The Best Night Creams, According to Dermatologists in 2023

This SELF Healthy Beauty Award–winning hydrating night cream is a fragrance-free mask that locks in moisture overnight and strengthens the skin’s moisture barrier. One tester said: “[This product is] basically a luxurious form of slugging. No chance am I gonna slather my face in Vaseline, but this stuff? Roll me in it.” Our SELF commerce writer, Sarah Madaus, also reviewed Kiehl’s overnight mask and found that it kept her skin replenished and looking like a baby. If you have dry skin, this night cream can help prevent dryness for up to three days and minimize visible dryness and flaky skin overnight. 

If you’re looking for a night cream for sensitive skin, this drugstore buy is the perfect fit. In her Eucerin review, senior commerce writer Sara Coughlin found that it’s a great beginner-friendly retinol that doubles as a nourishing facial moisturizer. “Not only does this fragrance-free night moisturizer quench my husk-like skin, but it also relieves redness and smooths out my rough, uneven skin texture—with zero irritation to speak of,” she says.

This night cream is a favorite among experts for its price point and effectiveness. “CeraVe products are formulated with dermatologists and a C complex of biomimetic peptides, hyaluronic acid, and three essential ceramides that improve the skin barrier,” Dr. Stoler says. Dr. Kim echoes this sentiment and tells SELF, “I really like the CeraVe product as a baseline moisturizer that I would recommend to anyone. CeraVe has a long history of making gentle products for the skin that are really hydrating. (It’s in the name! Ceramides.)”

If your priority is targeting dark spots, dullness, and uneven texture, this one’s for you. This gentle, dark-spot-targeting night cream is powered by vine-sap-derived Viniferine, papaya extract, and glycolic acid, leaving you with hydrated, visibly smoother, brighter-looking skin in the morning. This vegan skin care item is great for those with normal or dry skin.

This First Aid Beauty favorite is formulated with colloidal oatmeal, sodium hyaluronate, and niacinamide. This cream diminishes the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles while visibly firming the skin. As the name suggests, it is ultrahydrating while repairing elasticity on dry, distressed skin. It’s recommended for those with normal, dry, and combination skin.

This night cream is an intensive skin care product that contains snail secretion filtrate extracted from pristine nature. It delivers ultrahydration, nourishment, and vitality to the skin while the nutrient densely fills into the skin layer to firm and improve elasticity. One reviewer wrote, “I heard about this brand from a few of my friends, but the word ‘snail’ just wasn’t appealing to me. At last, I decided to try it, and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. My skin is soft in the morning, and it’s not sticky at all as I thought.”

This award-winning overnight cream is powered by squalane, hyaluronic acid, glycerin, and betaine, which plumps skin and seals in moisture, supporting dehydrated skin. It’s also antioxidant-rich with superberries and potent Vitamin C so it targets dullness and uneven skin tone. Best of all, this product is safe to use for all skin types: normal, dry, combination, and oily.

This Tatcha night cream is another Healthy Award winner. It doubles as a serum-in-moisturizer treatment that visibly calms irritation, strengthens the skin’s barrier, and balances the microbiome for a healthy, hydrated glow. Ingredients include Japanese indigo extract that visibly soothes and restores irritated skin from redness to dry patches, hyaluronic acid and ceramides, and mondo grass root. This is safe for all skin types and ideal for those who wish to address dryness, redness, and uneven texture. SELF’s previous associate news director picked this as her favorite wellness product and noted that her “skin feels lively and plump without any rosacea bumps every morning.”

This cult-favorite nightly sleeping mask is made of watermelon extract, hyaluronic acid, peony root, and AHAs that gently exfoliate and refine the look of pores. Although it’s meant to be used for all skin types, this product does wonders for oily skin. If you’d like to target pores, dryness, and oiliness, this night cream will keep you hydrated overnight and give you a beautiful glow in the morning.

Anti-aging is the name when it comes to this IT Cosmetics night cream. It works overnight to visibly improve the five top signs of aging skin: fine lines, wrinkles, dryness, dullness, and loss of firmness. This luxurious lavender-scented product is suitable for all skin types. Plus, it’s made with ceramides, adenosine, and hyaluronic acid that restores the natural skin barrier.

Described as a “super serum” formulated with Chronolux Power Signal Technology, this night treatment visibly minimizes multiple signs of aging by supporting the skin’s natural ability to repair and boost collagen. The high levels of hyaluronic acid locks in moisture for up to 72 hours and helps optimize the skin’s natural repair process. One reviewer said, “I love noticing smaller pores, plumper skin, and less redness in the morning after applying this the night before.”

