CeraVe Moisturising Cream has developed a cult following and is praised for transforming the skin of thousands of people. We’re now adding our name to this glowing fanbase.
Despite a poor start, in which our skin appeared to get worse rather than better, we’re glad we persevered. As soon as our skin was used to the cream, our complexion was the best it’s looked in a long time.
It reduced our redness and our skin looked less angry. Our oily patches looked and felt less greasy, and our dry patches felt smoother and softer. It even appeared to reduce our fine lines and wrinkles by making our skin look more plump and youthful.
Plus, because it’s a thick cream a little goes a long way and it absorbs surprisingly easily without it feeling sticky or greasy. This makes it great for oily and combination skin types, not just dry and very dry.
For this reason, the CeraVe Moisturising Cream is one of the best moisturisers we’ve ever used. It’s affordable, it’s simple and it works.
| Lookfantastic | £15 |
| Boots | £17 |
| Sephora | £17 |
In our CeraVe Moisturising Cream review, we discover if the cult moisturiser lives up to the hype or is overrated
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How we tested CeraVe Moisturising Cream
CeraVe Moisturising Cream Formula
CeraVe Moisturising Cream Application
CeraVe Moisturising Cream Performance
CeraVe Moisturising Cream review video
CeraVe has become a cult skincare brand in recent years and its Moisturising Cream has established itself as one of its flagship products.
With a blend of ingredients that have proven to be highly effective in hydrating and nourishing the skin, while repairing the skin barrier, thousands of reviews praise it for transforming their skin.
At the heart of the CeraVe Moisturising Cream – and all CeraVe products for that matter – are three essential ceramides.
Ceramides are your skin’s natural fats or lipids and they make up around 30-40% of the entire outer layer of our skin.
In this way, the CeraVe Moisturising Cream promises more than just nourishment, it promises to actively improve your skin with regular use.
To put this to the test, we’ve spent the past six weeks using the CeraVe Moisturising Cream every day.
We check how well it hydrates dry patches, balances the complexion, and helps to relieve irritation and redness as part of our CeraVe Moisturising Cream review.
While CeraVe sells an increasing number of ranges designed to target specific skincare concerns – dry skin, blemishes, ageing – the CeraVe Moisturising Cream is one of the brand’s staple products.
It’s the thicker version of the CeraVe Moisturising Lotion.
It’s suitable for use on your face and body, but you can also buy separate, facial versions, the majority of which come with the added benefit of SPF.
Buy now from Boots
mamabella | mamabella The CeraVe Moisturizing Cream contains three ceramides – ceramide 1, 3 and 6-II – alongside hyaluronic acid, designed to lock in moisture and leave the skin soft, nourished, and protected
What is CeraVe Moisturising Cream? The CeraVe Moisturizing Cream contains three ceramides – ceramide 1, 3 and 6-II – alongside hyaluronic acid, designed to lock in moisture and leave the skin soft, nourished, and protected.
CeraVe Moisturising Cream price: £5 (50ml); £10 (177ml); £15 (340g); £17 (454g)
How to use CeraVe Moisturising Cream: Apply liberally wherever this cream is needed.
When to use CeraVe Moisturising Cream: Morning and night, or as needed.
Who should use CeraVe Moisturising Cream? This cream is best suited to dry or very dry skin. It’s also suitable for sensitive skin and is recommended by dermatologists to relieve eczema and psoriasis.
Where to buy: Lookfantastic | Boots | Sephora
CeraVe Moisturising Cream alternatives: Revolution Miracle Cream (£18); e.l.f Holy Hydration (£12)
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For our CeraVe Moisturising Cream review, we used it as our go-to facial moisturiser every morning and night, for six weeks. We applied a pea-sized amount of cream to our palms and, while our face was still damp from our serum, massaged it in circular motions across our face and neck.
We deliberately sed it alongside our regular skincare products so, should something go wrong or we experience a reaction, it suggests the new cream may be to blame.
FURTHER READING: How we test skincare to see if it lives up to its claims
Here’s how to use the CeraVe Moisturising Cream to maximise its impact. This applies to whether you’re using it on your face, or body. The key is to apply the cream to damp skin so the hyaluronic acid and glycerin found in the cream can pull and lock the moisture of your previous products into the skin.
FURTHER READING: The best CeraVe products for all your skincare concerns – from acne, wrinkles, bumpy skin, and eczema
mamabella | mamabella Despite a poor start, in which our skin appeared to get worse rather than better, we’re glad we persevered. As soon as our skin was used to the cream, our complexion was the best it’s looked in a long time
Despite the many claims made by the brand, our initial impression of the CeraVe Moisturising Cream was one of disappointment. We measured the hydration levels of our skin, applied the CeraVe Moisturising Cream, waited five minutes, and retested the hydration.
We were surprised to see that, in this time, our hydration levels decreased by 3%. A relatively small drop but, given CeraVe’s claims about this being a super hydrating and nourishing cream, we’d expected at least a rise. In the first couple of weeks of use, we also noticed our skin felt more greasy than before and we experienced breakouts around our chin. Not the stellar start we’d hoped for.
However, by week three our entire experience of this cream flipped on its head.
Once the spots subsided, our skin looked clearer than it did before. It was noticeably less red and irritated to the point where we could stop wearing tinted moisturiser – this is rare for us and in turn, stemming our use of makeup helped us further reduce our chances of spots and congestion.
