Charlotte Tilbury’s award winning Magic Cream is one of my absolute favorite moisturizers.
The iconic face moisturizer is known for hydrating, glowing, and plumping skin and just works wonders with my combination skin. Whether I’m doing “no makeup” makeup, or a full on beat, it makes my melanin glow. It’s also a constant staple in almost every beauty YouTuber’s skin care routine, so when I initially heard about it, I had to try it, and thankfully it has lived up to the hype.
But here me out — I’ve found another moisturizer that also works wonders, and for one fourth of the price. It’s even been upgraded from my travel skincare bag (I tend to travel with budget-friendly products because I’ve experienced the horrors of having to throw away products at TSA or when traveling internationally) to my at-home skincare routine. If you know, you know this is a big deal.
The moisturizer in question: e.l.f. Cosmetics Holy Hydration Face Cream with SPF 30, which retails for $13 at Target. And it is seriously that girl.
With my skin type, I’m always looking for moisturizers that are lightweight and non-greasy, and the fact that this doubles as an SPF is an added bonus for me. Like my holy grail Magic Cream, this fragrance-free moisturizer nourishes and plumps my skin while delivering lasting hydration.
Packed with ingredients like squalane, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, and peptide complex, I was pleasantly surprised that after several weeks of using it, it noticeably helps brighten and even out my skin tone (which honestly is one of the more difficult feats for me), while locking in moisture. A staple in my makeup routine, it also helped reduce the appearance of pores underneath my products.
One of the major swaps that I needed (even in a drugstore moisturizer) — that Charlotte’s Magic Cream helped me with — is that I have been in desperate need of plumper, youthful-looking skin as returning to “outside” (airplanes, happy hours, events and travel) has impacted my texture and glow, so I figured now was the perfect time to finally give Charlotte’s Magic Cream a try.
A little goes a long way with this face cream and feels so nice when applying. It’s an incredibly smooth and silky texture and gives me the SPF coverage I need without leaving my skin with a white cast over it (which as a Black girl, we all know can be incredibly difficult to find products that completely seep into our skin).Not to mention, it’s a clean beauty product that won’t break the bank.
Have I nixed my other moisturizers completely? No. But overall, it’s a great drugstore cream at an unbeatable price and definitely worth a buy if you’re looking for a budget-friendly alternative to Magic Cream, or your favorite high-end moisturizer.