Best Moisturiser for Eczema in Australia

At a glance

The five, on one screen.

How we chose

The criteria.

Fragrance-free came first. Fragrance sits at the top of the avoid list in our sensitive skin ranking, alongside essential oils and alcohol denat, and an eczema-prone barrier is the last place to gamble on any of them. Every formula here was weighed on how little it asks of reactive skin, not how much it promises.

Barrier support came second. Ceramides make up around half of the skin's lipid composition, and topical ceramides supplement what washing, weather and harsh products strip away. Our ceramide explainer covers the science, including why ceramide-1, ceramide-3 and ceramide-6-II are the names worth finding on an ingredient list. Ceramide-led and barrier-supportive formulas carried this ranking.

Texture and price settled the order. A cream you will happily reapply every day beats a richer one that stays in the drawer, and four of the five picks sit at $28 or under.

The verdicts

Pick by pick, expanded.

CeraVe Moisturising Cream · 9.5 · $22

Ceramide-led, fragrance-free, the dermatologist default. Our full CeraVe review scores the brand 8.9/10 and found the Moisturising Cream outperformed products three times its price on barrier repair, with the range fragrance-free throughout and stocked at every Australian pharmacy. At $22 it holds both the Top Pick and Best Value tags, which rarely land on the same product.

La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 · 9.2 · $22

The multi-purpose recovery balm, and the layering partner the FAQ below pairs with the CeraVe during flare periods. In our La Roche-Posay review we called the Cicaplast Baume the most versatile barrier-repair balm in its price bracket, built on panthenol and madecassoside, and fragrance-free.

Cetaphil Restoring Cream · 8.9 · $28

Heavy, comforting and fragrance-free. The weight is the point here: if the richer-in-winter rule from our dry skin ranking matches how your skin behaves, this is the winter-weight option of the five.

Dermalex · 8.6 · $45

The clinical positioning and the biggest price tag in the ranking. At roughly twice the shelf price of the top two picks it is the considered buy rather than the default, and the score gap back to the CeraVe and the Cicaplast is real.

Aveeno Eczema Therapy Cream · 8.3 · $22

The colloidal oatmeal route rather than the ceramide route, at the same $22 as the top pick. It carries a Best Value tag and earns it; the pick if oat-based creams have suited your skin before.

Before you buy

Four rules, then the caveat.

• Stay fragrance-free. Fragrance, essential oils and alcohol denat lead the avoid list for reactive skin, and every pick above was chosen with that list in mind.
• Read for ceramides. Ceramide-1, ceramide-3 and ceramide-6-II are the ones to look for on the label; barrier improvement typically shows over 4 to 8 weeks, not overnight.
• Patch test first. Introduce one new product at a time and try it on a small area for a few days before committing your whole routine to it.
• Moisturise daily, not only during flares. Consistency is the whole game; the FAQ below covers frequency.

The caveat. A moisturiser supports the skin barrier; it is not a treatment for eczema, and nothing on this page is medical advice. If your eczema is persistent or severe, or a product seems to make it worse, take it to your GP or a dermatologist first.