La Mer the moisturizing soft cream for dry sensitive skin
Algae Extract
Butyrospermum Parkii Butter Shea Butter
Hyaluronic Acid
Glycerin
CaffeineAverage
- SuperiorDry Skin Fit
- AverageEffectiveness
- HighSafety
Works for dry sensitive skin; other moisturizers fit it better.
This fit is calculated for the concerns frequently associated with dry sensitive skin: flakiness, tightness, redness, fine lines, and wrinkles. For scores and recommendations based on your full skin profile, including your 12D face scan results and any goals or preferences you have, please use the Lovi app.
Page built Nov 8, 2026How the Fit score works
Lovi Assistant explains
- This product offers excellent moisturizing for your dry and sensitive skin, with petrolatum and shea butter working to hydrate and strengthen your skin barrier. Glycerin and hyaluronic acid further enhance this hydration, providing essential moisture to combat dryness and flakiness.
- The formula is designed to support overall skin health and resilience, making it a generally beneficial choice for maintaining comfortable, well-hydrated skin.
- The safety profile is excellent, with no harsh or prohibited ingredients identified, ensuring it is suitable for sensitive skin.
How to apply
- Could be used as part of your AM or PM routine. Start using this moisturizer 3 times a week and move to daily use if your dry skin tolerates it well.
- Apply this moisturizer after cleansing and toner in the morning, or after your serum in the evening. Always pair it with SPF in the morning.
- Gently press a small amount of the moisturizer into your skin. Avoid rubbing it harshly to protect your sensitive skin.
- Apply the moisturizer on slightly damp skin to help with hydration absorption. This also works well for dry and flaky skin types.
- Do a patch test before your first use. Avoid the eye area to prevent any irritation.
People Say
★4.7Overall rating based on 1.8k+ reviewsBased on a very large amount of data, this product is frequently praised for its deep hydration, lightweight feel, and ability to impart a luminous glow, benefiting normal, combination, and sensitive skin types. Many users report improvements in skin texture and a reduction in redness. However, a moderate number of users with acne-prone or oily skin experienced breakouts, and a very high frequency of reviews mention concerns about the product's exceptionally high price point relative to its perceived benefits.
Highlights
Deeply hydrating Mostly Mentioned
- “Keep my skin soft and hydrated all day.”
- “It's deeply moisturising and my skin never looks better.”
- “Provides an excellent base for my makeup... just a hydrated and luminous glow.”
- “This has completely changed the texture and appearance of my skin.”
Extremely expensive Mostly Mentioned
- “While I did enjoy the La Mer face cream, I definitely don't think it's worth the high cost.”
- “The long-term results weren't as 'miraculous' as the price might suggest.”
- “Unfortunately high end skincare products are highly overrated and 90% of the times not worth their price tag.”
Lightweight, absorbs fast Often Mentioned
- “The texture is lighter than the original cream, absorbs quickly and doesn't feel too heavy.”
- “Absorb into my skin immediately leaving it looking fresh and healthy.”
- “It feels light weight with out any oily residue.”
- “I put it on my skin and I was surprised my skin immediately drank it up.”
Luminous glow Often Mentioned
- “I really like the luminous glow that it gives.”
- “Not glittery, not oily—just that 'my skin is healthy' look.”
- “Gives a glow effect. nourishes the skin and makes it hydrated.”
- “It gives me a healthy, hydrated glow rather than a greasy shine.”
Calms redness Sometimes Noted
- “The algae definitely helped with some of the redness I had.”
- “When my skin is stressed, this is one of the moisturizers I reach for because it feels calming.”
- “Works well to moisturise and calm skins.”
- “It's a nearly unscented gentle moisturizer that I incorporated... without any signs of irritation.”
Causes breakouts Sometimes Noted
- “It doesn't moisturize well, it leaves a weird film and it clogged my pores.”
- “Unfortunately, all it did was contribute to massive breakouts and an oily complexion.”
- “Interestingly, I can't do the soft cream and I can only do the original cream [due to breakouts].”
- “Because I have oily, acne-prone skin... I do think [other products] work better.”
Leaves residue Rarely Noted
- “It didn't absorb well and left a heavy residue.”
- “The cream failed to absorb into my skin (like at all), leaving my face feeling coated.”
- “I found it difficult to use at night because the cream would get all over my pillow, leaving behind residue.”
