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The Ordinary

Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA.

The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA
Moisturizers

About this product

A lightweight, water-based moisturizer with hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and natural moisturizing factors designed to hydrate and support skin barrier repair.

Best for

Dry skinSensitive skin
Moisturizers

The Guru Index verdict

68%

Mixed

~Mixed · 68%
8Reviewers
5Approved
1Mixed
2Skip

What the gurus are saying

Gurus consistently praise this moisturizer as an excellent, affordable barrier-repair option especially for acne-prone and sensitive skin. The recurring strengths are its lightweight gel-to-lotion texture, fast absorption, and effective hydration without greasiness. A few reviewers note occasional pilling under sunscreen or foaming upon application, and one reports the formula may have changed. Most agree it's a strong value compared to pricier alternatives.
Synthesized from 8 expert reviews

Key actives & flags

Hyaluronic acidVitamin EFragrance-freeAlcohol-free

Full ingredients

Aqua (Water), Caprylic/​Capric Triglyceride, Cetyl Alcohol, Propanediol, Stearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Sodium Hyaluronate, Arginine, Aspartic Acid, Glycine, Alanine, Serine, Valine, Isoleucine, Proline, Threonine, Histidine, Phenylalanine, Glucose, Maltose, Fructose, Trehalose, Sodium PCA, PCA, Sodium Lactate, Urea, Allantoin, Linoleic Acid, Oleic Acid, Phytosteryl Canola Glycerides, Palmitic Acid, Stearic Acid, Lecithin, Triolein, Tocopherol, Carbomer, Isoceteth-20, Polysorbate 60, Sodium Chloride, Citric Acid, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate

