Best Summer Facial Moisturizers for Oily Skin, Dry Skin, & MORE!

Summer’s coming! That means for many of us it’s time to switch to a different formula for moisturizer. For some it can be as simple as just using the lighter version of your current favorite moisturizer, but if you’re looking to try something new, I have some options for you!

Click on any product to buy or if you need more info. The products listed are among the best-selling, highly-rated moisturizers out there.

Find out why you may need to switch your moisturizer each season here.

Dry Skin

Depending on what the summer weather brings where you live, you still obviously want to hydrate and moisturize, but you may not need a heavy moisturizer like you would need in the winter.

The moisturizers below include water creams which pack tons of hydration but feel like nothing on. You can wear these on their own (with sunscreen during the day of course) or you can layer a creamy moisturizer on top if you feel like you need it (and SPF during the day).

Department store: (click on any product to buy or for more info)

Drugstore/budget: (click on any product to buy or for more info)

Oily Skin

My oily-skinned sisters, this is the time of year we both love (yay summer outings that are practiced with social distancing) and dread (lawd, HOW MUCH oil is coming out of me?!?!?). But some of you oily-skinned beauties self-sabotage. You do things like not wear moisturizer, use drying toners and astringents in an attempt to “zap” the oil, or you over-cleanse. Check out my oily skin checklist post for more things you should NOT do if you have oily skin.

My dear oily friends, the goal should be to balance oily skin and not to obliterate all the oils. Your trifling ways can actually make the skin produce even more oil :/

So while you can check out the numerous posts I’ve written over the years on oily skin, the basic thing to get here is YOU NEED A MOISTURIZER EVEN IF YOU HAVE OILY SKIN. That moisturizer doesn’t need to be thick and heavy to work–some people get by with a hydrating serum and then protection with SPF.

Great thing is that we have a market overflowing with moisturizers for every skin type, every skin issue imaginable, and they come in various formulas of which come in forms that work well for oily skin.

There are moisturizers that hydrate really well but feel like nothing on. You might also love some mattifying moisturizers that help to balance oily skin. I’ve included a number of these in the list below. Click on any to buy or get more info. And if they don’t contain SPF, you’ll need to layer SPF over it. I’ll add some links to great sunscreens later in this post.

Department store: (click on any product to buy or for more info)

Drugstore/budget: (click on any product to buy or for more info)

Combination Skin

So if you’re dry in some areas and oily in others (typically your T-zone), finding a good moisturizer that doesn’t make you feel too dry or too oily can seem like quite the assignment. Luckily though water creams, bouncy moisturizers, and water gels have increased in popularity over the years. These type of moisturizers pack a lot of hydration without feeling heavy AND there are many to choose from.

Department store: (click on any product to buy or for more info)

Drugstore/budget: (click on any product to buy or for more info)

Normal Skin

I’ve always found the name for this skin type to be a bit misleading sometimes. Normal skin is basically skin that is balanced—you aren’t dry, you aren’t oily—BUT things like change in season, weather, reaction to skincare products, hormones, etc. can alter the way “normal” skin behaves.

So when it comes to finding a moisturizer for normal skin, you do have quite a number of options. If you’re feeling a bit dry, you can lean towards something more hydrating—choosing either a water cream type of texture where (like I’ve mentioned a few times already in this post) you’ll get tons of hydration packed in a formula that feels extremely lightweight OR you can choose something creamier in nature because—in the words of Tabitha Brown, “that’s your business.”

In the summer especially if it’s particularly hot and humid, you may opt for moisturizers geared towards oilier skin types. If it’s hot and dry, you may opt for moisturizers geared towards combo or drier skins.

In other words, you can shop from most of the sections of this post.

Sunscreen

Listen, ALL SKIN TYPES, ALL SKIN TONES need to wear sunscreen during the day. Even if it’s cloudy, even if it’s raining, even if you’re only outside for two minutes, even if you’re just working inside, even if it’s winter, even if it’s spring, even if it’s fall. You need to wear it here, you need to wear it there.

The main thing with wearing sunscreen, is to find one you love that feels good on, looks good on, and works with your lifestyle because that means you will want to wear it.

You can have a moisturizer with SPF or you can have what I call a “straight up” SPF meaning you moisturize and then put the sunscreen on top. But don’t go mixing your sunscreen with anything at home—you can wind up degrading the sunscreen and not get the proper sun protection.

I have tested likely HUNDREDS of sunscreens over the years. You can browse through my non-ashy sunscreen archives and check out my sunscreen playlist on YouTube for even more including mineral/physical formulas for those who find chemical sunscreens to be irritating.

Which moisturizer are you currently using and what’s your skin type? Tell me below!