Is It Worth Splurging on a Moisturizer? We Checked the Scores
You're standing in the moisturizer aisle with two jars in your hands. One is a drugstore staple and the other is a luxury classic with a reputation older than your favorite group chat. The obvious guess is that the pricier one has to be better. The scores say otherwise.
- The budget champion, Aveeno Restorative Skin Therapy Oat Repairing Cream, holds a Guru Score of 90% across 10 reviewers.
- The luxury pick, Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, scores 86% across 5 reviewers. The budget champion actually outscores the luxury one, by 4 points. For a moisturizer, the experts say save your money.
- The lesson the gurus keep repeating: with moisturizers, the formula and how you use it matter far more than the price on the box.
Dr. Shereene Idriss · 10 reviewers, 90% said yes
Dr Dray · 5 reviewers, 86% said yesSo is it worth splurging on a moisturizer?
Not for this pair. The budget champion, Aveeno Restorative Skin Therapy Oat Repairing Cream, has a Guru Score of 90%. The luxury pick, Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, has a Guru Score of 86%. So the cheaper jar comes out 4 points ahead.
That makes the gurus' answer pretty clear: when it comes down to these two, you can save your money. Spending more didn't buy a higher score from the experts who reviewed them.
What do the experts say about the budget moisturizer?
Ten experts reviewed the Aveeno cream, and together they gave it a Guru Score of 90%. That's high approval from a solid crowd, and it's the top score in this matchup.
A low price doesn't mean a weak moisturizer, because the Guru Score never looks at the price. It's built only from what the experts said about how the product performed for them. A drugstore cream can beat a luxury one on that measure, and this one does.
When is a splurge moisturizer actually worth it?
The Eight Hour Cream is no letdown. Five experts reviewed it, and a Guru Score of 86% is a strong result. A pricier moisturizer can be the right pick if you love a particular texture, if the ritual of using it matters to you, or if it suits a specific need your skin has.
If you're tempted to splurge, check that product's own Guru Score before you buy, because a luxury price doesn't promise a top score. And whichever jar you pick, it's best patch-tested first.