The Best Moisturizers to Use With Tretinoin, and Which One Fits You

Does a moisturizer really help with tretinoin dryness?

Yes. In a 2007 study, people already using topical tretinoin or isotretinoin pills (an oral acne drug that also dries skin) put Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream on half of their face twice a day and left the other half bare (2007 split-face study). After about two weeks, the moisturized side was less dry, less rough and less flaky, both when doctors examined it and when instruments measured it. People said that side felt more comfortable, and they were very satisfied with the cream.

A later trial gave people with healthy skin tretinoin cream on the whole face and Cetaphil Dermacontrol Moisturizer SPF 30 on one randomly chosen side (ceramide precursor study). That moisturizer contains a ceramide precursor, an ingredient skin uses to make ceramides, the fats that hold the outer layer of skin together and keep water in. The researchers reported that the moisturizer made tretinoin easier to tolerate. Two of the three authors worked for Galderma, the company behind Cetaphil.

Each of these studies tested one product against no moisturizer at all. They show that moisturizing helps, but they cannot tell you whether one brand beats another.

Which type of moisturizer fits your skin?

If your skin is dry or mature, use a thick cream that sits on top of your skin and holds water in. Dermatologist Alexandra Bowles named two favorites in Allure (Dr. Bowles's picks). Her personal pick is SkinMedica Dermal Repair Cream, which contains vitamins C and E plus sodium hyaluronate, a form of hyaluronic acid that holds water in skin. She likes that its thick texture feels like it seals in the rest of her routine. The cream has a light scent, so she tells scent-sensitive patients to try it before buying. She also recommends Avène Cleanance Hydra, a rich cream she says calms the redness tretinoin can leave behind. These are one doctor's preferences, and neither cream was tested in the studies above.

If you break out, a ceramide lotion is the lighter option. In a Mount Sinai study, acne patients applied a ceramide-containing lotion before their tretinoin gel each evening and before a second acne gel each morning (Mount Sinai acne study). The researchers reported that the whole routine was safe and effective for facial acne. Everyone used the lotion, so the study cannot show how much the lotion itself helped, but it does show that a ceramide lotion can go under tretinoin in a routine reported as effective for acne.

In the morning, reach for a moisturizer with SPF. Tretinoin is usually applied at night, so mornings are when your skin needs sun protection, and an SPF moisturizer gives you moisture and sunscreen in one layer. The SPF 30 moisturizer in the Galderma-linked study was applied once a day alongside tretinoin and made it easier to tolerate.

Should moisturizer go on before or after tretinoin?

Dermatologists often recommend the "sandwich" method, where moisturizer goes on before and after tretinoin to soften the irritation. Until recently, though, nobody had checked whether layering a moisturizer with tretinoin weakens it.

A 2025 research poster in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology was the first to test this (2025 layering poster). The researchers layered tretinoin with either a lightweight water gel or a cream moisturizer in a variation they called an "open sandwich," and tretinoin kept its biological activity with both. This measured whether the drug stayed biologically active, which is different from tracking how skin looks over months. Kenvue, a company that sells moisturizers, sponsored the work, and its employees wrote it.

If you want an order that has been used in a published study, follow the Mount Sinai routine and apply the ceramide lotion first, then tretinoin on top.