It not only looked better, but our complexion also felt softer. Our wrinkles didn’t appear as deep, neither did the fine lines around our eyes. The initial hydration drop was clearly not indicative of this cream’s longer-term impact and we’re pleased we persevered with the cream after the breakouts because our skin definitely saw a transformation.
Buy now from Charlotte Tibury
@victoria_woolly_web A bit of a mixed bag for @cerave here as part of our hunt for the best moisturisers and serums. Its CeraVe Moisturising Lotion gave the biggest hydration increase of any product we’ve tested to day. While the CeraVe Moisturising Cream dropped, albeit by a tiny amount. We imagine this may have something to do with the cream taking longer to be absorbed so maybe a longer wait time would show different results? (I’m going to test this hypothesis ASAP!) The cream is also the same one that comes in the tub, it’s just a smaller bottle #mamabella #hydrationtest #hydration #bestmoisturizer #bestmoisturizer #bestmoisturizerforthisseason #cerave #ceraveskincare #ceravelovers #lotioncream #moisturiser #moisturiser_for_dryskin #EndlessJourney ♬ CUFF IT – Beyoncé
CeraVe Moisturising Cream has developed a cult following and is praised for transforming the skin of thousands of people. We’re now adding our name to this glowing fanbase.
Despite a poor start, in which our skin appeared to get worse rather than better, we’re glad we persevered. As soon as our skin was used to the cream, our complexion was the best it’s looked in a long time.
It reduced our redness and our skin looked less angry. Our oily patches looked and felt less greasy, and our dry patches felt smoother and softer. It even appeared to reduce our fine lines and wrinkles by making our skin look more plump and youthful.
Plus, because it’s a thick cream a little goes a long way and it absorbs surprisingly easily without it feeling sticky or greasy. This makes it great for oily and combination skin types, not just dry and very dry.
For this reason, the CeraVe Moisturising Cream is one of the best moisturisers we’ve ever used. It’s affordable, it’s simple and it works.
We should note, though, that while CeraVe itself doesn’t test on animals, it does sell in countries that require products to be tested on animals so there is a grey area around its cruelty-free claims.
Buy now from Boots
mamabella | mamabella CeraVe Moisturising Cream has developed a cult following and is praised for transforming the skin of thousands of people. We’re now adding our name to this glowing fanbase
The beauty of the CeraVe Moisturising Cream, and its performance, lies in the fact it uses a number of tried-and-tested ingredients that have been clinically proven to help and improve the skin. In particular, seven of the ingredients are what are known as “skin-identical.” Mimicking compounds found naturally in the skin reduces the chances of irritation and helps repair the skin.
This includes:
Glycerin and hyaluronic acid both help draw moisture into the skin while phytosphigosine is found naturally in the skin’s upper layers and helps boost the skin’s structure and overall health.
These ingredients are then joined by petrolatum – Vaseline is probably the most well-known brand making petrolatum products – and three ceramides that form the basis of all CeraVe products: ceramides 1, 3 and 6-II.
Ceramides are fatty acids and lipids found naturally in skin cells. They’re important for retaining your skin’s moisture by protecting its natural barrier. Although our skin generates ceramides naturally, their levels drop as we get older, and applying them topically has been shown to penetrate the upper layers of the skin. Although the level of penetration depends on what else is in the formula.
Petrolatum is a popular occlusive, which means it forms a barrier on the skin to help lock in moisture. This is what makes the CeraVe Moisturising Cream great for dry and very dry skin types because it floods the skin with hydrating ingredients before stopping this hydration from escaping.
That said, all skin types benefit from hydration (yes, even oily skin) so don’t let this put you off.
There are no ingredients in the CeraVe Moisturising Cream that should be a cause of concern when it comes to irritation or breakouts, and we’ve not experienced any issues while using this moisturiser on our face or body but it’s worth bearing in mind.
The following list of ingredients is taken from the INCI Decoder website. You can hover over each ingredient to find out more about it.
The numbers next to each ingredient represent its Irritation Rating (the number to the left of the comma), and then Comedogenic Rating (to the right of the comma).
Both ratings are scored out of five and the higher the number, the higher the chance of it causing irritation, or comedones (spots). Green means it has a low rating so is less likely to cause problems. Yellow and red numbers represent high ratings and are more likely to cause problems.
sii|h 0 0, Cetearyl Alcohol emo|vc|emu|surf 1 2, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride emo, Cetyl Alcohol emo|vc 2 2, Ceteareth-20 emu|surf 3 2, Petrolatum emo, Dimethicone emo 0 1, Phenoxyethanol pres, Behentrimonium Methosulfate surf, Potassium Phosphate buff, Ethylhexylglycerin pres, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate emu, Disodium EDTA chel, Dipotassium Phosphate buff, Ceramide NP 
sii, Ceramide AP sii, Phytosphingosine sii|cci|aacne|amic, Cholesterol sii|emo 0 0, Xanthan Gum vc, Carbomer vc 0 1, Sodium Hyaluronate sii|h 0 0, Tocopherol aox 0–3 0–3, Ceramide EOP siiHover the mouse / tap over an ingredient for short explanation. Read more on INCIDecoder.
Victoria is founder and editor-in-chief of mamabella, freelance journalist and Mum. She has a passion for empowering people to feel beautiful whatever their age, size, skin type and budget
