With our kind of muggy weather (yes, summers and beyond!), it’s no surprise that gel moisturisers are a hit. Their lightweight texture offers a good dose of hydration without that icky-sticky or heavily layered-on feeling you get from thick face creams. And by now we know that well-hydrated skin equals supple, healthy, youthful complexion.
So, What Is A Gel Moisturiser?
This kind of moisturiser is usually water-based and oil-free, which makes its texture light and airy. Gel Moisturisers are suited to all skin types (yay!) especially oily and combination skin types because they don’t feel greasy, and they are non-comedogenic, which means they don’t clog your pores (double yay!)
1. Clinique Moisture Surge 100H Auto-replenishing Hydrator
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This peachy-pink pot from Clinique is an upgrade of the brand’s OG gel moisturiser and is every skincare junkie’s favourite. It’s a refreshing oil-free gel-cream with aloe bio-ferment and hyaluronic acid that penetrates deep into the skin giving you that shine-free glow and long-lasting hydration.
Price: Rs. 2,950 for 50ml
2. Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel
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Another much-loved gel moisturiser, this lightweight one—in its dreamy aqua-blue packaging—is absorbed quickly into the skin and gives it an instant boost of hydration. Over time, it helps strengthens the skin’s barrier and activates the skin’s natural ability to produce hyaluronic acid for longer-lasting moisture.
Price: Rs. 1,000 for 50gm
3. Caudalie Vinosource-Hydra Grape Water Gel Moisturiser
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This French skincare company has harnessed all the power of grapes and vines, and it has done it again with this fresh gel-cream texture moisturiser that hydrates and soothes the skin leaving it soft and supple. Enriched with organic prebiotic grape water and aloe vera, it offers hydration, repairs the skin’s barrier, and makes the complexion look and feel fresher.
Price: Rs. 2,950 for 50ml
4. COSRX Green Tea Aqua Soothing Gel Cream
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Feel like you’ve toasted in the sun? Then this one is for you. As its name suggests, this is a soothing, cooling moisturiser that helps calms inflamed, irritated, heated skin. Aloe ferox leaf (a kind of single-stemmed aloe) extract comes together with green tea leaf extract to offer relief from sunburns, redness, dryness and sensitivity, as well as reduce blemishes.
With its anti-inflammatory properties, this option suits all skin types, calming and balancing them.
Price: Rs. 1,870 for 50ml
5. belif The True Cream – Aqua Bomb
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‘Flood’ your skin with moisture with this ultra-lightweight gel cream that instantly cools and refreshes skin while providing intensive hydration. Ideal for normal, combination, and oily skin types, this formula contains a blend of apothecary herbs including lady’s mantle, an antioxidant-rich plant, which helps neutralise skin-damaging free radicals, improves skin elasticity, and minimises the appearances of pores giving soft, smooth, supple skin.
Price: Rs. 1,690 for 25ml
6. Aqualogica Hydrate+ Gel Face Moisturizer
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Packed with the benefits coconut water and hyaluronic acid, this gel moisturiser enhances hydration levels making your skin look dewy and plump. The lightweight formula quickly absorbs, and locks in moisture, resulting in hydrated, fresher-looking skin.
Price: Rs. 699 for 100gm
7. Juice Beauty Prebiotix Hydrating Gel Moisturizer
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This moisturiser’s prebiotic blend includes viola flower, chia and coconut which act as a protective layer on the skin, locking in moisture for radiant, hydrated looking skin. Fermented kumaru helps boosts the skin luminosity, while linseed helps soothe distressed skin. It’s got a calming aroma owing to essential oils of lavender, clary sage and juniper. How relaxing is that!
Price: Rs. 5,500 for 50ml
8. The Body Shop Vitamin E Gel Moisture Cream
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Best suited for normal to combination skin, this fast-absorbing Vitamin E Gel Moisture Cream feels super light and refreshing. Made with raspberry extract and hyaluronic acid, it offers shine-free moisturisation and protects skin with 48hr hydration.
Price: Rs. 1,145 for 50ml
9. O3+ Vitamin- C & Turmeric Glow Gel Cream
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Turmeric and vitamin C, now that’s an ace pairing! Enriched with the two, this glow moisturiser brightens your skin in under a week. It addresses pigmentation and dullness due to dark and ultra-fine spots, reduces signs of ageing and evens out skin tone.
Price: Rs. 650 for 50gm
10. L’Oréal Paris Revitalift Crystal Gel Cream
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This water-based cream is suited to all skin types but combination skin will really benefit from it thanks to its key ingredient, salicylic acid which helps exfoliate dead cells, unclog pores and control sebum production.
Price: Rs. 699 for 50ml
11. Forest Essentials Light Hydrating Facial Gel Pure Aloe Vera
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A blend of naturally cooling pure aloe vera, fresh cucumber extracts, and glycerin this gel speaks summer hydration! It helps soothe and refresh the skin, while infusions of wheat germ extract and floral waters act as natural humectants which replenish the skin’s moisture. It also contains Ayurvedic extracts that stimulate and renew skin cells.
Price: Rs. 1,550 for 50gm
12. Laneige Water Bank Hydro Cream EX
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A water-based deep hydration cream, replenishes the skin and builds a moisture barrier. Its water zipper technology locks in the moisture for 24-hour moisture retention, while the antioxidant effect of garden cress also provides skin purification.
Price: Rs. 2,390/- for 50ml
Looking for more hydration options? Then read this article we did on Polyglutamic Acid in skincare.
