These Night Creams Work to Plump, Hydrate, and Nourish Skin While You Sleep (2024)

When it comes to keeping your skin nourished and well-hydrated, there’s one step you shouldn’t miss in your daily skincare routine: Putting on a good, hydrating night cream right before bed. No matter your specific skin type or concerns, the best night creams can help you achieve glowing skin (especially when paired with a good cleanser and face moisturizer in the a.m., too).

You might be wondering why exactly you need to apply this type of product in the evening. Well, at night when you’re resting, your skin is busy working. “During sleep is when the skin regenerates itself. There is increased blood flow to the skin at night which delivers more nutrients, [and] the extra nutrient supply aids skin repair,” explains Carmen Castilla, M.D., board-certified dermatologist and clinical instructor at Mount Sinai in New York. “This is a great time to enhance the repair process with your skincare routine.”

Crowned the best overall night cream by the Good Housekeeping Institute, this best-selling moisturizer earned top scores in the Beauty Lab’s testing for making skin look brighter and feel softer thanks to its hydrating, anti-aging formula that’s packed with retinol, niacinamide, and peptides. It even boosted skin firmness by 27%, according to measurements with the Lab’s Cutometer device, which measures skin laxity.

A whopping 100% of testers agreed that it made skin feel softer—though some noted that it didn’t absorb very quickly. “My face was firmer and smoother when I woke up each morning,” one tester shared. Reviewers online love it, too (it has over 9,000 five-star ratings on Amazon!), with one shopper writing: “This moisturizer has completely changed the game for me...Fine lines have visibly reduced, and my skin feels smoother and more vibrant.”

This top-rated night cream helps hydrate, brighten, and visibly firm skin with an antioxidant-rich formula. Peptide complex works to reduce the appearance of fine lines, while jojoba seed oil deeply hydrates and acai berry extract helps revive dry, dull skin.

“In love with this overnight cream…I can’t survive without Overnight Star in the winter. No matter how dry and sad my skin is, when I put this on the night before, the next morning my skin is so even, bouncy, and glowy,” raved one Ulta shopper. “I love this cream! I always have issues with my skin being super dry, and I put this cream on almost every night to hydrate, and when I wake up my skin feels amazing,” wrote another reviewer.

Boasting 4.5 stars overall from over 33,000 Amazon ratings (and climbing!), this popular cream deeply hydrates, soothes, and plumps skin with snail mucin—a popular Korean skincare ingredient made of snail secretion filtrate (though snails aren’t harmed in the process of collecting it)—as well as hyaluronic acid and betaine. With a formula that’s hypoallergenic and free of parabens, sulfates, and phtalates, this moisturizer is also great for sensitive skin.

“This cream is great for my 66-year-old face. It’s creamy and silky and plumps up my skin,” wrote one Amazon reviewer. “I like that it absorbs fairly quickly and doesn’t have much of a scent. I use this every night and have noticed that my wrinkles are less visible.”

This retinol night cream is a favorite of the Good Housekeeping Institute, having earned a GH Beauty Award and a GH Seal star. As per the Institute’s data analysis, it made skin look 32% smoother and more radiant after just one week of use—users reported fewer fine lines and eye wrinkles after four weeks, and lessened deep wrinkles and dark spots after eight weeks.

Dr. Lal is also a fan of the fragrance-free cream. “It contains hyaluronic acid and other great ingredients that hydrate your skin for 48 hours,” he says. All in all, it’s a great pick for people who have very dry skin and are in need of a night cream, but who also want an effective retinol formula. However, it could potentially be irritating to sensitive skin—so GH Beauty Lab experts suggest using it every other night to start.

If you’re looking for an overnight mask to apply along with your standard night cream, you can’t go wrong with this pick from Laneige. It quickly absorbs into skin to deeply moisturize overnight, thanks to hydrating ingredients like squalane and hyaluronic acid.

Reviewers love that it’s lightweight, non-irritating on sensitive skin, and results in “smooth and very moisturized” skin once rinsed off in morning. “This stuff works wonders for my skin. I live in a very dry climate and putting this on before bed makes my skin so moisturized and plump when I wake up,” shared one Amazon customer.

“This is a very moisturizing formulation good for sensitive or mature skin types,” says Dr. Castilla. In fact, this night cream is specifically made for sensitive skin types, including allergy-prone skin and dry skin, with a formula that’s fragrance-free, oil-free, paraben-free, and non-comedogenic. Packed with comforting ingredients like glycerin, shea butter, and vitamin E, this top-rated cream helps restore the skin barrier, aiding in overnight repair of the skin.

“This is the only product I can use that calms and keeps my skin moisturized,” one reviewer with rosacea and dermatitis said. “It heals the skin barrier without a heavy or greasy feel. It sinks in immediately...It just keeps my skin nice—less red, intact barrier, no breakouts, no burning, no flaking.”

If you’re looking for a night cream for sensitive skin that includes retinol, this drugstore option is a great buy. The soothing formula works to soften and minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and is non-irritating and gentle on skin. In addition to retinol, it contains coenzyme Q10, a powerful antioxidant, as well as hydrators like glycerin and vitamin E.