This high-potency night cream is extracted from grapes and sugar beets. The fruit-derived acids gently aid in sloughing off dead skin cells to make way for fresh, healthy skin cells. It acts as both an overnight moisturizer and a peel that leaves your visage looking smoothed and renewed. Additionally, this is formulated with vitamins B, C, E, H, calcium and neroli, valerian, and vanilla essential oils.

This night cream combines probiotic extracts, AHAs, and vitamin C. It also targets signs of premature aging, smooths the appearance of wrinkles, and improves the look of texture. Good for all skin types, the inclusion of Camellia Sinensis leaf extract helps calm the appearance of the skin. And the blend of watermelon and fruit extracts provides an instant hydration boost.

This luxurious and thick cream is best recommended for those with dry or combination skin. It has an intense healing moisture and is said to deliver the appearance of “energized repair.” This elegant product is made with a miracle broth that repairs visible signs of age and lime tea, a proprietary antioxidant.

For those who don’t know, Dr. Sturm is an aesthetic doctor with a background in anti-inflammatory medicine. This rich night cream is formulated with purslane and potent antioxidants that absorb into the skin to soothe, calm, and tighten the skin. Key ingredients include skullcap, vitamin E, and avocadin. While it’s perfect for those with more mature skin or complexions that need extra hydration, it’s just as fantastic as assisting with the appearance of dark circles.

With a combination of white camellia wax, hyaluronic acid, and glycerin that locks in moisture, this powerful formula is one to beat. It’s also equipped with panthenol that helps soothe and antioxidant Blue Ginger PFA that provides antioxidant benefits. Many shoppers reported having an “instant plumping effect” while using the product, along with nourished, radiant skin. 

This intensive night cream aids skin concerns such as dark spots and pores. It’s formulated with total soy complex for a more radiant complexion and vitamin B3 that diminishes dullness and blotchiness. Apply all over your face and neck for optimal results. One shopper wrote, “This cream is wonderful. I have a tendency to develop blotchy spots on my face when I get too much sun. This cream is the only one that I’ve ever used that helps them disappear.”

Dr. Stoler tells SELF, “La Roche Posay uses thermal spring water that contains a unique combination of minerals, trace elements, and a high concentration of selenium, a natural antioxidant. Its products tend to be good for sensitive skin and also cosmetically very elegant.” Key ingredients include prebiotic thermal water, neurosensine, vitamin E, and shea butter.

This overnight gel mask has shape-shifting technology that liquefies on contact. With its formula infused with a potent blend of actives—such as prickly pear—it delivers intense hydration and skin-nourishing fatty acids.

“This Dr. Jart product comes in at a great price point and contains some unique ingredients to calm dry and irritated skin,” says Dustin Portela, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon in Idaho. “Centella Asiatica is an excellent calming ingredient to repair damaged or dry skin. Many will also like that this has a lightweight feel compared to many overnight moisturizers.”

“This is a great option if you like an ultra-hydrating cream that isn’t too heavy,” Blair Hayes, CEO, founder, PA-C, and a board-certified aesthetics physician assistant at Skin by Blair, tells SELF. “The lipids in this cream are great for plumping crepey skin and giving the appearance of smoother skin.” She explains that while anyone can use this cream, “it is especially great for mature, dry, or crepey skin.”

Great for all skin types, it’s a game changer if you’re suffering from dryness and dullness. It is formulated with squalane and a probiotic-derived complex to result in hydrated skin and supports its moisture barrier. The probiotic-derived complex in particular strengthens the barrier while also boosting the look of skin’s brightness and clarity.

“Algenist is a favorite brand of mine, and this Genius Sleeping Collagen Night Cream does an excellent job of hydrating and repairing the skin overnight,” Dr. Dustin Portela tells SELF. “Algenist contains vegan collagen peptides to help improve the look of fine lines and wrinkles, and I also love that this product contains ceramides, which are essential to support the skin’s moisture barrier.”

This highly concentrated, deeply moisturizing cream stimulates the skin’s natural rejuvenation with the brand’s proprietary TFC8 complex. It’s formulated with water-based ingredients suspended in oils for a smooth application that sinks into your skin. Don’t confuse The Cream and The Rich Cream from Augustinus Bader, with the latter being meant for normal to dry skin whereas the former is for combination to oily skin.

According to Blair Hayes, this product is “good for most skin types, but not ideal for very dry or sensitive skin.” Its key ingredients include Bakuchiol, which she says is a “retinoid alternative that increases cell turnover and fights fine lines and wrinkles.” Other callouts are its inclusion of glycolic acid, lactic ccid—which Hayes notes is “shown to stimulate collagen and elastin production”—and calming chamomile.