While winter brings cosy nights and festive cheer, it also delivers a harsh blow to our skin. The combination of chilly temperatures, biting winds, and central heating can leave complexions feeling tight, dry, and in need of serious repair. For anyone who prioritises skincare, navigating the colder months requires a strategic shift towards richer, more protective formulas.
Putting the Best Winter Moisturisers to the Test
Our testing process is rigorous to ensure reliable recommendations. Each product is used for several consecutive days, with all other skincare steps kept consistent to isolate the moisturiser's effects. We assess performance under makeup, at night versus during the day, and note how the formula feels on the skin. It's important to note that our tester has a moderately dry complexion; those with oily or acne-prone skin may find some of these nourishing formulas too rich.
Top Moisturiser Picks for Every Need and Budget
From high-street heroes to luxury splurges, here are the standout performers from our 2025 trials.
1. Best All-Rounder: Sculpted By Aimee CloudCream
This versatile whipped cream earns top marks for its adaptability. It functions brilliantly as a day cream, night cream, or a glow-boosting primer, depending on how much you apply. The light, airy texture belies its serious hydrating power, thanks to a blend of hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and shea butter. It leaves skin instantly silky-smooth, with impressive lasting power, and proved gentle enough even for sensitive areas like the eyelids.
2. Best K-Beauty Moisturiser: MOLVANY Artichoke Calming Care Soothing Cream
This innovative formula is a sensorial delight. It contains popping moisture beads that burst upon application, delivering an instant, cooling hit of hydration. Packed with skin-loving botanicals like artichoke leaf extract, squalane, and ectoin, it excels at soothing redness and irritation, making it perfect for windburn or chapped skin. It absorbs quickly and layers beautifully without pilling.
3. Best Budget Moisturiser: e.l.f. Holy Hydration! Face Cream
Proving that great skincare needn't be expensive, this £14 cream is a standout. Its lightweight, non-greasy formula sinks in instantly, delivering a potent cocktail of hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, and peptides. It's an ideal base for SPF or makeup. The only potential drawback is its fresh, citrus-like scent, which may not appeal to those who prefer fragrance-free products.
4. Best Premium Moisturiser: Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream
For a truly luxurious experience, Charlotte Tilbury's iconic cream delivers. Its buttery texture glides on, imparting a luminous, dewy glow that revitalises even the driest skin. The Magic 8 Matrix of ingredients, including peptides and vitamins C and E, tackles dryness on multiple fronts. At £79, it's an investment, but one that feels like a daily treat.
5. Best Daytime Moisturiser: Medik8 Total Moisture Daily Face Cream
This fragrance-free cream is the ultimate daytime workhorse. One application provides hydration that lasts from morning until night. Enriched with prebiotic peptides, ceramides, and multi-weight hyaluronic acid, it soothes and bolsters the skin barrier instantly. It also performs excellently as a makeup primer, creating a perfectly quenched base.
6. Best for Sensitive Skin: Kate Somerville Goat Milk Moisturising Cream
Priced at £72, this cream is a splurge but a worthy one for reactive skin. A blend of lactose, milk proteins, and aloe calms redness and sensitivity within minutes. The pump packaging prevents waste, and it leaves a healthy, subtle sheen that works well under makeup.
7. Best Fragrance-Free: Green People Scent-free 24-Hour Cream
This organic, UK-made cream is a fantastic choice for dry, sensitive skin. It soothes with prebiotics and cacay oil, while Baicalin stimulates anti-ageing enzymes to promote firmness. It dries to a soft matte finish, making it an excellent makeup base, and is cruelty-free, vegan, and gluten-free.
8. Best Long-Lasting Cream: ILLYOON Ceramide Ato Lotion
For unbeatable value under £10, look no further. This no-frills lotion is packed with barrier-repairing ceramides and boasts incredible staying power, with claims of hydration for up to 100 hours. It's hypoallergenic, fragrance-free, and suitable for face and body for all ages.
9. Best Pharmacy Pick: E45 Face Night Cream
A reliable, affordable (£15) staple you can find in any chemist. Its highly emollient, occlusive formula is excellent for very dry or eczema-prone skin. It contains vitamin E and plant oils and is non-comedogenic. Be aware it can leave a white cast, so it's best reserved for nighttime use.
Our Final Verdict & Expert Skincare Advice
If choosing just two, our top combination would be the Medik8 Total Moisture Daily Face Cream for daytime and the Sculpted By Aimee CloudCream for night. Both offer superb hydration without needing constant reapplication and work flawlessly under other products. For gifts, Charlotte Tilbury's Magic Cream has undeniable wow factor, while skincare beginners can't go wrong pairing e.l.f. Holy Hydration! by day with E45 at night.
When treating dry skin, seek out ingredients that attract moisture (humectants like hyaluronic acid), seal it in (occlusives like ceramides and shea butter), and soothe (like niacinamide and aloe vera). While fragranced products can sometimes irritate very sensitive skin, those with moderate dryness may tolerate them well—it often requires personal trial. If your skin is persistently inflamed, cracked, or painful, consulting a dermatologist is essential to rule out conditions like eczema or psoriasis.
