Is It Worth Splurging on a Moisturizer? We Checked the Scores

Moisturizer is one of the simplest products on the shelf, which makes it exactly the kind of category where a bigger price tag should have to earn its keep. The gurus lined up their top budget pick against their top luxury pick to see whether it does.

So is it worth splurging on a moisturizer?

For moisturizer, the gurus who covered both ends of the shelf landed on the same conclusion: save. The best budget option they reviewed, Cetaphil Skin Activator Hydrating and Firming Cream, holds a Guru Score of 90%. The top luxury pick, SkinBetter Science AlphaRet Overnight Cream, sits at a Guru Score of 91%. That is a single point apart, and a gap that small tells its own story about how much extra a fancier price tag is actually buying in this particular category.

This is not the gurus writing off luxury moisturizers altogether. It is that, specifically for moisturizer, they found the cheaper option keeping pace with the pricier one almost exactly.

What do the experts say about the budget moisturizer?

The six reviewers who covered Cetaphil Skin Activator Hydrating and Firming Cream came away impressed that a moisturizer at this price point still delivers on the basics, with solid hydration and a firming feel that holds up through regular use. Their take was straightforward: doing the actual job of moisturizing does not require a premium price, and a cream built around getting the fundamentals right can perform right alongside pricier competition.

That is the plain reason a low price does not automatically mean a weak product. What matters to the gurus is whether the cream works on skin, not what it costs to buy it.

When is a splurge moisturizer actually worth it?

The thirteen reviewers who weighed in on SkinBetter Science AlphaRet Overnight Cream were not unimpressed either, and its Guru Score of 91% reflects that. Where the gurus suggest a splurge moisturizer can earn its place is less about basic hydration and more about texture, the overall feel on skin, or a specific skin need that a simpler cream is not built to address.

So the sensible move the gurus point to is not ruling out either end of the shelf on principle, but checking the specific product's own Guru Score before deciding, and, as with any new moisturizer, patch testing first, since not every formula suits every skin.