The Moisturizers Our Writers Actually Buy

It hurts me whenever I have to restock my moisturizer because it’s $58 (plus tax). But I would include the Eadem Cloud Cushion Plush Moisturizer in my “What I Can’t Live Without” if I ever became famous. It’s the lightness of the formula that does it for me, especially as someone with oilier skin. There’s none of the lingering goopiness that comes with other creams. It goes into, not onto, the face fast. You know how a thirsty plant takes water? That’s my skin with this. It just makes everywhere feel so soft — truly, baby-butt smooth. —Ambar Pardilla

I have combination skin, so I’ll switch up my moisturizers depending on whether my skin is veering more oily or dry. I’ll likely reach for a gel moisturizer in the summer, but lately I’ve been using Tower 28 SOS Barrier Recovery Cream to help soothe dry, flaky winter skin, and it seems to be doing pretty well for me. It’s got a soft, cushiony consistency and lots of ceramides and hyaluronic acid to lock in moisture. One thing I will say, however, is that if you’re a slatherer like me, the 55-ml. tube will run out pretty quickly, so this is my official entreaty to Tower 28 to come out with a value-size bottle! —Kitty Guo

Even before I started dabbling with retinoids and acne treatments, I’ve always had dry skin. And by dry, I mean the type that feels as though it’s cracking if you wait too long after a shower to smear on some moisturizer. La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 Balm changed that: It is so intensely nourishing and quenching that when I put a layer on at night, I wake up without that tightness. (You can’t layer makeup over it, though — it’ll slide right off.) —Rachael Griffiths

While my Supergoop usually keeps me moisturized on a day-to-day basis, if I run in the winter or am out on a particularly windy day, my face gets chapped with rough patches along my cheeks. I use Sunday Riley Ice Ceramide Moisturizer on those days, and my skin drinks it up. My face feels silky soft right after and into the next morning. I’ve started using it on nights I exfoliate or apply retinol, too, to make sure my skin barrier isn’t compromised. —Arielle Avila

It’s always going to be the Dieux Instant Angel for me. It’s a perfect moisturizer. It’s hydrating, fragrance-free, packed with good-for-skin ingredients, and plays nicely with everything else in my skin-care routine. I’m a fanatic for it. It’s the one product I’ll break out the tube key for to ensure I get every last drop. —Tembe Denton-Hurst

For a nighttime moisturizer, I like Face Reality Cran-Peptide Cream, which is quite rich and super-nourishing. It helped a lot this winter when I felt my face was particularly dehydrated (I blame the ancient radiators in my apartment). —Dominique Pariso