One Amazon reviewer who gave it five-stars called it “shockingly good.” Another wrote: “This product has done more to reduce the appearance of wrinkles than any expensive product I’ve used. My face looks much more youthful.”

If you have oily skin, you might stray from night creams due to their reputation for having a bit of a thicker texture. But you can feel safe slathering on this pick from CeraVe. “The lightweight formulation with niacinamide is great for oily and acne-prone skin types,” explains Dr. Castilla. “It also includes ceramides which help repair the skin barrier.”

Reviewers love the lightweight formula that’s oil-free, fragrance-free, paraben-free, oil-free, and non-comedogenic. “I’ve had oily, acne-prone skin all of my life...Every moisturizer I’ve tried in the past has been too much for my skin and has made me break out. Until this one,” wrote one Amazon shopper. “It’s super light and moisturizes without feeling heavy or clogging my pores. My skin even looks healthier, plumper, and more glowy.”

This luxurious cream is good for all skin types, but it’s especially ideal for mature, normal, and dry skin. “The lipids in this cream are great for skin hydration and repairing the skin barrier while not being too thick or occlusive,” explains Dr. Castilla. The antioxidant-rich, moisturizing cream aids in improved elasticity and radiance, as well.

“Yes, it’s pricey...but it really works! After eyeing this cream I took the plunge and have never looked back,” wrote one customer on the Dermstore site. “My face feels hydrated, healthy, and luminous. I feel like it has healed my skin barrier.”

Ever wondered what a Beauty Director opts for in terms of evening skincare? Enter this skin-boosting overnight balm by Ren Clean Skincare, a go-to for April Franzino, beauty director for Prevention, Woman’s Day, and Good Housekeeping. “I used this rich balm packed with plant oils as a last step in my nighttime routine after my retinol treatment, and it felt so soothing on my parched skin and left no flakes or traces of dryness behind in the morning,” she explains.

Reviewers also say this hydrating cream is great for calming sensitive skin. “The most effective product for recovering your skin barrier and giving your skin the most beautiful glow,” wrote one Sephora shopper. “I have extremely sensitive and acne-prone skin. The slightest change in my routine will break me out instantly. The overnight recovery balm has changed my skin from being absolutely broken and damaged, to healthy, glowing and protected.”

Below, find a few tips from Dr. Lal and Dr. Castilla for selecting the best night cream for your needs.

✔️ Consider retinol. “The good night creams are the ones that have retinol,” Dr. Lal says. “It’s best to use at nighttime, so it does not get degraded by the sun.” Retinol is a powerful, multitasking ingredient that “helps reduce fine lines and wrinkles, increases skin thickness, and improves collagen production,” continues Dr. Lal. Retinol can be irritating, though, so start gradually by applying the cream a couple of times a week, to every other day, to nightly use. Always use face sunscreen the morning after you apply a retinol product.

✔️ Try a formula with peptides. “Peptides are really important, essentially helping repair your skin barrier,” explains Dr. Lal. “Think of peptides as fertilizer for your skin’—helping your skin heal, building collagen, softening fine lines, and overall nourishing your skin.

✔️ Go fragrance-free. Dr. Lal suggests looking for products without fragrance as a general rule of thumb, but notes that for a night cream, this is especially important as the product will be on your skin overnight, for a long period of time. “Don't just look for unscented, make sure the packaging says ‘fragrance-free,’” explains Dr. Lal.

✔️ Stick with hydration. While Dr. Castilla suggests avoiding “very occlusive” night creams (think: heavy oils or petrolatum), which can lead to clogged pores and breakouts, there are a number of hydrating and moisturizing ingredients to look for. “I recommend everyone look for products that have things like ceramides, squalene, dimethicone, glycerin, and hyaluronic acid,” explains Dr. Lal. “These are ingredients that are going to help your skin barrier stay hydrated even if you are using other ingredients like retinol which can dry you out.”

✔️ Consider your skin type. “Dry or mature skin types should look for thicker creams, while oily skin types can consider a thinner, light-weight formulation,” explains Dr. Castilla. You also may want to tailor your night cream to the time of year, as Dr. Castilla notes that thicker formulations are best suited in cold, winter months while thinner formulations are often needed during humid, summer months.

Our team conducted extensive research and consulted Karan Lal, D.O., M.S., F.A.A.D., double board-certified cosmetic dermatologist with Affiliated Dermatology in Scottsdale, AZ; Carmen Castilla, M.D., board-certified dermatologist and clinical instructor at Mount Sinai in New York; and Heidi Waldorf, M.D., a clinical associate professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine of Mount Sinai in New York.

We also poured through countless user ratings and reviews to find the best night creams for various needs and preferences. Lastly, we referenced the Good Housekeeping Institute’s coverage of the best night creams to choose the Olay Regenerist Retinol 24 Night Moisturizer and the RoC Retinol Correxion Line Smoothing Max Hydration Cream.