The 7 Most-Wanted Face Creams and Their Less Expensive Drugstore Dupes

Face creams—specifically expensive ones—are having a serious moment right now in the beauty industry. Cult-loved, holy-grail formulations from brands such as La Mer, La Prairie, and Augustinus Bader are favored and touted all over Instagram by makeup artists and their glowing A-list clientele. The urge to splurge on a small tub or jar of the stuff is stronger than ever. But can we just say something? You don't need to spend a fortune on your moisturizer, people.

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(Image credit: @eggcanvas)

As much as we love a decadent whip of 24-karat, rose quartz–spiked spring-water dew, we'd almost argue that you shouldn't spend your hard-earned dollars on two ounces of such an elixir. You certainly don't need to do so to have healthy, glowing skin (end rant). What's more, most drugstore brands and moisturizers are taking nods from the aforementioned highly coveted formulas and utilizing the exact same ingredients and technologies in their own way-more-affordable versions.

Despite their buzzy allure and admittedly impressive ingredient lists, expensive moisturizers aren't necessarily doing things for your face that affordable drugstore blends can't. To prove our point, we selected seven of the most iconic, well-loved moisturizers in the business and searched the depths of our favorite drugstores for like-minded compromises. Ahead, we've matched seven of the best holy-grail moisturizers with seven equally lovable drugstore options. Keep scrolling! Neither your complexion nor your credit card will be sorry. 

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This article was originally published at an earlier date and has been updated.

Beauty Director

Erin has been writing a mix of beauty and wellness content for Who What Wear for over four years. Prior to that, she spent two and half years writing for Byrdie. She now calls Santa Monica home but grew up in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and studied writing, rhetoric, and communication at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. She studied abroad in Galway, Ireland, and spent a summer in L.A. interning with the Byrdie and Who What Wear family. After graduating from UW, she spent one year in San Francisco, where she worked as a writer for Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen before moving down to L.A. to begin her career as a beauty editor. She considers her day-to-day beauty aesthetic very low-maintenance and relies on staples like clear brow serum (from Kimiko!), Lawless's Lip Plumping Mask in Cherry Vanilla, and an eyelash curler. For special occasions or days when she's taking more meetings or has an event, she'll wear anything and everything from Charlotte Tilbury (the foundations are game-changing), some shimmer on her lids (Stila and Róen do it best), and a few coats of the best mascara-type product on earth, Surratt's Noir Lash Tint.