12 Organic & Natural Face Moisturizers For Non-Toxic Skincare (2024)
Image: The Organic Skin Co
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The Best Organic & Natural Moisturizers
Facial moisturizer is an essential part of every skincare routine. This is especially true in dry climates, during cold seasons, and for anyone with less-than-perfect skin. But when it comes to choosing a moisturizer, there are quite possibly too many options — and not all of them stack up.
So how do you find an organic and natural face moisturizer that also works well? What’s the best moisturizer for your skin type and concerns? Read on to learn more about what to look for in a moisturizer, and which brands to start with.
Why choose organic and natural moisturizers?
It might be easy to buy whatever moisturizer you see at the drugstore. But there are potential consequences to buying a facial moisturizer without digging deeper into its ingredients. For example, some research shows that too much exposure to parabens, a common additive to personal care products, can lead to certain diseases such as breast cancer. Similarly, sulfates are a common ingredient put in cleansers to help make them foamy. Sulfates, when heated during manufacturing processes, can take on toxic traits that may also lead to cancers and other long-term illnesses.
But wait — how can something you put on your face affect other parts of the body? That’s because our skin is extremely absorbent. So, if you use a moisturizer with sulfates and parabens, those ingredients can be absorbed from your skin into your bloodstream, where they could cause damage to your body down the line. Additionally, everyone reacts to these ingredients in different ways. So, rather than taking a risk with additives and potentially cancerous ingredients that you can’t pronounce, it’s best to stick with the natural ingredients that you know will keep you safe.
Organic and natural moisturizers aren’t just made with healthier, safer ingredients, but they’re also likely produced in more ethical, earth-friendly ways. For example, companies that use toxic products may also contribute to environmental pollution by bringing those products into the world (not to mention the waste that their factories can produce). Another perk to organic and natural skincare is that it tends to be better for the environment once you use it, whether it’s the excess that goes into the water supply when you wash your face, or the trace materials in the bottles long after they’ve been recycled.
Our Top Picks for Natural & Organic Face Moisturizers:
1. Purity Woods Age-Defying Dream Cream
Price: $64
Truly a 'dream cream,' Purity Wood's line of USDA Certified Organic skincare leaves your skin feeling soft & hydrated.
With its powerful natural ingredients (25 of nature's best botanicals), this formula restores your skin's vitality.
It also has a very refreshing scent and a 60-Day money-back guarantee!
2. Herbivore Botanicals Cloud Jelly
Price: $50
Herbivore Botanicals emphasizes high-quality, natural ingredients intended to restore the skin to its natural radiance without the use of harmful chemicals or production processes. Herbivore avoids chemicals, sulfates, parabens, fillers, and other toxins, and focuses on plant-based, food-grade cold-pressed oils and other certified organic ingredients. Cloud Jelly is a hyaluronic acid alternative that relies on tremella mushroom and vegan collagen to plum and moisturize skin.
In fact, this mushroom ingredient is proven to hold up to 5000 times its weight in water, making it much more effective than mainstream lab-made ingredients. This serum is also balancing and smells light and floral.
3. August and Monroe Calm Cream
Price: $48
Clean, vegan, and cruelty-free, August and Monroe is a skincare and makeup brand that emphasizes transparency across all of their ingredients and processes. For example, August and Monroe have what they call an ingredient dictionary for every product, so you can not only see what is in every product – but also what it is and why it’s added. August and Monroe’s Vitamin B3 Gel Moisturizer was created to help calm all common skin problems, from redness and bumps to irritation and sensitivity.
In addition to reducing shine, minimizing texture, and fading scars, August and Monroe’s calm cream also helps protect the skin from environmental stressors like pollution and toxins.
4. The Organic Skin Co Moisturizer Line
Price: $25-30
The Organic Skin Co is an ultra clean, superfood-forward skincare brand that’s committed to supporting organic farming, utilizing compostable packaging, and sourcing ingredients from ethical community farms in India.
They even plant a tree with every purchase through their partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects.
Many of their botanical ingredients are Co2 extracts — a process of accessing botanical nutrients without heat and preserving all of their compounds and benefits. Their Daily Rituals moisturizer balances the skin’s pH and has a bright, illuminating effect thanks to sea buckthorn and rosehip. For a more calming cream, Task Force Nine aids dry patches, breakouts, and other minor skin concerns with turmeric, calendula, honeysuckle, and a load of other fresh ingredients.
5. Glitz Soap Co’s Nourish + Glow Renewing Night Cream
Price: $27
If you love the scent of fresh roses, this cream will be a dream to put on before bed every night! This nighttime moisturizer enhances skin glow and radiance. With hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, peptides, rosehip, and jojoba oils, it evens your skin tone, minimizes the appearance of wrinkles, & leaves your skin smooth and plump.
Glitz Soap Co is a Pennsylvania-based bath and beauty brand on a mission to help you indulge in bubbly and eco-conscious personal care rituals.