Every take, in full

What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

All takes Approved only Skip only Mixed only Hide sponsored
Approved
"I love this moisturizer. It's got a wonderful gellish texture to it. The natural moisturizing factors plus HA is the lighter one on the gel side, which seems to be not quite as moisturizing as I feel like I need right now with how dry everything's feeling. Everything feels nice and soft and smooth and feels good. Like I'm going to wake up with nice clean skin that feels so soft."
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"This one I've repurchased multiple times. It's a great one to mix in with other products. The original is really wonderful. Since this came out they've released a couple different versions of it, the phytoceramide version and the beta glucan version. The phytoceramide version seemed very greasy to me, but the beta glucan one has a nice gel texture. These are all pretty friendly for acne prone skin overall. When people ask me for a moisturizer for acne prone skin, if you're looking for something very budget friendly, the Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA seems to do the trick for a lot of people and work well. It's really darn affordable and it's in a big bottle too."
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"The original version has a lotion texture, a little bit thicker than the other one. A little bit of it goes a long way, it soaks in pretty nicely, and it sets to a matte finish once it soaks in. I will say under certain sunscreens it can pill up occasionally. You can see the shininess and the matteness on that."
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"I love this moisturizer. It's got a wonderful gellish texture to it. The natural moisturizing factors plus HA is the lighter one on the gel side, which seems to be not quite as moisturizing as I feel like I need right now with how dry everything's feeling. Everything feels nice and soft and smooth and feels good. Like I'm going to wake up with nice clean skin that feels so soft."
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"The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA is a really nice duper alternative at 11 bucks for a big 3.3 oz size. It's still an alternative to the $69 Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Cream, and honestly I prefer this one. Every time I apply this it foams up unless I apply it on dry skin with nothing else on it, and even then it foams up. I don't know why something changed, but I used to love this stuff and would go through it so fast, and now I'm still working on the same jar for like a year or two years because it just foams up every time."
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"Good molecules B5 hydrating body serum was good for summer but it's not quite hydrating enough on its own"
Approved
"One of my favorite products is Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA. When you look at the ingredient list, it's water-based with caprylic triglycerides in there, so derived from coconuts, fantastic for helping the skin barrier. Cetyl alcohol, which is one of the main ingredients of Cetaphil, so it's a really calming, really soothing formulation that's also got hyaluronic acid in there that's going to help retain the moisture. The reason why we're using NMF as opposed to anything like active or acidic for acne is because most of the time when you have acne you've got an impaired skin barrier. If you've got an impaired skin barrier that basically means you're losing a lot more moisture than you should be, and as a result of that loss of moisture you're overproducing sebum, i.e. oils within the skin. If you produce too much oil you get too much bacteria. If you get too much bacteria you get inflammation. If you get inflammation you get red spots. So if you repair that barrier you stop that chain of events."
All 6 takes from Dr. Somji Skin
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"One of my favorite products is Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA. When you look at the ingredient list, it's water-based with caprylic triglycerides in there, so derived from coconuts, fantastic for helping the skin barrier. Cetyl alcohol, which is one of the main ingredients of Cetaphil, so it's a really calming, really soothing formulation that's also got hyaluronic acid in there that's going to help retain the moisture. The reason why we're using NMF as opposed to anything like active or acidic for acne is because most of the time when you have acne you've got an impaired skin barrier. If you've got an impaired skin barrier that basically means you're losing a lot more moisture than you should be, and as a result of that loss of moisture you're overproducing sebum, i.e. oils within the skin. If you produce too much oil you get too much bacteria. If you get too much bacteria you get inflammation. If you get inflammation you get red spots. So if you repair that barrier you stop that chain of events."
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"You can also use this which is the natural moisturizing factors from The Ordinary which will work very well with the serum that you put on over the top. It's a nice cream based formulation so you can put this on and then you can put even a thicker moisturizer on afterwards."
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"The natural moisturizing factors are fantastic. This is great at repairing the skin barrier. It's got loads of essential fatty acids, triglycerides, glycerin in this product, which is fantastic for nourishing that barrier and just calming the skin down."
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"One of my favorite products is Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA. When you look at the ingredient list, it's water-based with caprylic triglycerides in there, so derived from coconuts, fantastic for helping the skin barrier. Cetyl alcohol, which is one of the main ingredients of Cetaphil, so it's a really calming, really soothing formulation that's also got hyaluronic acid in there that's going to help retain the moisture. The reason why we're using NMF as opposed to anything like active or acidic for acne is because most of the time when you have acne you've got an impaired skin barrier. If you've got an impaired skin barrier that basically means you're losing a lot more moisture than you should be, and as a result of that loss of moisture you're overproducing sebum, i.e. oils within the skin. If you produce too much oil you get too much bacteria. If you get too much bacteria you get inflammation. If you get inflammation you get red spots. So if you repair that barrier you stop that chain of events."
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"The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors, I kind of like this because it just feels really nice on the skin and it's great after I've used certain acids. You've got some lipids to also kind of repair the skin after you've done that kind of intense treatment, so that's quite nice."
