16 Summer Moisturizers That Won't Make You Sweat Your Face Off

Call us fickle, but those hyper-rich moisturizers that we absolutely swear by during the winter months? Like cashmere sweaters and our favorite over-the-knee boots, they’re starting to feel stifling now that the weather has warmed up. Forget the fact that we may have spent a small fortune on a fancy cream — our skin feels straight-up sticky in it. In fact, the whole idea of using moisturizer can seem counterintuitive as we do our best to mattify our complexions. Do we even need to hydrate at all when the weather turns sweat-tastic?

Annie Chiu, MD, a Redondo Beach-based dermatologist and dermatology staff member at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A., says yes. “Those with oily skin may think they want to skip a moisturizer during humid weather, but this may actually cause your body’s own oil glands to become more active,” she says.

And that’s just the start. The right moisturizer can actually help curtail all sorts of warm-weather skin woes: soothe heat-triggered rosacea, patch up dry skin sans shiny afterglow, and control uneven pigmentation, which “can be more prominent in the summer because of increased outdoor activity and UV exposure,” Dr. Chiu says. To help you nail down a non-greasy moisturizer, no matter your skin type, we asked Dr. Chiu for her best tips, ahead.