Moisturizers are proving to be the most productive—and competitive—category in skin care, especially those with strong supporting hero ingredients. “Retinol, niacinamide and bakuchiol continue to be wildly successful drivers in purchasing decisions,” said Annie Jackson, co-founder and Chief Operating officer of Credo Beauty. Dry skin is naturally pushing purchases, in addition to consumers looking for newness. “She is definitely searching for new brands with specific ingredients that she learned might benefit her skin. She’s been more open to trying new brands if they had the ingredients and the data that she thought would appeal to her needs,” said Ron Robinson, Founder of Beautystat. And of course, there’s TikTok, which is playing a large role in representing skin care trends to the masses, such as homemade lemon juice masks, homemade toners, baking soda scrubs, as well as an increase of videos by dermatologists. Here, data firm Spate provides the top 10 Google searches by consumers as it relates to moisturizing concerns, interests and trends over the past 12 months ended June 2021.

  1. Retinol cream is the top trending moisturizing product, with an average of 257.3K searches every month in the U.S.
  2. On average, the moisturizing category is searched over 1.8 million times per month in the U.S., similar to the cleansing category.
  3. The term “slugging” is the highest growth topic in the moisturizing category. Slugging picked up in September 2020, and searches for the topic are continuing to grow strong.
  4. Americans are searching for creams for psoriasis 65.5 percent more than last year.
  5. “CeraVe moisturizing cream” is the top volume search in the moisturizing category.
  6. Americans are searching for moisturizer with SPF an average of 172.1K times per month, which is 14.4 percent more than last year.
  7. Searches for alcohol-free moisturizer have grown 140.3 percent, comparing June 2021 to June 2020.
  8. Searches for peptide moisturizer have grown 194 percent since last year.
  9. Americans are more likely to search for the term “best face moisturizer” than just “face moisturizer.”
  10. There are twice the number of brands being searched alongside face moisturizer products than face treatment products. The moisturizer category is the most competitive category in skin care.

Your opinion counts! Make sure to cast your vote for this year’s most notable moisturizing product for CEW’s 2021 Beauty Creator Awards. Voting’s made easy with this year’s Product Finalists Report. Just click the Skin Care box to read about this year’s star moisturizers.