As much as we enjoy our La Mer, La Prairie and Guerlain face creams – the luxurious textures melt into skin and the sensorial scents just ease away stress – we also think that skincare shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. We’ve been in the industry long enough to know that quality and efficacy doesn’t have to come with a hefty price tag, especially with the rise of indie beauty brands. With that in mind, here’s a list of the best face creams under $50 that both your skin and wallet will love.
With a blend of TCM herbs such as angelica, wolfberry and ginseng, and the brand’s snail extract, this lightweight face cream deeply hydrates skin while accelerating skin repair and renewal for smoother and more youthful-looking skin.
This classic offering from Clinique helps strengthen skin’s moisture barrier (reportedly by 54 per cent) to help your skin better retain moisture so it looks more supple.
This oil-free moisturiser helps re-energise dull and lacklustre skin (both symptoms of premature skin ageing) with skin-boosting ingredients such as panax ginseng and coffee bean, to restore a zesty glow to skin.
This lightweight cream has ceramides, a proven-effective ingredient that helps repair and support skin structure to combat effects of fatigue and ageing, as well as shea butter, meadowfoam seed oil and avocado oil to nourish and hydrate skin.
This paraben-free gel cream has minerals and a blend of plant extracts, amino acids and ferments to help calm and soothe skin (irritation and inflammation accelerates skin ageing) while boosting its suppleness.
This day cream has niacinamide (a form of vitamin B3), which is said to help improve the production of ceramides in skin, to plump up fine lines and even out skin texture. It also has antioxidant-rich green tea to combat free radical damage.
Suitable for dry and sensitive skin types, this moisturiser has antioxidant-rich Lumiphenols, Jowae’s signature ingredient, and red ginseng to help protect skin against free radical damage and rejuvenate skin. It also helps smooth out skin texture and brighten up skin tone.
This soft, creamy moisturiser has a blend of ingredients, including adenosine and pro-xylane, to plump up skin and boost the production of collagen, which improves skin density and firmness. There is also a mild exfoliating ingredient that helps smooth out pores and refine skin texture, and encourage cellular turnover for brighter skin.
If you have oily and combination skin and prefer lighter, gel-type moisturisers, this is the face cream for you. It has retinol (vitamin A), which is known for its ability to diminish the appearance of fine lines and hydrolysed collagen and hyaluronic acid which helps plump and firm up skin.
Hibiscus extract and ceramides in this lightweight cream help strengthen skin barrier functions, to keep moisture locked in for smoother and plumper-looking skin. The flower extract also encourages skin cell turnover, and is said to prevent elastin breakdown, so skin appears firmer and more supple.