The 14 Best Night Creams, Tested and Reviewed
While You Get Your Beauty Sleep, Your Skin Is Hard at Work. the Body Goes into Repair Mode as You Rest, Ramping up Collagen Production and Turning over Skin...
While you get your beauty sleep, your skin is hard at work. The body goes into repair mode as you rest, ramping up collagen production and turning over skin cells with an accelerated rate of blood flow. The best way to support your skin during this restorative process is to use a great night cream.
Night creams are typically thicker in consistency and are made with high concentrations of active ingredients and emollients to deeply nourish skin. These powerful creams drench skin with moisture, which keeps the skin barrier protected and collagen production supercharged, to help plump fine lines, firm skin and improve your overall complexion.
There are hundreds of night creams out there and we set out to find the very best ones you can buy. We tested 20 of the most popular night creams currently available. We scrutinized the creams’ consistency, absorption, and the overall effect it had on our skin over the course of two months. We also considered other important factors, like fragrance and how well it played with our other skincare products. We ranked the effectiveness of each product based on our results, and these are the highest-scoring night creams.
Best Overall
CeraVe Skin Renewing Night Cream
Amazon
What We Love: The thick, whipped texture absorbs into the skin within minutes and hydrates skin from the inside-out.
What We Don’t Love: We’re all about a solid no-frills night cream, but this could be even better with some additional anti-aging benefits.
When it comes to skincare, sometimes simplicity is key, and no brand embodies that ethos more than CeraVe. Their night cream earned the top spot on our list due to its deeply hydrating, gentle formula that felt great on our sensitive skin and delivered long-lasting results.
Within a week of using this night cream, our skin felt noticeably more hydrated, and by the time the eight-week testing period ended, our persistent dry patches had cleared up completely. We were seriously impressed with this night cream, especially given how gentle and simple the formula is. And gentle really is the key word here — thanks to the non-comedogenic, fragrance-free formula, we experienced no irritation, even with our dry, acne-prone, sensitive skin.
We were also fans of the creamy consistency. It was thick but not cloying, sinking into our skin within minutes for a finish that looked dewy and healthy, but never greasy. We found it to be the perfect texture for a night cream, like an ultra-thick, whipped moisturizer.
While this night cream isn’t a multitasking formula that addresses a variety of different skin concerns, like some of the other options on this list, it’s a no-brainer for anyone looking for a serious dose of hydration.
Size: 1.7 oz | Active Ingredients: Niacinamide, ceramides, hyaluronic acid, biomimetic peptide complex | Best for: All skin types
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InStyle / Jasmine Hyman
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InStyle / Jasmine Hyman
Must Read
Best Budget
L'Oreal Paris Revitalift Night Cream
Target
What We Love: Despite its super thick texture, the Revitalift Night Cream fully absorbs into the skin quickly to moisturize skin and heal dry spots.
What We Don’t Love: A little goes a long way, so there’s definitely a learning curve to finding the right amount for your skin.
When it comes to a good value, the L’Oreal Revitalift Anti-Wrinkle + Firming Night Cream is seriously impressive. The moisturizer features pro-retinol and centella asiatica (better known as tiger grass) to reap all the benefits of a retinoid, but without the nasty side effects. Although the first time we applied the cream, we were worried it was a little too thick, but it actually absorbed into our skin really well and didn’t leave behind a greasy or sticky residue. Instead, our skin was visibly plumper, more hydrated, and overall radiant.
Within just a week of use, our dry, patchy skin had improved. In fact, our complexion felt so soft and smooth in the morning that we found ourselves needing less and less moisturizer to get us through the day. When we applied the cream immediately after taking a shower, we noticed that our flaky dry spots looked less severe the next morning.
The main thing we didn’t like about this night cream was its scent. It’s subtle, but it may cause irritation in sensitive or reactive skin.
Size: 1.7 oz | Active Ingredients: Pro-retinol, centella asiatica | Best for: Aging, dry skin
