Budget Friendly Face Moisturisers for Your Skin Type

An integral part of your skincare regime, choosing a face moisturiser that is going to leave your skin supple and soft all day can be overwhelming and expensive. With so many options, we’ve narrowed down our favourite face creams based on your specific skin concern that won’t break the bank.

Your 6^th step in your skincare regime, apply a face moisturiser after your serums, spot treatments, and face oil. The key is going from lightest to heaviest, and with any face cream product being the most dense, this is the final step to finish off your flawless routine (before applying sunscreen).

Irrespective if skin is dry, oily, normal or combination, this next step represents an important healing and protective function for our skin. Face moisturisers also ensure optimum health of the vital skin barrier which helps to maintain moisture and prevent inflammation and infection.

How to Choose Your Moisturiser:

My approach when choosing the best face moisturiser for a patient in my practice or when giving advice online is dependent on a few factors:

1. Budget
2. Skin concern and skin type
3. Ingredients

The same moisturiser wouldn’t work well every skin type. For skin that produces too much sebum verses tight, flaky skin, varying products are needed to treat and balance the skin. Especially when considering sensitive or mature skin, a specialised moisturiser is necessary. When targeting concerns such as fine lines and wrinkles, choosing an appropriate moisturiser that works well with your spot treatments and serums will ensure the most effective results all around.

Let’s start with the foundation of any product: the ingredients.

Ingredients

The ingredients to look for are divided into two broad groups: Emollients and Skin-Replacing Ingredients (Humectants).

Emollients have the ability to prevent skin water loss and they also provide a luxurious softening effect to the skin. Emollients can have a thick or a thin consistency so do not judge how well a moisturiser will work simply on its consistency.

Examples include non-fragrant plant oils along with shea butter, cocoa butter, fatty acids, borage oil, linoleic acid, oleic acid, coconut oil, evening primrose oil, sunflower oil, and mango butter.

Skin-Replacing Ingredients help to repair and replace much needed moisturisation to our skins. Furthermore, they have the ability to increase the water holding capacity of the stratum corneum. The stratum corneum is the surface horny layer consisting of stacks of dead cells without nuclei.

Examples include hyaluronic acid, ceramides, sodium PCA, glycerine, glycerol, silicones, petrolatum, salicylic acid, and alpha hydroxy acids.

The following list will allow you to select a product that works best for you based on skin type or concern:

Skin Concerns

Normal to Combination

Oily

Dry

Sensitive

Hyperpigmentation

Fine Lines and Wrinkles

Mature Skin