I find affordable drugstore moisturizers and sunscreens to be some of the hardest products to find because they're the last steps in your routine that means the finish is really important and they have to really work well with all of the other steps that you've already done in your routine. I’m right there with you in the struggle to find a great affordable moisturizer and sunscreen.
So today we’re
goanna be comparing five ceraVe moisturizers the moisturizing cream, the
moisturizing lotion, the facial pm moisturizer. The am facial moisturizer, and the
ultra-light moisturizing lotion.
We are going to
look beyond the marketing to answer which one is actually best for your skin. So
before we get into it let's talk about what you should actually look for in a moisturizer
and why you should even have one in your routine. So I used to think that the point of a moisturizer was to add moisture back into my skin turns out moisturizers can do way more than that there are actually three different types of moisturizing ingredients that all do different things for your skin humectants emollients and occlusive.
Humectants like hyaluronic acid and glycerin draw moisture into your skin which is great if your skin is dehydrated emollients like triglycerides most plant oils and Shea butter smooth your skin and makes it feel really nice and soft and occlusive like petrolatum and squalling create a barrier on top to prevent trans epidermal water loss.
Basically they lock in the moisture to keep it from evaporating one major part of finding the best moisturizer for your skin is knowing what skin type you have and figuring out what your skin concerns are basically you can have oily dry combination balanced or sensitive skin. I like saying balanced skin instead of normal skin because normal skin makes it sound like anyone who doesn't have balance skin isn't normal which just isn't true and sometimes sensitive skin is called a skin condition. Instead of a skin type because you can have both sensitive and dry skin or sensitive and oily skin one thing to watch out for especially if you're prone to breakouts is that some ingredients in moisturizers can be pore clogging or comedogenic.
Instead of all at once take those two together
Ceramides and MVE and that’s how they came up with the name CeraVe.
Let's start with the moisturizing cream and lotion these are great if your skin is on the balance to dryer side they're formulated so you can use it all over your face and body and you can use these both day and night so the moisturizing cream is the heaviest of the five it's great if you have dry skin so if you have flakiness or a little bit of itching or if you have dry patches as well. This is really sensitive skin friendly and eczema friendly too. So I would not recommend this as an everyday moisturizer for you. If you do have oily skin or if you're prone to breakouts unless you do have dry skin and you've already patch tested this to make sure that it won't cause any issues for you.
Comparing 5 CeraVe Moisturizer
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Packaging
So as for the packaging you might be used to seeing it in a tub but I got the travel size because I have combo skin and i use this only when I go snowboarding so this size is a lot more convenient to take with me but if you are goanna get the regular size and you don't like tub packaging they do have a version of it with the pump as well as for the formula.
It's basically a heavier version of the moisturizing lotion
and what I mean by that is that it's
more occlusive because there's
petrolatum in here petrolatum is the most occlusive ingredient out there and it's also what Vaseline is made of. If you
haven't it basically creates a physical barrier between your skin and the
outside world making it great for preventing that Trans epidermal water loss
and encouraging wound healing to happen. But unlike Vaseline which is a hundred percent petrol atom
it's not greasy at all if you have
extremely dry skin and this isn't
working for you but you also don't like Vaseline
because it's way too greasy. CeraVe actually has a healing ointment as
well which is made of 45 petrolatum so another ingredient I do have to mention
is that there is dimethicone a silicone in here.
Comparing 5 CeraVe Moisturizer
Actually it is in all of these moisturizers other than the ultra-light moisturizing lotion if you don’t like silicones in your moisturizer. I wouldn't necessarily walk away from these completely I also really don't like silicone textures but silicones aren't the base in these it's actually much further down the ingredient list. It's really just there to help with skin soothing and also to provide that kind of like nice velvety finish.
So let’s check it out it’s really rich and
creamy but it rubs in really well and it doesn't leave any white streaks.
