Which Moisturizer Should I Use?

Skipping a moisturizer, no matter your skin type, is a MAJOR mistake. You wouldn’t turn down a glass of water on a hot day, right?

Failing to add a natural face moisturizer to your skin care routine means you’re allowing precious hydration and moisture to escape from skin. Moisturizers are emollients, which means they absorb and lock in moisture and hydration. If you’re washing or toning regularly, but skipping the moisturizer, the hydration from your products isn’t absorbing as well as it should.

Moisturizers are designed to reinforce the lipid barrier in your skin. The barrier function of your skin prevents moisture from leaving, and irritants or debris from entering. Moisturizers help to strengthen the health of this barrier through reinforced moisture and hydration. They can also help to block outside impurities from entering your skin’s deeper layers.

Which Natural Face Moisturizer Is Best for Your Skin Type?

So what’s the best face moisturizer to try, when the options seem endless? Every skin type needs varying amounts of both hydration and moisture – but how do you figure out which moisturizer will fit your needs? We’ve whipped up a day or night, dry or oily, complete breakdown for choosing the right natural face moisturizer for you. Time to lock in your personalized moisturizing routine!

Tea Tree Balancing Moisturizer
Texture Profile: Light, watery lotion
SKIN TYPES: Oily, acne-prone
Key Ingredients: Tea Tree, Neem, Turmeric
When to Use It: ☀️🌙

Even if you suffer from oily or acne-prone skin, the truth is you still need to use moisturizer! This super lightweight formula is the best face moisturizer for acne-prone skin. It’s designed to properly balance and nourish, without clogging pores or leaving skin feeling greasy.

Aloe and green tea oil bring skin to a harmonious state, with a backup of anti-acne ingredients that keep breakouts at bay. An instant cooling effect and immediate hydration are just two big benefits of this moisturizer for oily or acne-prone skin.

Intensive Nourishing Balm
Texture Profile: Solid balm; melts on contact
SKIN TYPES: All Skin Types
Key Ingredients: Avocado Butter, Shea Butter, Rosehip Seed Oil
When to Use It: ☀️🌙

Looking for an intensely moisturizing balm that offers maximum nourishing, smoothing, and anti-aging benefits? This decadent, moisture treatment can – and much more! Use this as a spot-moisturizer for face, targeting areas of extreme dryness or flaking.

Healing avocado, shea butter, and almond oil restore softness and elasticity for more supple skin. A myriad of anti-aging vitamins and antioxidants work hard to protect and repair dry or damaged skin. Use this as a spot-moisturizer for face, targeting areas of extreme dryness or flaking. It can also be used on rough patches on hands, feet, elbows, and knees.

Green Tea SPF 30
Texture Profile: Lightweight lotion
SKIN TYPES: Normal, oily, dry, combo, aging
Key Ingredients: Green Tea, Raspberry Seed Oil, Cucumber
When to Use It: ☀️

Are you ready to find out how one little leaf can help combat accelerated aging and sun damage? This dual-purpose sunscreen + moisturizer features natural mineral zinc oxide infused with green tea to tone and protect skin.

Green tea provides mega protective and anti-aging skin benefits. The moisturizing power of green tea and aloe juice quench parched skin, and the addition of rosehip seed oil adds an extra boost of vitamin C to the mix.

Tomato Lycopene SPF 20 Moisturizer
Texture Profile: Lightweight lotion
SKIN TYPES: All skin types, especially dry or aging
Key Ingredients: Tomato, Aloe Vera, Sea Buckthorn Oil
When to Use It: ☀️

If you’ve ever wanted a silky smooth facial moisturizer that doubles as sun protection, here’s your answer! This environmentally-friendly SPF formula is non-greasy and easily blendable, thanks to its lightweight oil content. Using a natural face moisturizer with a high SPF content means reduced fine lines, fewer dark spots, and stronger skin.

Tomatoes contain an antioxidant called lycopene, the natural pigment that makes them red. Lycopene has also been linked to a reduction in DNA damage from UV exposure. We’ve packed the most skin moisturizing ingredients like olive squalane, coconut oil, and sunflower oil into this handy bottle for sun protection and moisturizing on the go.

Aloe vera infuses a hydrating dose of water into thirsty skin, while soothing redness and irritation. Sea buckthorn oil is also great for soothing sun damage, and can even gently exfoliate damaged skin cells. It’s another great ingredient for not only aging skin, but any skin type that needs extra care.

