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It's one product you always want to have on hand.
Honestly, when is my skin barrier not messed up? I have a nasty habit of bouncing from one harsh skincare ingredient to another aggressive skincare product without giving my face any time to adjust. And guess where that leaves me? With dry, itchy, red, inflamed skin. But maybe I would've learned my lesson if I hadn't heard of the miracle that is barrier cream. Any time my skin isn't looking or feeling its best, I smooth on a barrier-repairing cream, and my skin looks back to its normal, happy, healthy self within a few days.
Even if you're better—ahem, smarter—with skincare experimentation than I am, your skin will still get compromised from time to time, because everything from sun exposure to simply living your life (aka aging) can cause a weakened skin barrier. As board-certified dermatologist Dana Stern, MD, previously told Cosmo, “Ceramide levels decrease significantly as we age, and so our skin’s ability to hold onto moisture eventually becomes compromised.” Still, regardless of the cause, if you've got flaky, dry, sensitive skin RN, you'll want to check out the following barrier creams and read the advice from board-certified dermatologists Jenny Liu, MD, and Nava Greenfield, MD, below.
If you go through as much barrier cream as I do, go ahead and get one of each that we listed above. But if you prefer to shop around a little, keep reading for all the dermatologist insight, user reviews, and product descriptions you could need to make your selection.
Barrier creams, as great as they are, aren't known for being the most luxurious skincare products. But this night cream right here will change all your preconceptions about them. Instead of a greasy, thick, jelly consistency, this formula has a rich, buttery feel and is packed with exfoliating urea and AHA/BHAs, moisturizing shea butter and jojoba oil, hydrating hyaluronic acid, and more.
THE REVIEWS: One reviewer writes, “It glides on, giving an instant plumpness to the skin, and in the morning I wake up with baby skin. Dry areas, blemishes and redness are all soothed, and my face has a glow no other product has been able to achieve. Absolutely a holy grail product!”
Dr. Liu loves plain ol' petrolatum as a barrier cream, but if you don't like the heavy feel, try this other favorite of hers instead. A little lighter in feel, but still effective for slugging, this ointment mixes petrolatum with ceramides and hyaluronic acid for a balm-like texture instead of a goopy jelly.
THE REVIEWS: “I had severely chapped lips that was spreading onto my face and nothing was helping,” reads one review. “I saw a TikTok about this stuff so decided it was worth a shot, and it was. It literally fixed my chapped lips overnight!“
Dr. Liu also recommends this barrier cream because it “contains copper and zinc, which are great ingredients for healing.” Fun fact: zinc oxide is what derms commonly prescribe for diaper rashes. All that to say, if this fragrance-free formula is safe and gentle enough for a baby's skin, you know it's safe and gentle enough for yours.
THE REVIEWS: “I had seen this stuff on reddit for helping to soothe perioral dermatitis, and I have been desperate to find anything that will calm my redness and make my skin normal again,” reads one review. “I have only used this stuff for a day but oh. my. god. the difference it has made is astronomical. I wish I could give it 6 stars.”
This gel-cream moisturizer is a top pick from Dr. Greenfield and the hundreds of happy customers who've given it a 4.8 rating on Sephora. It's surprisingly lightweight but still does the trick to fix your skin (guess that's how it got the name) with ingredients like saccharide isomerate, niacinamide, zinc PCA, and allantoin.
THE REVIEWS: “I compromised my skin barrier with over-exfoliating (AHA/BHAs) and was desperate to find a moisturizer that soothed/calmed my skin and this did not disappoint!!” one reviewer wrote. “All you need is one pump for your whole face and neck!”
The MVP in this natural skincare product is, you guessed it, hydrating honey. It also contains colloidal oatmeal, beeswax, aloe vera, and plant oils to treat dry, itchy, inflamed skin associated with eczema. Bonus: You can use it as a lip balm or makeup remover too.
THE REVIEWS: “I've had eczema for 35 years, the last 4 years have been the worst!” said one customer. “I've been using this product for 2 weeks and I'm seeing results in my skin! Showed it to my Doctor yesterday and she said to keep using it!”
