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Moisturizer picker
Gel, lotion, cream, or balm — the right texture for your skin type and climate, because the moisturizer aisle is one product at four thicknesses.
CostFree
TimeUnder 1 min
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DataKept on device
Your skin type
Your climate, most of the year
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Next step · SkinPal app
Stop buying products that don't work for you.
Scan any label with your phone. SkinPal tells you if it suits your skin before you pay for it.
What you unlock in the app
- Ingredient scannerKnow if a product suits you before you buy it
- Full face analysisProportions, symmetry and skin, measured from one selfie
- Full skin report cardSee what's good and what needs work, from acne to skin age
- Heatmaps of your faceSee exactly where redness, oil and breakouts are
- Flare, your AI skin coachAsk anything, get answers based on your own face
- Morning and night routineMade for you, and it changes as you improve
- Progress trackingSee your before and after, week by week
The science
Moisturizers are three ingredient jobs at four thicknesses
01
Every moisturizer combines three jobs: humectants pull water in (glycerin, hyaluronic acid), emollients smooth and soften (squalane, ceramides, fatty alcohols), and occlusives seal it all down (petrolatum, dimethicone, waxes). Texture — gel to balm — is mostly the ratio shifting from humectant-heavy to occlusive-heavy. That is the entire aisle, decoded.
02
So the choice is a ratio question: oily skin in humidity needs mostly humectants (gel), dry skin in winter needs serious occlusion (cream to balm), and everyone else sits between. Price buys elegance — nicer textures, faster absorption — but not efficacy: the workhorse ingredients are cheap and appear at every price point, which is why dermatologists so often recommend drugstore moisturizers.
The label-reading shortcut for the moisturizer aisle
Skip the front label; read three things. Texture words map to our gel/lotion/cream/balm result directly. Then the INCI top-five: water plus glycerin plus a light silicone = gel-weight regardless of what the jar claims; shea, petrolatum, or heavy oils in the top five = cream-to-balm weight. Then the price sanity check: glycerin, ceramides, panthenol, and petrolatum do the measurable work and appear identically at every price point — a $12 ceramide cream and an $80 one differ in feel, scent, and jar, not in barrier science. Pay for texture you love wearing daily; that is the version of expensive that improves outcomes.
FAQ
Common questions
What moisturizer should oily skin use?+
A gel or gel-cream — oil-free, humectant-led. Skipping moisturizer entirely backfires: dehydrated oily skin often produces more oil, not less.
Are expensive moisturizers better?+
They feel nicer; they rarely work better. Glycerin, ceramides, and petrolatum do the heavy lifting at every price. Pay for texture you love if it keeps you consistent — consistency is the active ingredient.
Cetearyl alcohol is in my moisturizer — isn’t alcohol drying?+
Different molecule. Fatty alcohols (cetyl, cetearyl, stearyl) are waxy emollients that soften skin. The drying ones are ethanol-type: "alcohol denat", SD alcohol.
Can a moisturizer replace a serum?+
For hydration, entirely — humectant-rich moisturizers do the same job with the sealing built in. For targeted actives (retinoids, vitamin C at meaningful doses), no; those need their own step.
Should I use different moisturizers summer and winter?+
If your climate swings, yes — the same skin genuinely needs one texture step richer in cold dry months. Same undertone logic as seasonal foundation depths: one product family, two weights.