🇦🇪United Arab Emirates

La Roche-Posay vs Kiehl's

Rated by Lovi · Unbiased, science-based skincare AI trained on real user outcomes · How the Fit score works

La Roche-Posay and Kiehl's are two respected skincare brands under the same parent company, offering distinct approaches to daily care. The French brand is loved for its nourishing serums, comforting moisturizers, gentle cleansers, and soothing eye products formulated with glycerin, thermal water, and niacinamide, suiting oily and acne-prone skin best. Meanwhile, the American brand is widely loved for its thoughtful array of moisturizers, serums, toners, and eye products anchored by glycerin and squalane, suiting skin with dark spots and dry skin best. While both brands harness glycerin to increase hydration and restore barrier function, they differ through La Roche-Posay relying on thermal water and niacinamide to reduce adverse effects and hyperpigmentation, and Kiehl's utilizing squalane to counteract oxidative stress.

La Roche-Posay is a French skincare brand founded in 1975 and owned by L'Oréal S.A. since 1989.

laroche-posay.com.aufr.wikipedia.org

Kiehl's is an American skincare brand founded in 1851 and owned by L'Oréal S.A. since 2000.

loreal.comen.wikipedia.org

This page compares some of the most popular La Roche-Posay and Kiehl's products; for every product of both brands, with a fit score for your own skin, use the Lovi app.

Popular La Roche-Posay vs Kiehl's products

People Say

La Roche-PosayKiehl's
  • Texture Improvement and Skin Softness Mostly MentionedMostly Mentioned
    • “skin feels incredibly soft afterwards — Kiehl's Rare Earth Deep Pore Cleansing Masque”
    • “feels like nothing — Kiehl's Better Screen UV Serum”
    • “absorbs instantly without residue — Kiehl's Ultra Facial Oil-Free Gel Cream”
    • “lightweight and absorbs quickly — La Roche-Posay Mela B3 Serum”
  • Skin Sensitivity and Irritation Mostly MentionedMostly Mentioned
    • “Great retinol for beginners — La Roche-Posay Retinol B3 Serum”
    • “Only cream that doesn't sting — La Roche-Posay Toleriane Dermallergo Eye Cream”
    • “experienced zero irritation — Kiehl's Retinol Skin-Renewing Daily Micro-Dose Serum”
    • “works on dark skin — Kiehl's Better Screen UV Serum”
  • Hydration and Moisture Mostly MentionedMostly Mentioned
    • “absorbs instantly — La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer”
    • “skin feels plump — La Roche-Posay Hyalu B5 Serum”
    • “Keeps skin moisturized for 24+ hours — Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream”
    • “Feels like a drink of water — Kiehl's Hydro-Plumping Serum Concentrate”
  • Brightening and Dark Spots Sometimes NotedOften Mentioned
    • “Acne marks are gone — Kiehl's Clearly Corrective™ Dark Spot Solution”
    • “woke up glowing — Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate”
    • “Skin looks radiant — Kiehl's Clearly Corrective™ Dark Spot Solution”
    • “skin looks brighter — La Roche-Posay Mela B3 Serum”
  • Tint and Makeup Compatibility Rarely NotedSometimes Noted
    • “concealer glides on smoothly — Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado”
    • “no pilling — Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream”
    • “no pilling — Kiehl's Better Screen UV Serum”
    • “makeup sits perfectly — La Roche-Posay Anthelios”
  • Value and Pricing Sometimes NotedMostly Mentioned
    • “expensive for the size — La Roche-Posay Hyalu B5 Serum”
    • “Too expensive for the size — La Roche-Posay Toleriane Dermallergo Eye Cream”
    • “Tube is tiny for the price — La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Gel B5”
    • “pricy daily staple — Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream”
  • Texture and Pilling Issues Often MentionedOften Mentioned
    • “pills like crazy — La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer”
    • “Very sticky — La Roche-Posay Pure Vitamin C10 Serum”
    • “hard to spread — Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado”
    • “too radiant for oily skin — Kiehl's Better Screen UV Serum”
  • Stinging and Adverse Reactions Sometimes NotedSometimes Noted
    • “burns my eyes — La Roche-Posay Anthelios”
    • “burned my face — La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer”
    • “burned my face immediately — Kiehl's Rare Earth Deep Pore Cleansing Masque”
    • “stings my face and feels like burning — Kiehl's Super Multi-Corrective Cream”
  • Packaging and Design Issues Often MentionedRarely Noted
    • “dipping fingers is unsanitary — Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream”
    • “Dropper doesn't reach bottom — Kiehl's Clearly Corrective™ Dark Spot Solution”
    • “pump stops working — La Roche-Posay Lipikar AP+M Triple Repair Moisturizing Cream”

La Roche-Posay vs Kiehl's routines for dry skin

Buy La Roche-Posay routine · AED 454.02 · 85% fitBuy Kiehl's routine · AED 1,652.44 · 84% fitSee multi-brand routine · 96% fit

La Roche-Posay vs Kiehl's routines for oily skin

Buy La Roche-Posay routine · AED 726.14 · 89% fitBuy Kiehl's routine · AED 1,609.62 · 80% fitSee multi-brand routine · 97% fit

La Roche-Posay vs Kiehl's routines for combination skin

Buy La Roche-Posay routine · AED 781.65 · 88% fitBuy Kiehl's routine · AED 1,639.74 · 83% fitSee multi-brand routine · 96% fit

Questions and answers

La Roche-Posay or Kiehl's: which is better?