Seaberry Moisturizer
Texture Profile: Lightweight cream
SKIN TYPES: All skin types, especially dull skin, fine lines, and wrinkles
Key Ingredients: Aloe Vera, Shea Butter, Sea Buckthorn Oil
When to Use It: ☀️🌙

If you’ve ever wanted a silky smooth facial moisturizer that doubles as a complexion booster, here’s your answer! This anti-aging formula is non-greasy and easily absorbable – thanks to its lightweight oil content – and flaunts a phytonutrient-rich anti-aging resume.

Its star ingredient, seaberry, packs a heavy dose of many omegas and 12 times more vitamin C than an orange for a more radiant, youthful complexion. Moisturizing superstars like shea butter and coconut oil lock moisture and nutrients into your skin for a toned, glowing complexion.

Restorative Sea Culture Extra Riche Creme
Texture Profile: Thick cream
SKIN TYPES: Dry, aging, combo, sensitive
Key Ingredients: Alteromonas Ferment, Bacuri Butter, Algin
When to Use It: ☀️🌙

This decadent, intensely rich moisturizer isn’t for the faint of heart. You’ve got to want increased suppleness, deep moisture, and plump skin. But everyone wants that, right? While this rich natural face moisturizer is a powerhouse of nourishment, its ingredients are best for only certain skin types. Dry, aging, and sensitive skin types will greatly benefit from this formula, while some combo skin types might find it useful as a spot-treatment for dry patches.

This seaworthy face cream is packed with natural skin conditioners, vitamins, and trace minerals. Alteromonas ferment is a polysaccharide, sourced from a marine bacterium found in deep sea water. It’s great for soothing dry skin and helping skin absorb water.

Bacuri butter is an emollient that’s rich in anti-aging fatty acids, making it a great ingredient for aging skin types. Bacuri butter is also said to soothe irritated skin, spelling relief for sensitive skin types.

Our last key ingredient is seaweed algin, a natural thickener and emollient found in the cell walls of brown algae. This polysaccharide helps enhance water retention and suppleness in dry, aging, or normal skin.

Green Tea EGCG Concentrate Cream
Texture Profile: Medium-weight cream
SKIN TYPES: Normal, oily, dry, combo, aging, acne-prone
Key Ingredients: Yerba Mate Water, Green Tea EGCG, Olive Squalane
When to Use It: ☀️🌙

Green tea is one of the most protective ingredients in the skin care game. Adding it to a moisturizer means anti-aging benefits, defense against environmental damage, and multitasking nutrition for your skin. This natural face moisturizer is medium weight, with a non-greasy feel and fast-absorbing formula. The caffeine content from yerba mate water and green tea makes it great for controlling excess oil, soothing redness, and boosting circulation in tired, puffy skin.

If a multitasking, protective moisturizer is what you’re looking for, EGCG (the key phytonutrient in green tea) is right up your alley. Using this powerful antioxidant in your daily moisturizer can help your skin fight UV damage, neutralize free radicals, pollution, airborne toxins, and even help reduce your risk of skin cancer. Olive squalane delivers the skin softening moisture, without feeling heavy or greasy.

Hydra Drench Cream
Texture Profile: Lightweight gel-lotion
SKIN TYPES: Oily, dry, normal, sensitive
Key Ingredients: Chia Seed Gel, Rose Water, Sodium PCA
When to Use It: ☀️🌙

This daily moisturizer is great for oily skin types who want extra hydration, without a heavy dose of moisture from oils. Normal and sensitive skin types will also love this formula, because of its lightweight body and soothing ingredients. Dry skin types can definitely benefit from the powerhouse levels of hydration found in Hydra Drench, but may need to layer an additional moisturizer for more moisture (oil).

The base of chia seed gel gives this gel-lotion formula an extra light feel on skin, while doubling down on suppleness from omega fatty acids. Rose water is famously friendly to sensitive and dry skin types, and can soothe redness or irritation with its light floral essence.

Sodium PCA is much like hyaluronic acid (another ingredient in this hydrating formula), in that it helps attract hydration into the skin. But while hyaluronic acid delivers giant doses of water to skin through tiny molecules, sodium PCA draws moisture from the air into the skin. Now that’s what we call working smarter, not harder!

Multi-Vitamin + Antioxidants Ultra Riche PM Treatment
Texture Profile: Thick cream
SKIN TYPES: All skin types, especially dull or aging
Key Ingredients: Shea Butter, Vitamin C, Borage Oil
When to Use It: 🌙

Looking for a decadent, skin softening bedtime experience? This bestselling PM moisturizer pulls out all the stops when it comes to both moisture and anti-aging benefits. Ingredients like shea and avocado butter are paired with vitamins A (retinol), C, E, B3, B5, D, K2 to feed your skin a literal multivitamin supplement before bed. All skin types can use this moisturizer, but oily or sensitive types might find that 1-2 times per week will provide ample moisture to their skin.