This barrier cream-slash-balm uses a heaping handful of hero ingredients to hydrate and repair the skin, like oat protein, niacinamide, ceramides, panthenol, and squalane, to name a few. Keep a bottle of this at close reach after a laser sesh, microneedling, or any other treatment that might make your skin a little worse before it makes it better.
THE REVIEWS:“I am absolutely in love with the texture of this product,” reads one review. “While it is called a 'balm,' it is nothing like a vaseline/cleansing balm type texture... it truly is a cream that feels thick but once applied to the skin spreads so easily and feels wonderful. It's instantly soothing and repairs over time.”
If you've never gotten an in-office face peel, lemme tell ya! The aftermath is no joke. Dr. Liu loves this barrier cream after a peel, and I can see why. It's full of super-soothing antioxidants, like beta-glucan, centella asiatica, and nymphea alba flower extract to calm red, angry skin.
THE REVIEWS: “I used a chemical exfoliant on my face that stripped my skin too much, and this product saved my face!” wrote one customer.
It's no secret that retinoids can totally dry your face out and cause major irritation if you overdo it (and sometimes even if you don't), and barrier creams will become your new best friend. Another fave of Dr. Liu, this moisturizer contains vitamin B5, centella extract, and shea butter to help your skin heal optimally.
THE REVIEWS: “I love this stuff,” one reviewer wrote. “I recently started using tretinoin, and anyone who uses [it] knows the dryness can be brutal. This really helps to repair my skin after using tret, and I also use it on top to keep dryness at bay.”
Love a good drugstore skincare product, and evidently, so does Dr. Greenfield, who recommended this formula for a weakened skin barrier because it “has volcanic water clinically proven to strengthen the skin barrier.” Is it a cream? No, it's a serum. But if you're someone who doesn't like heavy creams, this might be the alternative for you.
THE REVIEWS: “This serum literally makes your skin feel so hydrated!” reads one review. “I have sensitive skin and sometimes it gets a little irritated or gets clogged pores from certain products, but when I used this, my skin looked bouncy and clear after the first week! Definitely recommend this if you want hydrated glowy skin!”
Dr. Liu explains that barrier cream doesn't have a clear definition, but they are essentially moisturizers that reduce water loss and are also packed with additional ingredients that are anti-inflammatory and support skin healing. Think of them as a richer, thicker version of your average moisturizer that can even be petrolatum-based. According to Dr. Greenfield, the goal of a barrier cream is to strengthen and restore the skin barrier, which is “a complex interaction between skin cells in the epidermis and the intercellular matrix composed of ceramides and lipids that form the brick-and-mortar model of skin anatomy and health.”
You should apply barrier cream pretty much any time your skin barrier feels compromised, but Dr. Liu stresses the importance of a barrier cream for those who have sensitive skin or skin irritation of any kind. Why? Because when your skin barrier is disrupted or not functioning optimally, the skin loses its ability to properly fight infections or certain rashes, or prevent water and nutrient loss, Dr. Greenfield explains. What this means is that your skin will be more prone to eczema, dryness, and itchiness. So yeah. When in doubt, apply your cream.
Dr. Liu explains that the best ingredients in a barrier cream are the ones that reduce water loss, support skin healing, and soothe, like petrolatum, shea butter, fatty acids, lipids, niacinamide, centella, and peptides. “Ingredients such as ceramides, fatty acids, and cholesterol in specific formulations and sufficient concentrations may penetrate the stratum corneum cells and add to the natural oils that the skin cells produce to strengthen the barrier,” Dr. Greenfield adds.
Balms, creams, lotions, jellies—choose the formula that you like the most to apply, because the most important thing here is that you actually want to use it. Thick, greasy ointments aren't for everyone, so don't let that be the reason you don't use a barrier cream. You've got options.
Brooke Shunatona is a contributing writer for Cosmopolitan with more than 10 years of experience researching, writing, and editing skincare stories of all types, from hyper-specific articles on ingredients, like snail mucin, to tutorials and complete guides on topics like double-cleansing. She’s an authority in all skincare categories but is an expert when it comes to repairing a compromised skin barrier, which is something she deals with often while trying out tons of new products with harsh exfoliants and aggressive ingredients. She regularly tests and analyzes barrier repair creams for efficacy, while working with the industry’s top dermatologists to assess new formulas and brands.