The Best Unscented Lotions For Your Face, Hands, & Body

If you, like so many others before you, have started making the switch to fragrance-free skin care products, you’re probably in the market for a really good, unscented moisturizer. And that’s exactly what you’ll find in this article: six of the best unscented lotions for every part of your body, which, in addition to being free of synthetic fragrance (aka parfum), are also free of fragranced essential oils.

To be clear, there’s nothing inherently wrong with fragrance, it’s just that some people are allergic to it, or find it irritating (the same goes for certain essential oils). Maybe you’re one of those people, or maybe you’re just sensitive to scents. Whatever the case may be, there are so many great, fragrance-free moisturizers out there these days that you’ll have no shortage to choose from. Take your pick among lightweight gel-creams that deliver a refreshing boost of hydration; bump-reducing body lotions that are ideal for KP and body acne; and nourishing face creams that won’t aggravate conditions like dermatitis or eczema.

Scroll on to shop six of the best fragrance-free lotions for your face, hands, and body; then, if you’re interested in more scentless products, check out these fragrance-free dry shampoos and unscented hairsprays.

1. Best Face & Body Lotion For Very Sensitive Skin

A lot of people who steer clear of fragranced products do so out of an allergy to fragrance, be it synthetic or naturally derived. And some people who are sensitive to fragrance are sensitive to other ingredients, too. If you’re one of those people, pick up this super-simple Vanicream lotion. It’s free of most of the things that sensitive-skinned people tend to find irritating, including fragrance, lanolin, essential oils, and dyes, but it’ll still restore moisture to dried-out skin without being overly rich or greasy. Approved by the National Eczema Association, this lotion comes housed in a huge, 16-ounce bottle with a handy, pump-top dispenser. Prefer something a bit richer? Then pick up the nearly identical (but thicker) moisturizing cream from Vanicream. Both the lotion and cream can be used on your face and body.

2. Best Face Lotion

For a slightly more sophisticated (and French) formula, go with this lotion from Avène’s Tolérance line. This is lightweight, milky lotion that’s still super nourishing, thanks to a formula that’s rich in the brand’s signature thermal spring water, which has been used for centuries for its soothing properties, as well as moisturizers like shea butter and safflower seed oil. Another cool thing about this product? It’s completely sterile, thanks to its super-airtight packaging, which is designed to keep things like bacteria out — so there’s no need for any preservatives or fragrance in the formula.

3. Best Face Lotion With SPF

If you like to get your face lotion and sunscreen in one, you can’t go wrong with La Roche-Posay’s Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer UV. It’s a pretty solid moisturizer for any skin type (standout ingredients include glycerin, niacinamide, allantoin, and ceramide-3), while an SPF of 30 offers broad-spectrum sun protection. Free of both fragrance and oil, this is another lotion that, like the one above, contains soothing thermal spring water, only this one comes from the brand’s namesake town (La Roche-Posay) in France.

4. Best Body Lotion For Bumpy Skin

Looking for a lotion that’ll moisturize and smooth out your skin in one pass? Then you want CeraVe SA Lotion. Like all products from the brand’s best-selling SA line, it uses salicylic acid to deep-clean clogged pores, which makes it a popular choice among people with keratosis pilaris, body acne, and generally dry, bumpy skin. But it doesn’t just exfoliate: ceramides, glycerin, hyaluronic acid, and vitamin D work together to provide both hydration and moisture, which counteracts any potentially drying effects of the salicylic acid. It can be hard to find in drugstores, and it comes in a massive, 19-ounce bottle, which helps explain its relatively high price tag. Also check out the richer SA moisturizing cream, and the SA cleanser.

5. Best For Babies

This Mustela lotion — okay, technically it’s a cream, but it feels just as lightweight as most lotions, despite being incredibly nourishing — is safe for use on the extra-sensitive faces of babies, but there’s no reason that your face can’t benefit from it, too. It comes in a travel-friendly, 1.35-ounce tube and contains lots of good-for-skin ingredients, like glycerin, avocado extract, and tocopherol (aka vitamin E). And of course, it’s totally unscented.

6. Best Fragrance-Free Hand Lotion

Need an unscented hand lotion while you’re at it? Well, you can’t do much better than this three-pack from Eucerin for the price. Again, this is technically a cream rather than a lotion, but your hands will probably benefit much better from a richer cream than a lighter lotion, since they get washed so much throughout the day, and could definitely use the extra nourishment. The formula is fragrance-free and infused with ceramides to promote strong, moisturized skin, while urea offers skin-softening benefits. Store one in your bag, one at your desk, and one near your sink or bed.

Studies referenced:

Comparison of the Efficacy of Atopalm® Multi-Lamellar Emulsion Cream and Physiogel® Intensive Cream in Improving Epidermal Permeability Barrier in Sensitive Skin, Sekyoo Jeong, Sin Hee Lee, Byeong Deog Park, Yan Wu, George Man, and Mao-Qiang Man -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4799034/