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10 Best Night Creams That Get to Work As You Sleep

By IPSY Editors

Published on Mar 18, 2024

An image featuring First Aid Beauty, Onekind, and Ahava night creams arranged on a flatlay with a pastel gradient background Mobile

An image featuring First Aid Beauty, Onekind, and Ahava night creams arranged on a flatlay with a pastel gradient background Desktop

With the endless options to choose from on the skincare shelves these days, picking the right night cream can definitely feel like a daunting task. There are some creams that are specifically labeled for nighttime use, while others say you can use morning or night, and then there are some jars of cream that don’t give any sort of directions at all. What gives?

“In the mornings, hydration and protection are key,” explains Nazanin Saedi, MD, board-certified dermatologist. “Antioxidants will defend your skin from free radical damage and SPF will protect against UV damage.” However, “in the evening, focus on skincare ingredients that help repair, replenish, rejuvenate, and hydrate the skin,” explains Dr. Saedi. “Night creams tend to be a little thicker in texture.” That way, you can use them for slugging to lock in skincare benefits that work as you sleep. So what are the best night creams out there? We rounded up our favs.

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Nazanin Saedi, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist and clinical associate professor at Thomas Jefferson University.

1. Best Drugstore Night Cream:

CERAVE Deep Hydration Moisturizing Cream

Dr. Saedi says you should look for a night cream that’s packed with ceramides, since they “help improve dryness and dehydration by strengthening the skin barrier.” Plus, “a strong, healthy skin barrier goes a long way to helping your skin hold on to hydration,” she says. This one is affordable at most of your local drugstores.

2. Best Night Cream With CBD:

BABOR Phyto CBD Cream

This is a lighter night cream that uses CBD to soothe stressed-out and damaged skin. It’s also a natural antioxidant, which means it’ll help protect against free radicals, like those from UV rays and pollution, in the environment. Since it’s packed with squalane and ceramides, it’ll help strengthen the skin barrier over time, making it a perfect night cream that can also be worn during the day.

3. Best Night Cream for Eczema:

FIRST AID BEAUTY Ultra Repair Cream

This cream helps relieve dry, eczema-prone skin with ingredients like shea butter, licorice root, and white tea extract. It’s safe for even sensitive skin and it’s perfect to keep bedside for adding hydration as the last step of your skincare routine, right before bed.

4. Best Night Cream With Hyaluronic Acid:

KOPARI BEAUTY Moisture Whipped Ceramide Cream

In case you didn’t know, hyaluronic acid is the magic skin-plumping ingredient that actually locks in moisture to the skin once it’s applied. This night cream actually helps soothe and moisturize your skin for 72 hours, so it’s no joke. It’s also made with vegan ceramides for added barrier protection.

5. Best Night Cream With Squalane:

ONEKIND Dream Cream Nighttime Moisturizer

Squalane is one of those magic ingredients that pulls double duty on the skin’s surface. First, it can help to soothe dry, red, irritated skin due to eczema, and it also works as an anti-ager to help reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. This product from ONEKIND actually gets to work as you sleep, and as an added bonus, is packed with soothing chamomile so you can drift off into dreamland knowing your skin is getting some TLC.

6. Best Retinol Night Cream:

AHAVA Night Replenisher

This night moisturizer from AHAVA has a gentle form of retinol inside so your skin cells can turn over as you get some shut eye. Since it’s so gentle, you won’t wake up with any of that frustrating peeling skin, either. All you need is a dime-sized amount for total facial hydration.

7. Best Night Cream for Sensitive Skin:

IT COSMETICS Confidence In Your Beauty Sleep Night Cream

This cream is packed with three stand-out ingredients that work as you sleep: ceramides, hyaluronic acid, and adenosine. If you’ve never heard of adenosine before, it’s a water-soluble ingredient with proven wrinkle-fighting capabilities. That’s all we need to hear!

8. Best Night Cream With Green Tea:

DERMA E Hydrating Night Cream

Green tea isn’t just for drinking. When placed in skincare, like in this DERMA E cream, it can help slough off sebum (that gunky white stuff that gets caught in your pores), reduce inflammation and irritation, and even help soften the appearance of lines and wrinkles. While it’s no surprise that hyaluronic acid also makes an appearance on the label of this night cream, don’t sleep on the powerhouse antioxidant ingredient green tea.

9. Best Night Cream for All Ages:

MURAD Retinol Youth Renewal Night Cream

Whether you’ve got oily, dry, or combination skin, this night cream has you covered. It’s actually made with the brand’s Retinol Tri-Active Technology that works in a time-released way to keep working on your skin’s surface all night long. Plus, with ingredients like niacinamide and dipeptide, this cream will help strengthen your skin barrier over time.

10. Best Night Cream With Vitamin C:

DR. EVE_RYOUTH Vitamin C + Hyaluronic Acid Hydrabright Night Moisturiser

When you add vitamin C to the mix with hyaluronic acid, you get an overall brightened, antioxidant-protected skin barrier that’s also packed with hydration—aka skin that basically glows. This moisturizer contains the most stabilized form of vitamin C, L-ascorbic acid, so it won’t lose its strength over time as it sits in your medicine cabinet.

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