I am not someone who typically suffers with dry skin….ever…but after this winter I give all the props to those who deal with it. It can be so painful and itchy that it makes me yearn for my oily skin issues again.

I don’t know what happened this winter, I don’t know if it’s the weather being so finicky here in the mid-atlantic, air quality, mixture of all the things, but my skin rebelled hard this year. Since November it has been so dry and flaky and itchy and it just drove me insane.

It was so bad at one point, I was putting moisturizer and lotion on my face 4 times a day so it wouldn’t feel so tight and itchy. I went to my doctor who believes it’s eczema, which I’ve gotten in the winter before, but never on my face. She gave me cream for the bad areas (but of course cautioned against using it around my eyes, which was one of my bad areas) but also suggested a new moisturizer until my face went back to normal that would be more hydrating as well as protecting for my skin.

I’ve heard of CeraVe for years but I’d never used it because any face typically doesn’t need hardcore moisture. I got the daytime moisturizer and the nighttime moisturizer, since I typically use something different morning and night, and I admit, even though I’d heard good things, I was skeptical.

I feel like an elitist for saying this, but part of the reason why I was so skeptical is because I don’t really use drugstore moisturizers.

HEAR ME OUT!

I’ve just never found a good drugstore moisturizer for people with oily skin. I just haven’t. Most people with oily skin need a gel or a jelly consistency in moisturizer and I hadn’t found anything that didn’t make the oil in my face worse.

So because I’d really never bought moisturizer at Target, I wasn’t sure how well it would work for me, but I was willing to try anything.

And basically….

THIS STUFF IS MAGIC!

I’m not going to say it healed my skin because there was a prescription cream involved as well, but it definitely helped to calm and hydrate my skin when it needed it most. The super annoying itching and tight-feeling in my skin subsided within a couple of days and it started to feel back to normal within a couple weeks.

I will admit that I tried to go back to my regular moisturizer (which is a gel…cause…oily normally) and my face was like, “nah…nerp….not happening” so I went straight back to the CeraVe and my skin has been happy ever since.

The day cream is pretty thick, which I initially thought my skin wouldn’t respond to, but it sinks in really well and feels lightweight once it’s absorbed. It doesn’t make my makeup slide off or make me feel greasy mid-day. I take a couple of pumps and and pat it into my skin in the morning and let it set for a few minutes before putting primer and my makeup on.

The night cream actually feels thinner than the day cream, which seemed odd to me because I would have expected that to be the thicker product. But I do a 2-3 pumps of that as well and massage it onto my face and neck before going to bed and my skin feels super soft in the morning.

As a side by side comparison; the daytime cream is on the left and the nighttime is on the right:

It does seem like the nighttime one should be the one on the left, but I swear it doesn’t actually leave my skin oily/greasy or feel heavy in any way, which is great!

So, really, what I’m saying here is…..I’m a drugstore moisturizer convert. And, as I’ve stated many times in the course of my life, you don’t necessarily have to spend a ton of money to get results. While I’m sure I’ll likely go back to using my normal “higher end brand” moisturizer when my skin goes back to normal it does mean that I’m more open to trying other less expensive options and seeing how they work.

Who knows, maybe I’ll find another gem!