It doesn't completely sink into your skin when you first apply it because of the occlusive in it it's not really supposed to so again that's not necessarily a bad thing that's what actually makes it really great for drier skin types so it makes your skin feel really
smooth and it also leaves like a really
nice velvety finish.
Comparing 5 CeraVe Moisturizer
So if you do have eczema or
sensitive skin both this one and the cream are great for you to use so formulation wise again it's basically a lighter version of the cream the major difference
is that it doesn't have petrolatum in it
so it isn't going to be as occlusive.
It does have polysorbate 20 in it and I mentioned that because I know some of you can be really sensitive to that it also has
paraben where the cream does not so if
you are sensitive to paraben this
might not be so good for you. So the difference
between this and the cream also comes
through in the texture the texture is
definitely a lot more watery so it is goanna be lighter weight and smoother and it sinks into your skin really well. But it's also got like a really nice slip to it the finish is a little bit more satiny at first but then it settles in and
just kind of looks and feels like skin.
So I would say that the finish is more like a semi matte it's also not greasy at all and it just really makes your skin feel
like super smooth yeah I really like
this one all right.
So let's move on to the pm and am moisturizers which are going to be better for you if you have a balanced to oily skin type so I really wanted to know like
what are the differences between the
pm and am moisturizers and the moisturizing
lotion one thing that's really obviously different between these two is these guys are a lot smaller they're also about three and a half times more expensive per ounce which is probably why they're marketed for use
on your face only I mean using this as a
body lotion would be pretty boogie
so then the obvious question is are they really worth it
so let's start with the ceraVe pm like the moisturizing lotion it's also an oil-free formula but this is for balance to oilier skin types one major difference between this one and the moisturizing lotion and cream we just talked about is that this has niacin amide in it and niacin white is such a great ingredient with so many benefits
if you're worried about anything from
preventing aging to breakouts it
helps to reduce the look of enlarged pores
uneven skin tone fine lines dullness and
helps to repair your skin barrier as well. I used to really love this moisturizer and if it's also been your holy grail for a while too you might have noticed that it's actually been reformulated twice in the last three years once around march 2018 and more recently around January 2020 the main difference is that they've switched up the preservative system by swapping out the paraben from the old formula with other preservatives to make it paraben free it's unclear if they made any changes to the niacin amide concentration which used to be four percent I’ve reached out to find out more about that but I’m still waiting for them to respond
if they do confirm the concentration I
will put it down below for you
guys so one major thing I’ve personally
noticed since the formulation change is that it can sting a little bit especially if my skin's irritated and it's not just me a few other reviewers have said the same thing too so if you do have sensitive skin I’d recommend you stick to the moisturizing lotion
or the cream instead a little bit goes a
long way with this one because if you
apply too much I find that it can leave
a little bit of a film on your skin
the good thing though.
Packaging
About this packaging especially when you
compare it to the moisturizing lotion is that the way that they design this
pump makes it really easy to get the exact amount you want out of the bottle. So
as for the texture it definitely looks a lot more gel like compared to the
moisturizing lotion it is a slightly lighter texture. I bet that’s because
there's more water in this formula compared to the moisturizing lotion. So in
terms of the finish I find that it does leave a little bit of like a light sheen so not
total grease ball but like a little bit
more of a satiny finish while the lotion
sinks in a little bit better and kind of
leaves more of a semi matte finish. So I think this could be really good for you
if you have balanced or combo skin and you want a niacin amide and moisturizer
all in one I also think it could work for you if you have oilier skin. But I would
definitely buy it from somewhere that accepts returns and patch test it first
for sure one last thing.
I wanted to mention with this moisturizer is if you do decide to get it you can absolutely
use this during the day too even if it's
called pm just don't forget to
throw a sunscreen on top okay so moving on to the ceraVe am moisturizer
like the pm moisturizer this also has
niacin amide in it and this
should be good for all skin types the only info I could find on the concentration of niacin amide. In this particular moisturizer was from a reedit
post six years ago again I’ve contacted them and I’ll update you all below if
they do get back to me on that.
