Kelly Driscoll has reviewed a lot of moisturizers, and her record shows she is hard to disappoint. She approved 28 out of 32, gave no mixed takes, and skipped just 4, landing a Guru Score of 88%. Three products earned her highest praise as category winners. But the small pile of skips is where things get interesting.
What does Kelly Driscoll recommend in moisturizers?
Across her approving takes, Kelly keeps coming back to the same things. She wants a moisturizer to actually support the skin barrier, and she lights up when the formula backs that up with ceramides, peptides, or urea. She praised the Prequel Half & Half Peptides & Ceramides Fluid Moisturizer for being built around exactly that kind of barrier-first thinking. She called out the CeraVe Intensive Moisturizing Lotion with Urea as a standout for hand care because its 5% urea is, in her words, 'an amazing humectant' that draws water into the skin. She also cares about feel and practicality. The Bubble Slam Dunk Hydrating Moisturizer won her over by feeling richer and more hydrating than she expected at the price point. She has recommended the Geek & Gorgeous Happy Barrier Cream and Geek & Gorgeous Hydration Station Moisturizer repeatedly because they are, as she put it, 'no nonsense, they get the job done.' Her three category winners, the Avène Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream, the Bubble Slam Dunk Hydrating Moisturizer, and the iUNIK Beta Glucan 3X Barrier Cream, all share that mix: solid ingredients, real results, and a texture that works. She has emptied two jars of the iUNIK Beta Glucan 3X Barrier Cream and ordered a third.
In her words
"I've been jamming hardcore on the iUNIK Beta Glucan 3X Barrier Cream. I've emptied two jars of it and I ordered a third immediately. Now I'm using this at night and the Tower 28 Daily Barrier Recovery Cream in the morning, and that's been working really well for me."
"You absolutely could use this cream for cuts, maybe some accidents with the razor if you're shaving right on your face or anywhere really, bug bites. I think it can be particularly helpful for anywhere that you need skin healing. The peptides in this formula and the overall formulation really do support that. I particularly use this one [...] whenever there's that area on my face where the skin is raw, it's open, it's vulnerable. I am putting this on the area and it really does work. It really speeds up the healing like two times faster. If I [...] just did normal skincare, I think that it's a lot slower to mend up on its own. Using this cream, it closes it up so much faster. But it doesn't just promote the healing by closing the wound; it really does promote the healthy healing of that wound, that smooth skin. I think it helps to cut down on the hyperpigmentation if you suffer from that."
"I absolutely love this especially for hand care. [...] Hand care becomes increasingly important to me in the winter time because this season causes my hands to feel really dry, dehydrated, sometimes even itchy, irritated, and then I get all that rough skin around my nail beds and hang nails. [...] What's different about this than the original moisturizing lotion [...] is the intensive version includes 5% of synthetic urea. This is such an amazing ingredient that gives this moisturizing lotion the edge that I personally need for hand care in the winter because the 5% of urea is an amazing humectant for the skin. It's a natural moisturizing factor."
"This is a very flexible product. It could be used as a serum or it can be used as a really light emulsion moisturizer as a final product in your skincare routine. Because there's two different uses for this, this could be a great product for folks who have combo skin that leans dry or if you have a dry skin type, this would be a great serum option for you. If you have a little bit more of an oily skin type, this could be a good moisturizer option for you because it's not like a heavy thick cream. It's not something that seals your skin off or really has any occlusivity to it. So this could be a really nice fluidy moisturizer option for you without all that heaviness and that seal it off quality. This is a really interesting mixture of ingredients here but it really is focused on your skin barrier. [...] Half and half actually refers to half peptides and half ceramides. They're using metatricxel 3000, which can help to stimulate collagen. It has some really great anti-aging benefits, but it's also really helpful for just helping your skin retain hydration."
"The texture is that silky kind of cream with a nice richness to it. [...] If you want a creamy moisturizer that bursts into hydration on your skin, I honestly think the Bubble Slam Dunk is more hydrating than Laneige. [...] This is a very, very surprisingly hydrating and very refreshing on the skin while still maintaining a richness and a creaminess and a moisturizing, comforting feel on the skin, with a little bit of occlusivity to hug everything in. But this is still a medium to lightweight type of cream. It's a really special kind of experience with this moisturizer, and it's a little bit more affordable if you are on a budget."
"I'm a really big fan especially of the moisturizers Hydration Station and Happy Barrier. I recommend them a lot because they're like no nonsense, they get the job done, they have great ingredients and they feel really nice."
How many moisturizers has Kelly Driscoll reviewed?
Kelly Driscoll has reviewed 32 moisturizers, for a Guru Score of 88%. 28 approved, 0 mixed, and 4 skipped.
What has Kelly Driscoll skipped in moisturizers?
