The 12 Best New Skin-Care Products for Combination Skin

Having combination skin—which has characteristics of both dry skin and oily, acne-prone skin—often means walking a tightrope with your skin care. You don’t want to use anything that will strip your skin of moisture completely or anything that will ramp up oil production and cause breakouts. To maintain that delicate balance, derms often recommend that you use a combination of acids for exfoliation, antioxidants for brightening and strengthening skin, and hydrators—while avoiding potential irritants like dyes.

To find out the best new products for combination skin, we had a range of testers (many who have combination skin themselves) try out the latest from brands like Philosophy, Kiehl’s, and Murad, and rounded up some winners for all the steps along your skin-care routine: from cleansing and exfoliating, to moisturizing and slathering on sunscreen.

Best Moisturizer for Combination Skin: Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream

Our testers were very charmed by the thick, whipped texture of the relaunched Ultra Facial Cream from Kiehl’s. The new formula nixes the parabens, but keeps a skin-friendly blend of superstar oils like squalane oil and hydrators like glycerin. A key factor for people with combination skin: It’s lightweight and never greasy, which testers reported (see below). See the full ingredient list here. (And if you’re curious about parabens, including whether you actually need to be freaked out by them, you should read more about what the science says here—it’s fairly nuanced, and the long story short is that you shouldn’t really worry. But if you doworry…again, this product doesn’t have them, anyway.)

Bonus Points, Per the Experts: This product comes with the acne-fighting salicylic acid, which dermatologists noted could be helpful for combination skin.

One Tester Said: “As someone with combination skin, I loved this moisturizer. It was thick and rich, but didn’t feel heavy or sticky on my face. It smelled nice (actually barely smelled at all, which I prefer) and left my skin feeling very soft after just one use.” Read more…