So between the
pm and the am moisturizers the main
difference is obviously that this is
also a sunscreen with an spf of 30 and broad spectrum protection that's what makes it much better for the daytime. if you're just looking for a moisturizer and a sunscreen all in one as a
sunscreen it's got a mix of different chemical
and physical filters the chemical
filters does give it that chemically sunscreen smell which I don't really vibe with and the physical filter in here is
a micro fine zinc oxide.
Another difference between the am and the pm
is that this guy has a paraben in it like the moisturizing lotion while the
reformulated version of the serum pm does not. So let's look at the texture so it is pretty thick and like really opaque
it takes a while to rub it in for the
sunscreen to kind of disappear
but there's definitely a white cast with
this one another thing to note with this
is that some people have mentioned that
they do get some pilling with it that could be either because they're applying too much or from the dimethicone in the formula so again all of them do have dimethicone in them other than the ultra-lightweight moisturizing lotion.
Comparing 5 CeraVe Moisturizer
Moving on last but not least let's talk about the
ultra-light moisturizing lotion so this
is good if you have combo or oilier skin
it probably won't be moisturizing enough
on its own if you do have drier skin but don't worry it won't dry out your skin completely because it's still got that Ceramides
and hyaluronic acid complex so obviously
like the am facial moisturizing lotion it also has an spf of 30 and broad spectrum
protection what's different is that this
is a fully chemical sunscreen
while the am also has physical filters
in it like the zinc oxide. It also means that this will also have that chemically sunscreen smell I want to talk about the formulation of this for a sec because it's really different from the other four
so it does have an ultra-lightweight
texture to it and it's got a totally
different base formulation from the
other four. But it is still oil-free it's also the only one of the five that doesn't
have dimethicone in it. So it shouldn't pill and it should work really well
under makeup but I know what you're thinking does it have a white cast let's see
okay.
So it does rub
in really well and it just sinks in and disappears into the skin with a matte finish
and no white cast.
I’m not a huge
fan of this packaging though because
with this clear cap it will look really messy as you continue to use it and also this label kind of just looks like it's been taped on okay. So now that we've gone through all that it's time to figure out which is the best one for you if you have dry skin and you really like a rich
creamy texture definitely go with the
ceraVe moisturizing cream and try to
apply it while your skin is still
a little bit damp to really trap in that
moisture and if that's still not enough
for you can get a moisturizer that's
even more occlusive and you can try their healing ointment or even slugging with Vaseline. If your skin is
balanced to dry or even combo with some
drier spots and you like more of a
lighter weight feel to your moisturizer go with the daily moisturizing lotion if your skin
is really sensitive or you have eczema
stick to either the moisturizing
lotion or the cream but if you have
balance to oilier skin and you're
looking for a moisturizer that also has
niacinamide in it both the pm and the am
have got that in there but if you're
already using a nice cinematic serum
that you really love then using either
the am or pm moisturizer could be a
little bit too much of a good thing and
you might want to try using the lotion
instead unless you're sensitive to
polysorbate 20. As far as sensitivities
go if you do have a paraben sensitivity skip the am
and the moisturizing lotion the cream
the ultra-light moisturizing lotion
and the pm are paraben free unless you
have a really old version of the
pm one floating around if you do. It's
definitely time to throw that one out because that bottle is more than a year
old now.
if you're looking for a sunscreen and moisturizer all in one for the
daytime the am has a mix of physical and chemical filters but it has a white cast and
it also takes a long time to rub it in the ultra-light moisturizing lotion is a fully chemical sunscreen and has no white cast but it might not be moisturizing enough on its own. If you do
have dry skin remember if you are using them as a sunscreen just apply it 15
minutes before you head out and if you can really try and reapply at least
every two hours.
If you're not a
fan of silicones at all then the ultra-light
moisturizing lotion is the only one of
the five that doesn't have any silicones
in it but again it's not the base in any of the other four and it's really quite far down the ingredient.
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nice
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