Sources: lovi.care, nordstrom.com, sephora.sg, influenster.com, reddit.com, lemon8-app.com, and more
Questions and answers
How well does LA MER The Moisturizing Soft Cream work for dry sensitive skin?
This product works well for dry and sensitive skin, offering great hydration and barrier protection with petrolatum, shea butter, glycerin, and hyaluronic acid. Because other options fit this skin type even better, a product of this type needs highly effective, soothing ingredients that provide deep hydration and nourishment without any risk of irritation.
Which ingredients make this cream a good fit for dry sensitive skin?
Petrolatum, shea butter, glycerin, and hyaluronic acid make this cream a good fit by providing deep hydration and strengthening your skin barrier to combat dryness. To achieve an even better fit for dry sensitive skin, a product of this type needs highly soothing ingredients that offer significant nourishment without any risk of irritation or allergens.
What does Algae Extract do for dry sensitive skin?
Algae extract helps calm dry and sensitive skin while reducing water loss and defending against irritation. It is unlikely to cause issues and may help keep the skin barrier strong and comfortable.
Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, 2012International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 2021
What does Butyrospermum Parkii Butter do for dry sensitive skin?
Butyrospermum Parkii Butter helps keep dry sensitive skin soft and calm by strengthening the skin barrier and soothing irritation. This ingredient helps lock in moisture while protecting the skin from environmental stressors without clogging pores. A product for this skin type needs rich moisturizing ingredients like shea butter alongside soothing botanical agents to calm redness and restore comfort.
Where does this cream go in a skincare routine for dry sensitive skin?
This moisturizing treatment goes in the evening routine after cleansing and toning, followed by a regular moisturizer. Dry sensitive skin needs products of this type with rich hydrators and barrier-strengthening ingredients like shea butter, petrolatum, glycerin, and hyaluronic acid to lock in moisture and calm flakiness.
The Journal of Dermatological Treatment, 2022Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 2017
Can I use this cream with retinol, and in what order?
You can use this cream with retinol by applying the cream after your retinol to help calm dryness and protect your skin. This type of product needs barrier-strengthening ingredients like ceramides, shea butter, and petrolatum to keep sensitive skin comfortable during retinization.
How often should I use this cream?
You can use this moisturizing treatment twice daily to keep dry and sensitive skin comfortable and well-hydrated. Regular application of this type of cream helps improve skin hydration and supports the skin barrier. For this skin type, a product of this type needs soothing and deeply hydrating ingredients like shea butter, glycerin, and hyaluronic acid.
Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2020Health Science Reports, 2021
Can this cream clog pores, cause breakouts or purging for dry sensitive skin?
This moisturizing treatment is unlikely to clog pores for dry sensitive skin, though some users report breakouts. A product for this skin type needs non-greasy hydrators like glycerin and hyaluronic acid, alongside gentle barrier protectors that hydrate without heavy residues.
Can I use this cream around the eyes or on my body?
This cream works well on dry and sensitive skin, though a product of this type needs rich hydrators like hyaluronic acid and shea butter to properly soften and protect the delicate eye area or body skin. Its gentle formula is unlikely to cause irritation.
Is this cream fragrance-free and alcohol-free?
It contains fragrance (parfum, limonene, linalool, citronellol, and geraniol) and drying alcohol (alcohol denat).
What the research says
A single application of a moisturizing fluid containing hyaluronic acid 1%, glycerin 5%, and Centella asiatica stem cells extract significantly increased skin hydration by 29% and reduced transepidermal water loss at 24 hours compared to baseline and an untreated control site in twenty healthy women.
Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 2017A combination cream of stimu-tex AS and saccharide isomerate reduced erythema, increased skin capacitance, and reduced transepidermal water loss compared to placebo in 20 subjects after fractional CO2 laser procedure without causing serious adverse events.
Lasers in Medical Science, 2025Treatment with lipid algae extract reduced the level of oxidized proteins in human keratinocytes and stratum corneum skin cells.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2004Topical astaxanthin-loaded algae extract hydrogel and lipogel formulations exhibited the highest antioxidant activity and successful in vitro release, suggesting their potential as anti-aging formulations.
Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2019Antarctic marine algae extracts increased cell viability, protected against inflammation, and enhanced the barrier integrity of human intestinal and keratinocyte cell lines damaged by lipopolysaccharide or ultraviolet radiation.
Marine Drugs, 2022A skin barrier restoring cream with shea butter, silkflo, and vitamin E increased type I procollagen synthesis, enhanced antioxidant enzyme activity, decreased reactive oxygen species generation, and promoted hyaluronic acid production in H2O2-stimulated human keratinocyte cells compared to untreated cells.