Both brands offer a High routine fit for most skin types, but La Roche-Posay achieves a High routine fit for acne-prone skin while Kiehl's is Average. Kiehl's does better for texture improvement, brightening dark spots, and tint or makeup compatibility, whereas La Roche-Posay does better for value and pricing.

What is the difference between La Roche-Posay and Kiehl's?

La Roche-Posay and Kiehl's both offer high routine fit levels for dry, oily, combination, sensitive, mature, dark spot, and dry sensitive skin, but La Roche-Posay provides a High fit for acne-prone skin while Kiehl's provides an Average fit. Kiehl's performs better in texture improvement, skin softness, brightening, dark spots, and makeup compatibility, whereas La Roche-Posay does better in value and pricing.

La Roche-Posay or Kiehl's for dry skin?

Both brands offer a High routine fit for dry skin on this page, and their hydrating moisturizers are commonly praised by reviewers. Niacinamide helps reduce cutaneous pigmentation and suppresses melanosome transfer.

The British Journal of Dermatology, 2002Antioxidants, 2021

La Roche-Posay or Kiehl's: which cleanser is better?

La Roche-Posay and Kiehl's both offer cleansers with a high fit for various skin types, but shoppers looking to avoid added fragrance will find that most cleansers on the La Roche-Posay page list no fragrance. Kiehl's cleansers feature specialized options like the Calendula Deep Cleansing Foaming Face Wash, which has a superior fit for oily and oily acne-prone skin.

Which is more affordable, La Roche-Posay or Kiehl's?

La Roche-Posay is more affordable, as value and pricing concerns are more frequently noted by reviewers for Kiehl's compared to La Roche-Posay.

Between La Roche-Posay and Kiehl's, which brand has better options for mature skin?

La Roche-Posay and Kiehl's are both great choices for mature skin, matching this skin type with a High fit level on the page. Both brands feature products that help improve skin firmness and hydration, backed by ingredients like retinol and hyaluronic acid.

The Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 2000Dermatologic Therapy, 2022

How do the fragrance options compare between La Roche-Posay and Kiehl's products?

La Roche-Posay offers more fragrance options, with fourteen out of thirty-five products on this page listing a fragrance, while Kiehl's has only two out of twenty-eight fragranced products.

Which brand performs better for brightening and addressing skin with dark spots?

Kiehl's performs better for brightening and addressing skin with dark spots. Review themes show that Kiehl's does better in this category, and the products on this page for Kiehl's are best suited for skin with dark spots, dry skin, and mature skin.

La Roche-Posay or Kiehl's for oily skin?

Both brands offer a High routine fit for oily skin. La Roche-Posay products on this page are a good option since the brand fits best for oily skin.

La Roche-Posay or Kiehl's: which moisturizer is better?

Both brands offer moisturizers with a High routine fit for dry skin. La Roche-Posay products on this page help support the skin barrier, while Kiehl's provides deep hydration.

Dermatologic Therapy, 2022

La Roche-Posay or Kiehl's for sensitive skin?

Both brands offer a High routine fit for sensitive skin. Reviewers note that both brands help with skin sensitivity and irritation equally well.

La Roche-Posay or Kiehl's: which sunscreen is better?

La Roche-Posay Anthelios achieves a Superior fit level across several skin types on the products on this page, making it a stronger choice for sun protection compared to Kiehl's Better Screen UV Serum which reaches a High fit level.

Research behind their key ingredients

Behind this comparison

Lovi compares products by their fit scores, calculated from the full ingredient list with brand-independent rules our dermatologists and cosmetic chemists build and review, and personalizes every pick with AI trained on the real results of millions of users. Lovi trains its fit score models on a proprietary dataset built from more than 10,000 expert-labeled products and more than 100,000 simulated examples, following an internally consistent methodology presented at Cosmoprof, AMWC, and Skin of Color Update.

  • Nadia Kapleva, MS

    Nadia Kapleva, MS

    Co-founder, Medical Director

    Cosmetic chemist, cosmetologist, aesthetic products developer

  • Alexey Shagraev, PhD

    Alexey Shagraev, PhD

    Co-founder, CEO and CTO

    PhD in computer science, 3x US patent holder, ex-Google, ex-Yandex

  • Dr. Sofía Perea Pérez, MD, MSc

    Dr. Sofía Perea Pérez, MD, MSc

    Medical Board

    Aesthetic medicine practitioner, MSc in Longevity and Anti-Aging Medicine

  • Aishani Shah, MD

    Aishani Shah, MD

    Medical Board

    Specialist dermatologist, MBBS, MD, IFAAD

  • Asya Zubkova, MS

    Asya Zubkova, MS

    Medical Board

    Cosmetic chemist, SCS, IFSCC member

  • Hanna Kurets, MD

    Hanna Kurets, MD

    Medical Board, Medical Advisor

    Dermatology MD

  • Elina Nazarenko, MD

    Elina Nazarenko, MD

    Medical Board

    Dermatology and diagnostic consultant

  • Victoria Derkova, MS

    Victoria Derkova, MS

    Medical Board

    Cosmetic chemist, cosmetic development technologist

How does it fit your skin?

Scan your face, then any product: Lovi shows how well it fits you and what fits even better.

QR code: get the Lovi app
Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play