No BS Beauty has reviewed 91 moisturizers. Four of them she named outright category winners: Purito Deep Sea Pure Water Cream, COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All in One Cream, Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream, and Peach & Lily Peptide Pro Firming Moisturizer. Her overall Guru Score on moisturizers is 77%.
What does No BS Beauty recommend in moisturizers?
The ingredients she keeps coming back to are ceramides, peptides, and barrier-supporting oils. Everything she approves is fragrance-free. She likes rich, thick textures, though she flags those as evening options rather than morning ones. Retinoids are vitamin A treatments that can cause dryness and flaking. For people using them, she recommends what she calls the sandwich method. That means layering a heavy moisturizer before and after each application to cut down on irritation. Her recommendations cover a wide range of prices, from a $15 dry-skin pick to a SkinFix product she has said she grabs the moment she spots it at TJ Maxx.
In their words
"I gave this a nine. My only point lost was the jar packaging, but otherwise this is a wonderful product."
"This is their Barrier Restoring Gel Cream, it's also $54. This one is geared toward oily skin types or acne prone skin types. It contains an updated lipid barrier complex and then also contains several peptides, green tea, squalane, folic acid, no fragrance. [...] Anytime I'm at TJ Maxx or Marshalls I see SkinFix, I'm instantly going to buy it no matter what and I will find a use for it myself or from somebody I know."
"The Skin 1004 Madagascar Centella Probiotics Enrich Cream is my pick for very dry skin. It's about 15 bucks, fragrance and alcohol-free. It has centella, shea butter, cocoa extract, which are some great hydrating ingredients. It's got ceramides and macadamia nut oil as well. [...] It's really [...] on the thick side, so I typically use this one as an evening moisturizer. Sometimes if you're going to use retinoids, this one's great for the sandwich method of retinoids to use a thick moisturizer, then use your retinoid and then another thick moisturizer to kind of seal it in and help prevent against dryness, flakiness, and all that good stuff."
"The Strate Lipid Gold is 27 bucks. I just finished up my last tube last night. So, I love this stuff. It's fragrance free. It's got a lotion texture. [...] It's got a nice lotion texture to it. And it's fragrance-free and it is kind of yellow due to the seabuckthorn oil in here. So it's got ceramides, rose hip oil, cranberry seed oil, which is a super good antioxidant, green tea. I'd say this is great for dry, normal and dehydrated skin. And for acne prone skin, we have dimethicone, cetyl alcohol, squalane, and vitamin E. So pretty friendly for the most part depending on what you're sensitive to."
"Last but not least, my newest box of the Klairs Midnight Blue Calming Cream. I've been using this. This is probably one of the longest products I've been using in my routine at all, going back to when I got started into it."
"It's got dimethicone, shea butter, vitamin E. It also contains mitoicide, which is derived from [Centella], which has a lot of great skin soothing benefits for skin. It's 21 bucks at Ulta. It's really nice, pretty thick but nice and protective. And no fragrance or scent to it either."
How many moisturizers has No BS Beauty reviewed?
No BS Beauty has reviewed 91 moisturizers, for a Guru Score of 77%. 70 approved, 13 mixed, and 8 skipped.
What has No BS Beauty skipped in moisturizers?
She approved most of what she reviewed. When she does say no, it usually comes down to texture or ingredient overload. She found The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + Phytoceramides too greasy and slow to absorb, staying shiny all day, and called that impractical for daytime. She also flagged niacinamide. It appears in so many formulas now that some people end up getting more than their skin can handle, and too much of it can cause dryness rather than fix it.
"First Aid Beauty Coconut Water Cream, this was in my travel bag [...] and it's pretty much empty and I opened it and there's like it was just dried up so there's nothing left of that."
"Calamine lotion day in and day out on your skin is going to wreak havoc. It'll take a long time to fix. Calamine lotion is not meant for mass use, it's meant for small areas of irritation, not to be used as a primer."
"They switched to using a CeraVe night cream and it was drying their eyes and thought maybe it's the niacinamide in it. I think some people definitely find niacinamide to be drying, especially since a lot of products end up using it, so you might end up getting more of it than is good for your skin because it's in almost everything now."
"The phytoceramide version has a lotion cream texture, however once you start smoothing it into skin it feels really greasy, very greasy, and it doesn't really set. It just stays radiant with a shiny finish, so if you want to use this during the daytime, it's probably not going to be your best option because of how shiny it is. It takes a long time to soak and absorb, but once it does, it sets to a shiny finish and is not ideal for daytime use because of how shiny it is."
What should you take from No BS Beauty's picks?
No BS Beauty has a Guru Score of 77% on moisturizers, with four category winners named across her 91 reviews. Ceramides, peptides, and a fragrance-free formula run through everything she approves. She has given especially detailed advice for anyone adding retinoids to their routine, laying out how to moisturize around those treatments to cut down on the dryness and flaking they bring.
Watch No BS Beauty say it
Every verdict here comes from a video. These are the moments themselves, each one jumping straight to the bit about that product.
- Purito Deep Sea Pure Water CreamNamed a winnerWatch at 10:36
- COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All in One CreamNamed a winnerWatch at 8:31
- Klairs Midnight Blue Calming CreamNamed a winnerWatch at 10:09
- Peach & Lily Peptide Pro Firming MoisturizerNamed a winnerWatch at 6:10
- First Aid Beauty Coconut Water CreamSkipped itWatch at 6:16
- Calamine LotionSkipped itWatch at 2:40
- CeraVe Skin Renewing Night CreamSkipped itWatch at 5:36
- The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + PhytoceramidesSkipped itWatch at 4:03
- Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing LotionSkipped itWatch at 1:17
- First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair CreamSkipped itWatch at 8:43
- Drunk Elephant Bora Barrier Rich Repair CreamSkipped itWatch at 8:47
- CeraVe Moisturizing CreamSkipped itWatch at 6:20
- iUNIK Beta Glucan 3X Barrier CreamRated itWatch at 8:31
- SkinFix Barrier Restoring Gel CreamRated itWatch at 8:27
- Skin1004 Madagascar Centella Probio-Cica Enrich CreamRated itWatch at 1:25
- Strate Lipid GoldRated itWatch at 7:50
- La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5Rated itWatch at 7:33
- Aestura Atobarrier 365 CreamRated itWatch at 9:06
- Geek & Gorgeous Happy Barrier CreamRated itWatch at 10:03
- Geek & Gorgeous Hydration Station MoisturizerRated itWatch at 7:46
- Avène RetrinAL 0.1% Intensive CreamRated itWatch at 25:22
- Skin1004 Madagascar Centella Soothing CreamRated itWatch at 3:32
- Paula's Choice Barrier Repair Advanced MoisturizerRated itWatch at 11:55
- The INKEY List Bio-Active Ceramide Repairing and Plumping MoisturizerRated itWatch at 9:21
About this expert
See everything No BS Beauty has reviewed
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This guide reflects what No BS Beauty said across their videos about 91 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.