent finish without causing makeup to slide around.
Ole Henkrisen Strength Trainer Peptide Boost Moisturizer
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The Ole Henkrisen Strength Trainer Peptide Boost Moisturizer is brimming with the good stuff: firming collagen, hydrating hyaluronic acid, conditioning peptides, and moisturizing ceramides. You just need a pea-sized amount of this product to make your skin feel smoother, look more radiant, and smell delicious (thanks to the addition of mango shea butter).
Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Moisturizer
How do you build on a popular serum’s success? Of course, by making a moisturizing version available. Complex Moisturizer by Paula’s Choice, the newest member of the Omega+ family, nourishes dry skin with ceramides, botanical oils, and the antioxidant-rich fruits guava and passionfruit.
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First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream
First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream, which has won numerous awards, is perfect for people with sensitive skin or eczema. (You can trust it because it has earned a Best of Beauty and Readers’ Choice Award.) Formulated with soothing colloidal oatmeal, this thick moisturizer moisturizes any dry spots or regions without hurting the skin.
Farmacy Daily Greens Oil-Free Gel Moisturizer
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The Daily Greens Oil-Free Gel Moisturizer from Farmacy features a formula that makes you feel wonderful all the way around. First off, when scooped out of the jar, its light gel texture is satisfyingly bouncy and glassy and melts into skin as you apply it. A combination of skin-perfecting ingredients, such as a quadruple dose of hyaluronic acid for mega hydration, papaya extract for mild exfoliation, and moringa seed extract for eliminating impurities, are also included in the moisturizer. These compounds leave skin appearing dewy and brighter. The formula is made from farm-sourced ingredients and is cruelty-free. The container is recycled.
The Inkey List Peptide Moisturizer
The Inkey List Peptide Moisturizer’s pricing seems incorrect given its 1% peptide complex and unique smoothing royal jelly protein. This shea butter-rich cream, which costs about $15, intensively moisturizes and smoothes skin while absorbing rapidly for a lightweight sensation. It performs the heavy lifting of moisturizers costing ten times as much.
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Aveeno Calm + Restore Redness Relief Cream
Use a pea-sized dollop of Aveeno Calm + Restore Redness Relief Cream to calm your skin. This moisturizer is packed with ceramides and vitamin B5 to calm your skin and reduce redness. Also, it contains oat flour, which softens rough skin.
Glow Recipe Plum Plump Refillable Moisturizer
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The skin-improving benefits of Glow Recipe’s Refillable Plum Plump Hyaluronic Cream are additional evidence that this company is among the Internet’s most talked-about and has the best recipes. The whipped gel-cream contains five weights of hyaluronic acid and three different types of plums (Kakadu, Illawara, and Burdekin) to give it its stunning lavender hue and powerful moisture-replenishing properties. For a beautiful glow and healthy bounce that leaves skin looking plump and dewy, apply it twice daily to your face and neck. In order to further uphold its commitment to sustainability, the company now offers replacement pods that simply slide into the glass jar when you need to resupply.
Neutrogena Hydro Boost Gel-Cream for Extra-Dry Skin
The Neutrogena Hydroboost Water Gel moisturizer is a refreshingly cushiony, gel-cream that is cool and bouncy. One of the many reasons we adore it is just that. Also, it has fantastic moisturizing advantages. Although having a gel-like texture, Dr. Sarkar says that the product contains glycerin and dimethicone, which moisturize the skin, seal it in, and make application easier. She adds that even among her acne-prone patients, it doesn’t lead to outbreaks.
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Dr. Jart+ Cicapair Tiger Grass Calming Gel Cream
Dr. Jart+’s Cicapair Tiger Grass Calming Gel Cream, which has an incredibly light texture and feel, combines glycerin, niacinamide, cica, and the company’s own microbiome complex to enhance your skin’s defense mechanisms as well as to moisturize and relieve irritation. Skin care lovers love Dr. Jart’s Cicapair line, but the Calming Gel Cream tops the list of fuss-free midday moisturizers, earning it a 2020 Allure Best of Beauty Award.
SK-II Skinpower Cream
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The SK-II Skinpower Cream epitomizes a luxury skin care item, especially considering that it won the 2022 Best of Beauty Award in the category for splurges. With over 50 vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and acids to intensely hydrate and condition skin, SK-renowned II’s (and exclusive) pitera complex is derived from a yeast fermentation process that practically resembles that of sake.
Together with fan-favorite components like glycerin, niacinamide, and shea butter, a bouquet of floral extracts, such as calla lily extract, dokudami extract, and peony extract, boosts the plumpness of your skin. Work the cream into your neck, chin, cheeks, and forehead for a little massage before calling it a day.