International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2025Topical application of 0.1% hyaluronic acid formulations of different molecular weights led to significant improvements in skin hydration and elasticity, with low-molecular-weight formulations also significantly reducing wrinkle depth in seventy-six female subjects compared to a vehicle control.
Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, 2011Topical application of hyaluronic acid in conjunction with free gingival graft significantly reduced donor site postoperative pain until day 7 compared to normal saline, with no significant differences in graft dimensions or patient satisfaction.
Clinical Oral Investigations, 2022Treatment with a hyaluronic acid-containing mouth rinse or topical gel led to significant lesion reduction, pain relief, and normalization of lesion color in adult patients with minor recurrent aphthous stomatitis, with the gel formulation showing an earlier healing onset at 3 days.
BMC Oral Health, 2019The emollient V0034CR significantly reduced TEWL compared to vehicle and vehicle plus glycerol, and significantly increased corneometry scores compared to vehicle and vehicle plus petrolatum in healthy volunteers with dry skin, demonstrating combined barrier function improvement from petrolatum and hydration improvement from glycerol.
Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2020Ten days of treatment with a cream containing 20% glycerin significantly increased skin hydration measured by corneometer values in 17 healthy volunteers compared to a placebo cream, but showed no influence on transepidermal water loss or skin sensitivity to an irritating surfactant.
International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2001Niacinamide/glycerin body moisturizers provided better rapid and prolonged improvement of cosmetic xerosis through functional improvement of stratum corneum barrier function compared to no treatment and conventional moisturizers in female subjects.
Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, 2012A topical cosmetic slimming product containing tetrahydroxypropyl ethylenediamine, caffeine, carnitine, forskolin and retinol significantly reduced body circumferences and improved skin aspect compared with placebo in 78 women over 12 weeks.
International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2011Topical sunscreen formulations containing caffeine combined with UV filters increased in vivo anti-UVB protection by approximately 25% and showed higher SPF values compared to caffeine-free sunscreen, while being well tolerated by the skin of healthy subjects.
Frontiers in Physiology, 2019Caffeine gel combined with choline geranate showed high skin permeation capacity and superior clinical results in cellulite treatment compared to caffeine gel without ionic liquid.
AAPS PharmSciTech, 2021
Ingredients
Algae Extract, Cyclopentasiloxane, Petrolatum, Glyceryl Distearate, Phenyl Trimethicone, Cyclohexasiloxane, Butylene Glycol, Cholesterol, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter Shea Butter, Steareth-10, Urea, Glucose, Polyacrylamide, Glyceryl Polymethacrylate, Peg-8, Laureth-7, Lecithin, Triacetin, Sodium Chloride, Polyquaternium-51, Potassium Phosphate, Alcohol Denat, Parfum, Limonene, Linalool, Hydroxycitronellal, Citronellol, Geraniol, Bht, Disodium Edta, Sorbic Acid, Chlorphenesin, Potassium Sorbate, Phenoxyethanol, Caffeine, Caprylic Capric Triglyceride, Calcium Gluconate, Sodium Pca, Hyaluronic Acid, Glycerin, Distearyldimonium Chloride, Citrus Aurantifolia Peel Extract, Zinc Gluconate, Tocopheryl Succinate, Rosmarinus Officinalis Leaf Extract, Hydrogenated Oil, Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil, Sesamum Indicum Seed Oil, Helianthus Annuus Seedcake, Palmitoyl Hexapeptide-12, Isocetyl Stearoyl Stearate, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Dipalmitoyl Hydroxyproline
Behind this fit score
Lovi calculates every fit score 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.
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Co-founder, Medical Director
Cosmetic chemist, cosmetologist, aesthetic products developer
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Co-founder, CEO and CTO
PhD in computer science, 3x US patent holder, ex-Google, ex-Yandex
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Dr. Sofía Perea Pérez, MD, MSc
Medical Board
Aesthetic medicine practitioner, MSc in Longevity and Anti-Aging Medicine
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Medical Board
Specialist dermatologist, MBBS, MD, IFAAD
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Medical Board
Cosmetic chemist, SCS, IFSCC member
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Medical Board, Medical Advisor
Dermatology MD
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Elina Nazarenko, MD
Medical Board
Dermatology and diagnostic consultant
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Victoria Derkova, MS
Medical Board
Cosmetic chemist, cosmetic development technologist
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