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"You can put on just a little bit more of a moisturizing cream such as The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA, which are fantastic just to help seal the skin barrier and repair the skin."
Approved
"I love NMF because I find it actually very light on the skin but also very hydrating especially at night time when especially if you got air conditioning or you've got central heating you're going to find your skin drying out faster than even during the day."
All 2 takes from Dr. Vanita Rattan
ACNE THE ORDINARY AM/PM LAYERING
"I love NMF because I find it actually very light on the skin but also very hydrating especially at night time when especially if you got air conditioning or you've got central heating you're going to find your skin drying out faster than even during the day."
RATING VIRAL SKINCARE - DR V
"The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA, you get much better hydration. You're going to get a full day of hydration out of it and the price point is much better at 12.80 versus 38."
Approved
"The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA moisturizer is a really nice midweight moisturizer. It has super nourishing ingredients in there, has a ton of different amino acids that help to strengthen and support your skin barrier, and it just feels nice and creamy but not too heavy. It doesn't leave your skin looking greasy, so I find that it's just a really nice moisturizer for most skin types but especially for someone with dry skin."
Approved
"Moisturizers like the Natural Moisturizing Factors, the original, if you're a little bit more oily to dry, or if you're super dry, the Firce Ceramides, so gentle, so calming, it's like a ceramide sheet for your face."
All 3 takes from Cassandra Bankson
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"Moisturizers like the Natural Moisturizing Factors, the original, if you're a little bit more oily to dry, or if you're super dry, the Firce Ceramides, so gentle, so calming, it's like a ceramide sheet for your face."
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"The Ordinary Natural Moisturizing Factors was a moisturizer that I liked but it wasn't my favorite. They finally have a fantastic moisturizer. It's so good, and I'm an oily print person, so this really impresses me. It has like five ingredients and it is literally a gentle foaming facial cleanser. It's meant to not strip your skin's barrier, which it holds up to you very well. It has maybe three cleansing ingredients that don't strip and then vitamin E, so it's like a very very mild antioxidant cleanser. This works so well, and for my oily skin it gets rid of the oil, it gets rid of the gunk."
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"This is the Natural Moisturizing Factors plus HA and this is a great moisturizer. It has ingredients that your skin naturally uses and produces like hyaluronic acid and it's inexpensive and lightweight. It has a nice fluffy texture but it's not the most moisturizing, so if you have combo skin you can use this, which also means if you're oily or if you're dry this is a great choice. It won't treat acne but it supports a healthy skin barrier."
Skip
"I don't think anybody should be buying the standard Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA. There's nothing wrong with it. This is a moisturizer I've used for four years, has some really great results with, but this is the base formulation of the other two moisturizers and for basically the same price point you can get a whole lot more from the other two. Whilst it was a holy grail for a long period of time, I think it's a case of nothing to see here. They've really outdone themselves with the new formulations, which means I think this kind of is a bit surplus to requirements."
All 2 takes from Mad About Skin
WORLDS MOST EFFECTIVE SERUM - This Blew People Away
"I use it every single day in my evening skincare routine because as I sleep it's helping to repair everything. As a result of using this I can definitely tolerate higher strength retinoids, higher strength vitamin C's and exfoliating acids to maximize the benefit whilst also keeping those side effects in check. The reason this works better than seemingly everything else on the market is because they thought about that formulation, how to pair all these amazing beneficial ingredients together, the form of ectoin and just the base formulation in that emulsion means when you apply it to the skin, it's going to work quicker, more effectively. This is the most effective barrier supporting serum I've ever come across and it's available for like £15. If your priority is improving the skin barrier health, reducing sensitivity and irritation, restoring some calming and soothing to the skin, this is probably the product that I would default to. Really easy to access, super affordable, and you can formulate topnotch products without expecting to spend a fortune."
THE PERFECT MOISTURIZER - The Ordinary Moisturizers Review
"I don't think anybody should be buying the standard Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA. There's nothing wrong with it. This is a moisturizer I've used for four years, has some really great results with, but this is the base formulation of the other two moisturizers and for basically the same price point you can get a whole lot more from the other two. Whilst it was a holy grail for a long period of time, I think it's a case of nothing to see here. They've really outdone themselves with the new formulations, which means I think this kind of is a bit surplus to requirements."
~Mixed
"This is one of their newest moisturizers that they came out with early this year. I don't feel like the original Natural Moisturizing Factors + Hyaluronic Acid is moisturizing enough, although that one is great for those that have dry skin. This one is even better if you're looking for that really rich moisturizing cream. This is very satisfying to use when you need it. It has glycol lipids and also contains ceramides which help to strengthen and repair the skin barrier. There's urea, amino acids, and hyaluronic acid as well, so very plumping and very hydrating. This one contains oil whereas the Natural Moisturizing Factors + Hyaluronic Acid is oil-free, so depending on what you're looking for and whether you like that oil ingredient or not will determine which one to go with. Because this has that oil, this really is moisturizing. A little bit goes a long way, it spreads really nicely, and you will get this nice glow to your skin. It doesn't dry down matte, you will have a little bit of that glow."
Skip
"The other one was from The Ordinary, their Natural Moisturizing Factors. This is not going to be a repurchase for me. It's just not hydrating enough for my dry mature skin and it just didn't do the trick. I felt like I always had to reapply and reapply, so this will not be a repurchase for me."
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