6. Taspen's Organics Face Cream
Price: $80
This Colorado-based skincare line is family-owned and uses only organic, all-natural ingredients of the highest quality. Taspen’s was founded by a registered nurse and herbalist, so all of their formulations leverage the medicinal properties of herbs, essential oils, and other plant-derived ingredients that help heal the skin and body from the outside in. Taspen’s has multiple facial moisturizers, but their Rose and Chamomile Luxury Facial Cream is perfect for hydrating, stimulating, balancing, and soothing stressed skin.
Ingredients like olive oil, jojoba oil, and sea buckthorn oil help with blemishes and wrinkles while adding hydration to the skin without clogging pores.
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7. Acure Ultra Hydrating Moisturizer
Price: $20
Acure has a passion for making healthier, high-quality skin and hair care more accessible for everyday people. They steer clear of parabens, sulfates, and other synthetic additives and don’t allow animal testing for any of their products. Acure’s moisturizer line spans multiple powerful products, including their Ultra Hydrating Ceramide Day Serum, which provides deep moisture but also a light feeling, making it perfect for everyday wear.
Similarly, their Ultra Hydrating 12 Hour Facial Moisturizer nourishes deeply dry skin with ingredients like ashwagandha, kale, holy basil, reishi, and more. For an overnight moisturizer, try the fluffy, melatonin-infused Ultra Hydrating Overnight Dream Cream, which seals in moisture and helps users wake up feeling bright and flowy.
8. Fat and the Moon Aloe Lotion
Price: $18
Looking for a clean, unscented moisturizer to soothe dry skin? The five-star-rated Aloe Lotion from Fat and the Moon contains calming aloe vera, moisturizing sunflower and coconut oils, beeswax, and elderberry. The light consistency is great for daily use for all-day hydration without added shine and grease.
Another benefit of this lotion is that it’s equally formulated for the body, making it a great all-purpose, on-the-go option for all you moisturizer needs (the 2 oz container option is perfect for travel). Fat and the Moon uses only ethically-sourced, fresh ingredients and implements only reusable, recyclable, or compostable shipping and packaging materials.
9. Mad Hippie Face Cream
Price: $27
Mad Hippie is on a mission to foster beauty inside and out. $1 of every sale on Mad Hippie’s website goes to conservation organizations such as the National Resources Defense Council.
Plus, they partner with TerraCycle to ensure their products are recyclable.
This brand’s Face Cream has ingredients like niacinamide, aloe, and vitamin E to nourish skin and reduce redness.
Another perk of the Face Cream is that it can be layered with an additional facial oil or cream overtop if more moisture is needed. Thanks to the natural ingredients and soothing antioxidants and peptides, this Face Cream is great for evening out skin tone and providing a radiant glow.
10. Osea Seabiotic® Water Cream
Price: $54
Osea is a Malibu-based skincare brand that leverages seaweed to create nutrient-rich skincare products that are climate neutral, vegan, and cruelty-free. Their Seabiotic® Water Cream combines the benefits of seaweed with probiotic for a visible boost in hydration and softness. Weightless, fragrance-free, and designed to deliver 72-hour moisture, this cream can be used both morning and night and is known to absorb quickly into the skin.
It also contains only clean, non-pore-clogging ingredients, and since it’s dermatologist-approved, it’s great for all skin types. If you live in Los Angeles, you can bring back empty products for recycling and for every six bottles, receive a $40 facial treatment credit.
11. Ursa Major Fortifying Face Balm
Price: $38
Ursa Major is a Vermont-based skincare brand made to simplify healthy, natural skincare for active, on-the-go people.
Another refreshing characteristic of this brand is that all their products are totally gender-neutral and for all ages, making them easier to share across friends and families and ditch age-old beauty standards. The Fortifying Face Balm is an extremely light serum that moisturizes the skin while leaving a matte, finished sheen.
This weightless formula helps tighten skin and soothe any redness, giving the perfect foundation for adding SPF, wearing foundation, or going makeup-free. This balm is cooling and made with lavender, lime, spearmint, and rosemary.
12. Tata Harper Water Lock Moisturizer
Price: $68
Tata Harper is a high-end skincare and makeup brand that never uses toxic ingredients and chemicals. Instead, they focus on plant-derived formulations and high performing ingredients that make skin look more beautiful, naturally. Across Tata Harper’s line, they use over 300 raw ingredients sourced directly from 68 different countries, sometimes with over 40 of those powerful ingredients in a single product, which explains the higher price point in Tata Harper’s luxury skincare line.
Their Water Lock Moisturizer is a light hydrating facial lotion free of parabens and full of hydrating ingredients like orange and pomegranate. This lotion is a moisturizer-primer hybrid, so you can skip primers and add makeup directly over the skin.
About the Author
Michelle Polizzi is an independent writer and storyteller with 7 years of experience creating content online. Her writing has appeared in leading publications like Bitch, WELL+GOOD, Insider, and Healthline, and she covers topics like sustainable living, mental health, and intersectional feminism. Currently, she's pursuing an MFA in creative writing.
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