Welcome to Deep Reviews—your one-stop destination to discover the absolute best products and brands the beauty industry has to offer. The Who What Wear staffers you already know and trust will research, test, and review the market’s most sought-after and buzzed-about products to see which formulas (of the hundreds up for consideration) are truly worth your hard-earned money and attention. You can expect honest, completely uncensored feedback and no-BS recommendations our hard-to-please testers endorse without reservations.
Every time I feel like branching out and trying a new moisturizer, I’m frozen by the paradox of choice. There are so many moisturizers on the market—on Sephora’s website alone, there are 437 pages of choices. It’s tough to choose a new moisturizer when you’re faced with thousands of options that are all essentially meant to do the same thing (moisturize your face).
Here at Who What Wear, we set out to find a definitive answer for the best moisturizers on the market. A crew of 13 testers decided to put some of the best-of-the-best formulas up to the test by adding them to their skincare routine. Keep reading for the 23 we would recommend to anyone—plus why we love them so much.
Hint: They don’t just work to keep skin from flaking. “Skin that is well-moisturized is stronger, has a healthier barrier, and can keep out potential damaging aspects from the external environment, such as bacteria, fungus, viruses, [and] even microscopic pollutants that are more likely to irritate or inflamed dry skin,” says Nazarian. “Additionally, even though cleansing your skin is a vital part of your skincare regimen, cleansing can strip some of the natural oils and hydrators, weakening skin over time. Moisturizing is an important step to maintain a healthy skin barrier despite daily cleansing.”
When picking out a moisturizer, Gohara recommends looking for ingredients that are already found in your natural skin barrier to boost it. Think ceramides, hyaluronic acid, squalene, and urea. Engelman agrees, noting that you should also opt for moisturizers without added fragrance or harsh chemicals, as they can irritate skin—this is especially important if you’re already sensitive.
“When preparing to purchase a moisturizer, the most important things to know first are your skin type and what results you are looking for,” says Engelman. “For example, if your concerns are aging, you may want to look for a night cream that incorporates retinol or phyto-retinol. If your skin is dry, look for a more occlusive and hydrating formula that will deeply moisturize the skin and prevent transepidermal water loss.”
First, we asked our experts the best way to choose moisturizers and used that as a starting point. With their expertise in mind, I combed through 63 moisturizers that had made other publications’ “best-of” lists and landed on 30 formulas for our editors to test. From those, we chose and ranked the top 23.
Katie Berohn
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