Crème de la Mer Dupes: The $10 Cream With a Surprisingly Similar Base, and When to Spend More

Crème de la Mer is the moisturizer people buy as a treat, a gift, or a statement: a rich cream built around a fermented sea kelp extract, at around $200 for a single ounce. It's also one of the most searched dupes in beauty, for a reason that sounds like an urban legend but mostly isn't: a $10 tin from the drugstore has a remarkably similar base. Here's what that means, and which cream to buy instead.

What You're Paying For in La Mer

Strip away the jar and the story, and Crème de la Mer is a rich, occlusive moisturizer. Its first ingredients, after the brand's "Miracle Broth" of fermented kelp, are classic emollients that seal water into the skin: mineral oil, petrolatum, glycerin and waxes. That's what gives it the thick, cushiony feel and the soft, comfortable skin people love.

The Miracle Broth is the part you can't copy, and the part the brand says makes the difference. There is little independent research on it, while the occlusive base is what does most of the visible work on dry skin. So a dupe can match the comfort and the hydration. It can't match the kelp, or the ritual of opening that jar.

The Closest Base: NIVEA Creme

NIVEA Creme, the one in the blue tin, is the dupe dermatologists keep mentioning for a simple reason: its ingredient list starts with the same family of ingredients, mineral oil, petrolatum, glycerin and waxes, in a similar thick texture. It's around $10 for a 13.5 oz tin, rated 4.6, and it lasts for months.

It's rich, so use it the way you'd use La Mer: warm a small amount between your fingers and press it in, at night or on dry patches. On oily or breakout-prone skin it can feel too heavy for the whole face; keep it for the cheeks, hands and elbows, or pick the lighter option below.

For Very Dry Skin: Weleda Skin Food

If your skin is properly dry, flaky or windburned, Weleda Skin Food is the richer, plant-based alternative: sunflower and sweet almond oils, beeswax, and extracts of pansy, chamomile and calendula, with no mineral oil at all. Around $14 for 75 ml, rated 4.5. It's thick and slightly balmy, and a tiny amount goes a long way, especially in winter.

The Lighter Option: Weleda Skin Food Light

Weleda Skin Food Light keeps the same plant-based idea in a texture that sinks in faster, which makes it the pick for normal and combination skin, or for daytime under makeup. Around $15 for 75 ml, rated 4.6. It won't give the same overnight cushion, but it won't sit on your skin either.

For Sensitive Skin: First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream

If your skin is sensitive, red or easily irritated, a barrier cream is a better buy than any copy of La Mer. The First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream combines colloidal oatmeal, ceramides and shea butter in a whipped texture, fragrance-free and rated 4.6. At around $42 for 6 oz it's the priciest pick here, and still a fraction of La Mer per ounce.

How to Get the La Mer Effect From Any of Them

The brand's own tip works with every cream on this list: warm a small amount between your fingertips until it turns slightly translucent, then press it into the skin rather than rubbing. Apply it on slightly damp skin to lock in more water, and use less than you think, because rich creams pill and feel greasy when overapplied.

La Mer can still be a lovely gift, and the jar is part of the pleasure. But for what it does on your skin, a $10 tin gets you surprisingly close. If you like the idea, our Magic Cream dupes do the same for Charlotte Tilbury, and the rest of the list lives in our best Amazon beauty dupes.