Vitamin C is one of the star ingredients in this PM face moisturizer, making skin brighter, more supple, and more youthful with regular use. Vitamin C helps to boost collagen production, which contributes to both elasticity and youthful firmness to skin.

Using this moisturizer before bed is a must not only for the vitamin benefits, but for its delectable chocolate-orange scent. Awake to baby smooth skin, thanks to fatty-acid rich gamma linolenic acid from borage oil, and the healing properties of shea butter.

PRO TIP: Looking to see super fast results from your anti-aging skin care routine? Double up this PM cream with its partner, the anti-aging powerhouse Multi-Vitamin + Antioxidants Potent PM Serum. And remember, any time you’re using vitamin C or retinol, be SURE to follow up with a natural sunscreen the next day!

Retinol Restorative Overnight Balm
Texture Profile: Solid balm; melts on contact
SKIN TYPES: Dull, aging, dry, normal
Key Ingredients: Avocado Butter, Jasmine, Retinol
When to Use It: 🌙

This may not look like your typical moisturizer, but when you start melting this buttery smooth formula between your fingers, you’ll understand why it made our list of must-have moisturizers.

As our strongest retinol treatment with a concentration of 2.5%, this balm won’t need to be used nightly, but rather 1-3 times per week. If you’re looking for major age-defying results, we recommend using the Multi-Vitamin cream between Overnight Balm uses, or layered on top for extra dry, mature skin types.

With a base of mainly fatty avocado butter, this skin softening balm is hard to beat when it comes to moisturization. It has a longer shelf life because it contains zero water content, which would make it more susceptible to bacterial growth.

Vitamin E is the only preservative this balm needs, because it’s made with mostly butters and oils: avocado and shea butter, beeswax, sunflower seed oil, olive oil, and Jasmine essential oil. The only other ingredients are vitamin C and retinol, which gently resurface dull, hyperpigmented skin and boost suppleness while you sleep.

The light floral scent of Jasmine oil in this balm will lull you into dreamland, while helping balance and brighten skin tone.

PRO TIP: Want to use an overnight balm, but worried about your pillowcases? You can always lay a small towel down to ensure nothing transfers onto your pillow! Always remember to follow with a broad spectrum SPF the next day after using any retinol or vitamin C treatments.

Retinol Restorative Neck Cream
Texture Profile: Thick lotion
SKIN TYPES: All skin types, especially aging
Key Ingredients: Rosehip Oil, Retinol, Quinoa
When to Use It: 🌙

This moisturizer is designed to promote a firmer, more lifted neck. The often forgotten neck and decollete area needs lots of extra TLC, especially since it’s always exposed to the elements. It’s also one of the first areas to reveal signs of aging like crepey skin, wrinkles, and loss of firmness.

Quinoa also increases suppleness and elasticity with its healthy nutrients and proteins. The retinol in this PM moisturizer is derived from carrot seeds. It promotes cell turnover to reveal newer, younger skin, and boosts collagen in the neck area. Rosehip oil and olive squalane lock in moisture. Hyaluronic acid delivers deep hydration into skin for a dewy glow -- a key sign of youthful skin.

How to Apply Moisturizer

OK, so this isn’t exactly rocket science – but it’s worth discussing to make sure your moisturizer is reaching its full potential.

• Your moisturizer should be applied directly to clean skin; that means avoid applying over your makeup or onto dirty or sweaty skin.

• Your skin should be freshly cleansed and/or toned, and primed with a serum or mask.

• Wait for your toner or serum treatment to fully absorb into skin before you start massaging your moisturizer into skin.

• When applying, start at your forehead. Use fingers to gently massage upwards towards your scalp, until cream is blended into skin. Next, dab and gently press into the eye, temple, and cheekbone area. Then massage upwards from under your cheekbones and over towards your temple, and finish by gently swiping into skin of the jaw and neck in an upward motion.

• As with any facial treatment, you should NEVER pull or tug while applying! Avoid any downward-pulling motions that might endorse wrinkling or sagging of the skin.

PRO TIP: For tips on applying moisturizer balms, see “Retinol Restorative Overnight Balm” section above. It’s all about melting between clean fingers – then applying as you would your average moisturizer! Just be sure to follow with cleansing and an SPF the next morning, following PM use of a retinol moisturizer.

If you aren’t sure which type of product is best for your skin type, visit our Skin Care Finder! When it comes to your moisturizer game, leveling up is easy if you remember to use them daily on clean skin, and don’t be afraid to add a PM moisturizer, too. Cheers to your journey towards beautiful skin!