Augustinus Bader The Rich Cream
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Even though Augustinus Bader’s renowned Rich Cream has an outrageous price tag, the results are also astonishingly impressive. The formula is supported by the company’s patented Trigger Factor Complex (TFC8), which is based on 30 years of clinical research and contains over 40 potent natural ingredients that intensely hydrate and support cellular turnover. These ingredients include peptides, hyaluronic acid, rice proteins, and shea butter. When applied, the buttery cream feels luxurious and pampers skin to the max, calming dry patches, making skin look noticeably smoother, and brightening an uneven skin tone.
Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream
For years, Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream has been a treasured mainstay in skin care, and for good reason: It works. Board-certified dermatologist Papri Sarkar, MD, of Boston, states that “in the cold, my skin needs hydration but can’t tolerate too much fragrance.” “This cream moisturizes and helps to seal in moisture without irritating,” says the manufacturer. “It is packed with glycerin, squalane, and plant oils (including apricot and avocado). A dime-sized amount is all that is required to blanket your entire complexion with soothing hydration.
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E.L.F. Holy Hydration! Face Cream Fragrance Free
If you enjoy Holy Hydration! by E.L.F. If you prefer a moisturizer without extra perfume for your skin or nose, choose the fragrance-free Face Cream. Without the fragrance frills, you still receive all the plumping, brightening, and moisturizing advantages of hyaluronic acid, peptides, and niacinamide.
Drunk Elephant Lala Retro Whipped Cream
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The Lala Retro Whipped Cream by Drunk Elephant, a three-time Readers’ Choice Award winner and recipient of our 2016 Best of Beauty Award, is the ideal fancy-but-not-too-fancy, odorless moisturizer that doesn’t feel at all heavy despite being packed with nourishing ingredients. It will envelop your skin in a light layer of ceramides from plants and moisture-retaining oils (such as green tea, soybean, etc.) that prevent water loss and provide all-day (or all-night) relief.
Eminence Organics Mangosteen Gel Moisturizer
We have a suspicion that Eminence Organics’ Mangosteen Gel Moisturizer would be your ideal match if you’re looking for a lightweight gel-cream moisturizer that will instantly soak into your skin without a trace. This winner of the Best of Beauty Award for 2021 moisturizes skin without leaving a greasy behind. A combination rich in antioxidants from mangosteen to enhance brightness, red clover flower extract to refine pores, and ribose (derived from corn seeds) to give the skin a more even tone can all be found inside.
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Laneige Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Cream Moisturizer
You can tell this light cream, winner of the Allure Best of Beauty Award, is popular as soon as you apply it. It contains some of the best hydrators available, including squalane, ceramides, and hyaluronic acid, and is incredibly light and hydrating.
We liked it so much that we included it in the lineup for the September Allure Beauty Box. For just $23, you can get the Allure Beauty Box here, which gives you access to even more editor picks. Visit @allurebeautybox on TikTok to view the most popular beauty subscription box.
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BeautyStat Universal Pro-Bio Moisture Cream
To create a product with the delicate balance of a rich, indulgent texture and a lightweight sensation, leave it to the work of a cosmetic chemist. With a generous dosage of hyaluronic acid and ceramides that replenish moisture to the skin and provide a healthy, glowy finish, Ron Robinson’s soothing Universal Pro-Bio Moisture Cream from BeautyStat was created to deliver on both.
Murad Intense Recovery Cream
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Bring the big (hydration) guns into your nightly skin-care routine if you have dry to extremely dry skin. A creamy cream with a seafoam green color, Murad Intensive Recovery Cream, won the 2021 Best of Beauty Award because it reduces skin redness and visibly calms indications of stress. Shea butter, macadamia oil, mirabilis jalapa plant extract, fine-line-smoothing microalgae extract, and other key components make this the perfect nightcap for your skin.
Cetaphil Daily Hydrating Lotion
Searching for a drugstore choice that compares favorably to more expensive alternatives? Hyaluronic acid is an ideal ingredient for anyone with dry skin and is present in Cetaphil’s Daily Hydrating Lotion.
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Skinfix Barrier+ Lipid-Peptide Cream
Go no farther than this winner of the 2019 Allure Best of Beauty Awards if your skin is seriously dehydrated. Emollient shea butter, sodium hyaluronate, and a triple-packed blend of fatty oils that nourish even the most parched skin are all found in the ultra-rich Skinfix Lipid-Peptide Cream. Moreover, peptides rich in protein support the skin’s defenses against environmental harm.
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