CeraVe

CeraVe's 16 oz tubs are the best value in fragrance-free skincare, and its 3 oz facial lotions are quietly some of the worst. Buy the Moisturizing Cream, $19.99 for 16 oz at Ulta on 26 August 2026, and the Hydrating Facial Cleanser, $18.99 for 16 oz at Ulta or $16.19 at Target the same day. Skip the AM Facial Moisturizing Lotion SPF 30, which asks $19.99 for 3 oz and loses to a separate moisturizer and sunscreen at both of its jobs. Nothing in the core line costs more than $21.99, and nothing is fragranced.

Is CeraVe good?

CeraVe is a US brand that L'Oréal bought in 2017, built around three ceramides (NP, AP and EOP, labelled 1, 3 and 6-II on the packaging) plus a slow-release delivery system the brand calls MVE. The formulas are deliberately boring: no fragrance, no essential oils, no seasonal reformulation drama. Across the seven core products in our database the average retailer rating is 4.5/5 over 181,100 reviews, and no product sits below 4.2. For a drugstore line, that is an unusually tight spread.

Two caveats before the praise. CeraVe is not cruelty-free; neither the brand nor L'Oréal holds Leaping Bunny certification. It is also not a "clean" brand by any retailer's definition, which only matters if that is your filter. If your filter is barrier repair under $22, this is the strongest drugstore option we cover.

The real pricing catch hides in the sizes. The 16 oz tub works out at $1.25 an ounce, while the 3 oz PM and AM facial lotions run $6.66 an ounce for a similar ceramide base. You are paying a five-times premium for the word "facial" and a pump.

Best CeraVe products

Prices below were checked at Ulta on 26 August 2026, in USD.

Product	Price	Size	Per oz
Moisturizing Cream	$19.99	16 oz	$1.25
Hydrating Facial Cleanser	$18.99	16 oz	$1.19
Foaming Facial Cleanser	$18.99	16 oz	$1.19
Daily Moisturizing Lotion	$17.99	12 oz	$1.50
Skin Renewing Night Cream	$21.99	1.7 oz	$12.94
PM Facial Moisturizing Lotion	$19.99	3 oz	$6.66
AM Facial Moisturizing Lotion SPF 30	$19.99	3 oz	$6.66
Resurfacing Retinol Serum	$21.99	1 oz	$21.99

CeraVe Moisturizing Cream

The highest-rated product in the line at 4.6/5 across 42,300 retailer reviews, and the one we would replace first if it vanished. Petrolatum, the three ceramides and cholesterol in a thick tub cream that handles dry skin on face and body, eczema flares, and the tight, flaky stage after too much retinoid. On an oily face it is too heavy for daily use; keep it as a rescue cream a few nights a week. The tub format means fingers in the product, so use a spatula if that bothers you. Full verdict in our Moisturizing Cream review.

CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser

This is the non-foaming one: it cleans without the squeaky, stripped feeling, which is exactly what dry, sensitive and retinoid-treated skin needs, and Target undercuts Ulta on it by $2.80, at $16.19 for 16 fl oz. It will not remove waterproof makeup on its own; add a balm or oil first if you wear long-wear products. Worth-it breakdown here, and see how it ranks against non-CeraVe options in our best cleanser list.

CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser

Its gel counterpart, 4.5/5 across 28,400 reviews, exists for skin that feels dirty unless a cleanser foams. It removes oil and sunscreen properly and still leaves the barrier alone for most people. Very dry or rosacea-prone skin tends to find it stripping, and the Hydrating version is the safer pick there. Our full take.

CeraVe Skin Renewing Night Cream

The one small-format CeraVe that earns its $12.94 an ounce, because it moonlights as the closest Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask match we have found: eleven shared ingredient slots, including all three ceramides, cholesterol, phytosphingosine and niacinamide, plus two peptides the Jet Lag Mask does not carry. It is silicone-forward, so it can pill over a hyaluronic acid serum, and it blurs rather than plumps. The full comparison lives on our Jet Lag Mask dupes page.

CeraVe PM Facial Moisturizing Lotion

A thin, oil-free niacinamide lotion that has become the standard buffer moisturizer for people starting prescription retinoids, and it is genuinely good at that job. The catch is value: $19.99 for 3 oz, when the Daily Moisturizing Lotion covers most of the same ground at $17.99 for 12 oz. Pay the premium if you specifically want niacinamide and a face-sized pump. Worth-it verdict.

CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum

Encapsulated retinol with licorice extract and niacinamide, aimed at post-acne marks and texture. At 4.2/5 across 12,800 reviews it is the lowest-rated product in the core line, which is normal for a retinol; irritation stories drag every retinol's score down. CeraVe does not publish the retinol percentage, so you cannot compare strength on paper, and anyone past the beginner stage will outgrow it. As a first retinol at $21.99 (1 oz, Ulta, 26 August 2026), it is a reasonable place to start: two nights a week, moisturizer after.

The one to skip: AM Facial Moisturizing Lotion SPF 30

It rates 4.3/5, the complaints cluster on texture, and we think they are fair. Reviewers repeatedly flag pilling under makeup and a noticeable cast on deeper skin tones, and SPF 30 is the floor of what dermatology groups recommend, not a bonus. Skip its $6.66 an ounce, buy the Daily Moisturizing Lotion and a dedicated SPF 50 separately, and you will spend a little more for better protection and a nicer texture from each.

CeraVe dupes

CeraVe sits at the cheap end of every comparison we run, so the useful question is rarely "what dupes CeraVe" and usually "which expensive cream does CeraVe replace". Three of our ingredient-level comparisons feature the brand:

• Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask dupes — the Skin Renewing Night Cream is our closest match, sharing eleven ingredient slots at $12.94 an ounce against the mask's $21.78; you lose the mask ritual and gain silicone slip.
• La Mer Crème de la Mer dupes — the Moisturizing Cream is the internet's favourite answer and the wrong one; it shares petrolatum and glycerin with La Mer and none of the mineral oil, lanolin or algae base.
• Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream dupes — the standard forum swap of CeraVe's facial lotions gets the barrier right and the finish wrong; a flat lotion under foundation is not what Magic Cream buyers are paying for.

If you came here the other way round, wanting a cheaper CeraVe: there is no meaningful one. At $1.19 to $1.50 an ounce for the big sizes, CeraVe is the floor.

CeraVe discount codes

CeraVe barely sells direct, so its prices are set by Ulta, Target and Amazon, and "CeraVe discount codes" are really retailer codes and Sunday-circular sales. The buy one, get one 25% off that Target was running across skin care on 26 August 2026, which covered the CeraVe products on this page, is typical of how the real discounts appear. Our crawler verifies beauty codes before we publish them, and any working code that covers CeraVe lands in the free Tuesday drop. We do not print codes on this page because they expire faster than the page updates.