The four skips follow a pattern. Kelly passed on the Tatcha Dewy Skin Cream mostly because of price. She liked the texture but said $72 was hard to justify when K-beauty and J-beauty options deliver the same experience for far less. The Aestura Atobarrier 365 Cream was a more personal skip. She had named an earlier version one of her favorite moisturizers of the year, but a reformulation changed the texture and feel enough that it no longer worked for her skin. The Torriden Cellmazing Firming Cream let her down because she felt the firming ingredients were not compelling enough. And for the Dr. Althea 345 Relief Cream, her issue was the delivery format: a cream-mist that she felt pulled the product back from being useful in any meaningful way. None of these were harsh dismissals, but she was clear that they did not earn her recommendation.
"This is not my favorite product from the [Torriden] family of lines. I'm not super impressed with this. I was excited about it because it was a product I wasn't super familiar with from [Torriden], but I was a little let down. It's just a nice lotiony type cream. It's not quite enough for my skin. It's a nice pleasant cream, but it didn't really blow me away like the other lines from [Torriden] have. I looked at the ingredients a little side-eyed because maybe they could have thrown in a few more compelling firming ingredients."
"Because of this packaging and how it's being delivered to the skin, I think it actually pulls the product back from being effective in any way that you might want to use it. It's really not my favorite. If you're very oily and acne-prone, you might like how light this feels on your skin, but then you don't really need a cream mist. You just need a hydrating mist. I'm not a fan of this one. Dr. Althea is a very, very popular brand, and a lot of folks are tuned into what they're doing with new releases. And this for me just doesn't hit."
"Everything about this cream is light. It's fluffy. But it does pack some really nice silky moisture into it as well. But $72 is a lot of money. Not super impressive in the ingredients. Not bad, [...] but not super impressive. Especially if you're well-versed in K beauty and J beauty products, you can get these ingredients at a fraction of the cost. And the texture is lovely, but it's not the only moisturizer out there that can serve you this type of experience."
"The changes here with the Atobarrier cream were pretty significant and it actually made it from one of my favorite moisturizers, you know I named it one of the best of the year, right, one of my favorite moisturizers to something that's just not quite right anymore for my skin. [...] They have used niacinamide in this moisturizer as well as some dimethicone to add a little bit of occlusivity to help seal everything in. The texture here is really interesting because if you just swipe it, not rub but just swipe it really quickly onto your skin, you're going to see all these little white flexs or flakes. These are the [...] encapsulated ceramides, so this is meant to keep those beautiful lipids and ceramides really potent for your skin. I do believe that this technology claims to help deliver it more effectively into the skin. I'm not really sure if that really plays out or if that's just kind of marketing."
What should you take from Kelly Driscoll's picks?
Kelly's record here is warm but not uncritical. She approves freely when a moisturizer earns it, and her three category winners give you a solid starting point. Her skips are mostly about value, reformulations, or formats that did not deliver, and she names those reasons plainly. If you are shopping for a moisturizer and want to know what a thoughtful skincare expert actually reaches for and what she quietly sets aside, her takes on this category are about as useful as it gets.
Watch Kelly Driscoll say it
Every verdict here comes from a video. These are the moments themselves, each one jumping straight to the bit about that product.
- Avène Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective CreamNamed a winnerWatch at 10:01
- Bubble Slam Dunk Hydrating MoisturizerNamed a winnerWatch at 9:58
- iUNIK Beta Glucan 3X Barrier CreamNamed a winnerWatch at 5:12
- Torriden Cellmazing Firming CreamSkipped itWatch at 20:39
- Dr. Althea 345 Relief CreamSkipped itWatch at 15:03
- Tatcha Dewy Skin CreamSkipped itWatch at 12:21
- Aestura Atobarrier 365 CreamSkipped itWatch at 17:05
- Hero Cosmetics Rescue BalmRated itWatch at 5:49
- CeraVe Intensive Moisturizing Lotion with UreaRated itWatch at 0:36
- Prequel Half & Half Peptides & Ceramides Fluid MoisturizerRated itWatch at 13:33
- Geek & Gorgeous Happy Barrier CreamRated itWatch at 31:43
- Geek & Gorgeous Hydration Station MoisturizerRated itWatch at 10:10
- Purito Dermid Relief Barrier MoisturizerRated itWatch at 12:05
- The INKEY List 10% Urea MoisturizerRated itWatch at 23:35
- Cocokind Electrolyte Water CreamRated itWatch at 8:24
- Thank You Farmer Rice Pure Gel and CreamRated itWatch at 9:52
- SkinFix Barrier Balancing Water CreamRated itWatch at 4:41
- COSRX Propolis Light CreamRated itWatch at 15:29
- Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin CreamRated itWatch at 10:54
- Cetaphil Moisturizing LotionRated itWatch at 3:32
- Dr.Althea 147 Barrier CreamRated itWatch at 12:25
- Tower 28 Daily Barrier Recovery CreamRated itWatch at 6:23
- COSRX Ceramide Skin Barrier MoisturizerRated itWatch at 19:33
- Illiyoon Ceramide Ato Concentrate CreamRated itWatch at 11:52
About this expert
See everything Kelly Driscoll has reviewed
Related guides
This guide reflects what Kelly Driscoll said across their videos about 32 products in moisturizers, aggregated by The Guru Index. Sponsored takes are excluded. The Guru Score is our read on how warmly they talk about them. It is general information, not medical advice.