The Best Face Moisturizers of 2024

You might be skeptical of CeraVe Daily Moisturizing Lotion because it doubles as a body lotion, but our tester was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s a lightweight lotion, and it didn’t feel heavy, greasy, or sticky.

Although lightweight, it’s not quite as runny as the Vanicream, which made it easier to work with. Interestingly, though, it wasn’t as instantly hydrating and didn’t leave our tester’s skin as silky-smooth as some of the higher-ranking products did. Overall, this is a good product to stock if you want to streamline your beauty routine for all of your skin lotion needs.

Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost Water Gel is a gel-based product that has a very lightweight consistency. Because of this, it spreads well and feels instantly cooling on the face—but it sat on top of our tester’s skin for a few minutes before it fully absorbed. It also has a slight medicinal, musty smell.

That said, once the formula was fully absorbed, it left our tester’s skin feeling silky—albeit a tiny bit sticky—and hydrated, but not for quite as long as other products did.

If you don’t love the thickness of cream moisturizers but could use the hydration of one, you’ll love the La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer. It feels like a happy medium between a cream and a lotion. It’s thick enough to leave skin feeling amply moisturized, but it’s not as heavy as a true cream, making it easier to spread.

And while it initially feels a little greasy, that sensation disappears once the moisturizer fully absorbs into the skin a few minutes later post-application. At that point, skin feels super quenched—and remains that way for the better part of the day.

Though the Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Facial Moisturizer looks thick and white like a cream, it’s actually a gel-based moisturizer, which becomes clear when you touch the formula—it’s much lighter and feels wetter on the skin. And while a dime-sized amount spreads easily, it’s not as instantly cooling and quenching as the other gel option on this list, Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost.

This also left our tester’s skin feeling greasy—she wanted to wash her hands immediately after application. But if you can get past the surprisingly oily nature of the formula, you’ll be pleased with how silky-soft the skin feels once fully absorbed. Just don’t expect it to last—you may feel the urge to reapply just a few hours after the initial application.

Olay Active Hydrating Beauty Fluid Lotion has an easy-to-spread, cream-like consistency, but it has a strong baby powder-like scent. If any potent fragrance bothers you, this will be a hard hurdle to surmount, because the scent definitely lingers.

And though it’s relatively moisturizing, our tester felt that the formula is too greasy, which increases absorption time and causes skin to feel damp and oily for longer than she would have liked. Instead of feeling like the moisturizer absorbed into and hydrated her skin, it felt like a film on top that wasn’t providing hydration beyond the surface.

The Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion+ says its formula has a silky texture that penetrates quickly, but our tester found that only the first half of that claim held up. While the product feels very silky, it doesn’t readily absorb and she had to really work to rub the product in. The effort pays off, however, as skin feels smooth and not at all scaly once the lotion is fully absorbed into skin. The application is an inconvenience, though.

Another area where this fell flat: The product is fragrance-free, but has a noticeable medicinal scent that may bother you.

The Cetaphil Daily Hydrating Lotion is very thin and milky, which makes it exceptionally runny. As a result, it’ll spurt out of the bottle and run down your fingers if you’re not quick and precise with application. And though it’s infused with hyaluronic acid, it’s not nearly as hydrating as other formulas tested—either upon application or after several hours of wear.

The cucumber-like scent of the Garnier SkinActive Moisture Rescue Refreshing Gel-Cream is a nice touch, but the product feels more like applying post-sun aloe on the skin than it does a face moisturizer. Like aloe, it’s immediately cooling on the skin, but it’s also sticky. It sits on top of the skin for a long time—so long that it doesn’t feel like it ever fully absorbs in to hydrate the skin, but instead feels more like a filmy mask than a moisturizer.

Like other low-ranking products, the Burt's Bees Calming Day Lotion feels thin, milky, sticky, and even a little greasy. Our tester didn’t find that it made a noticeable difference in the hydration of her skin in the way thicker formulas did.

What’s more, the pump bottle (the only packaging this is available in) has an incredibly small dispenser, which makes application a bit slower—our tester needed a few solid pumps to get enough product to cover her face, especially because it absorbs immediately on contact with skin.

On top of it all, the product has a musty smell that almost skews dirty rather than fresh.