Kate Somerville Skincare Guide: What to Buy for Your Skin Type

Kate Somerville is a Los Angeles skincare brand that grew out of aesthetician Kate Somerville's West Hollywood clinic, founded in 2004. Unilever owned it from 2015 until October 2025, when it agreed to sell the brand and the clinic to Rare Beauty Brands, the Boston company behind Patchology. The brand is best known for ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment and the EradiKate 10% sulfur spot treatment, and most face products cost $46 to $149 on katesomerville.com.

If you want to check a Kate Somerville product before you buy, you can scan its barcode or label with the ingredient scanner in Pori and see how it fits your skin type. Pori flags ingredients; it doesn't diagnose skin conditions.

This guide covers who owns Kate Somerville, what its famous products contain, which ones suit which skin type, and where the premium price buys something you can't get at the drugstore. We compared published ingredient lists, brand claims and listed prices; we did not test these products on skin. Prices are katesomerville.com list prices as of November 2026.

Who owns Kate Somerville?

Rare Beauty Brands agreed to buy Kate Somerville from Unilever in October 2025. The deal covered the skincare and body care range and the Kate Somerville clinic on Melrose Place in West Hollywood, and it was expected to close by the end of 2025. Terms were not disclosed. Rare Beauty Brands is based in Boston, is led by CEO Chris Hobson, and also owns Patchology and the nail care brand Dr. Dana.

Unilever had bought Kate Somerville in 2015 as one of its first Prestige beauty brands, alongside REN and Dermalogica. Its sale was part of Unilever's slimming of that division. The products themselves started in the clinic: the brand still describes many of them as "clinical-grade" and "clinic-inspired," which is marketing language with no regulatory meaning.

What is Kate Somerville known for?

ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment

This is the product that made the brand. It is a two-minute exfoliating mask you use twice a week, and it costs $85 for 2 oz or $26 for 0.5 oz. It does a lot at once: lactic acid is the second ingredient, silica adds scrub, and papaya fruit, papain, bromelain and a pumpkin ferment add enzymes. A little salicylic acid and retinyl palmitate sit further down. The list also includes honey and several essential oils and fragrance components: bergamot, lavender, cassia, patchouli, geranium and orange oils, plus cinnamal, eugenol, limonene and linalool. It is a strong, scented exfoliant, so it suits resilient normal, oily or combination skin better than sensitive skin.

EradiKate 10% Sulfur Acne Treatment

EradiKate ($29 for 1 oz) is an overnight spot treatment. Its active ingredient is 10% sulfur, the top of the 3% to 10% range US rules allow for over-the-counter acne products. The rest of the list is short: isopropyl alcohol, water, zinc oxide, camphor, magnesium aluminum silicate, salicylic acid and iron oxides. It is close in idea to Mario Badescu's Drying Lotion, which sells for $18 and also combines alcohol, sulfur, zinc oxide and camphor. Our guide to sulfur for acne explains how it works.

What are Kate Somerville's main product lines?

• ExfoliKate: the Intensive treatment, a Daily Foaming Wash, Glow Moisturizer and Liquid ExfoliKate, a leave-on toner with 10% AHAs and fruit enzymes ($72 for 4 oz).
• EradiKate: the 10% sulfur spot treatment, a 3% Sulfur Daily Foaming Cleanser and an Acne Mark Fading Gel.
• DeliKate: ceramide products for sensitive skin, including a cleanser, Recovery Cream and Recovery Serum.
• Goat Milk: a non-foaming cleanser and a moisturizing cream for dry skin.
• HydraKate: a water cream, a serum and Illuminating SPF 50+ Drops.
• KateCeuticals: the top-priced anti-aging line, including Total Repair Cream ($149 for 1 oz) and Firming Serum ($119).
• Retinoids: MEGA-A Skin Transforming Serum with retinal, and the +Retinol products.

Which Kate Somerville cleanser should I use for my skin type?

All four main face washes cost $46 for 4 oz on katesomerville.com as of November 2026, so pick by skin type alone.

The DeliKate cleanser is the most broadly useful. Its ingredient list reads like a barrier cream, with the same three ceramides and cholesterol you find in CeraVe products, and it skips fragrance. The ExfoliKate wash is for people who want a little acid in their daily cleanse. A cleanser rinses off within a minute, so its acids have a mild effect; don't count it as your exfoliation step. Our guide to ceramides and the skin barrier explains why the DeliKate formula is a gentle choice.

Which Kate Somerville moisturizer, serum or SPF suits my skin?

Oily skin: Oil Free Moisturizer

The Oil Free Moisturizer ($84 for 1.7 oz) is made for oily skin, and the brand describes it as non-greasy and fragrance-free.

Dry or sensitive skin: Goat Milk Moisturizing Cream or DeliKate Recovery Cream

Both cost $84 for 1.7 oz. The Goat Milk cream is a daily moisturizer the brand says is clinically tested on sensitive skin. The DeliKate Recovery Cream adds ceramides and a peptide complex for red, tight or irritated skin.

Signs of aging: MEGA-A Skin Transforming Serum

MEGA-A ($84 for 1 oz) uses retinal with hyaluronic acid and squalane. Kate Somerville says retinal is 11 times more effective than retinol. That figure is the brand's; what is well established is that retinal is one conversion step closer to retinoic acid than retinol, so it tends to work faster. Our guide to retinal vs retinol explains the difference.

Sunscreen: HydraKate Illuminating SPF 50+ Drops

These mineral drops ($46 for 1.7 oz) use 24.5% non-nano zinc oxide with sheer pigments for a glowy finish, plus ectoin. Zinc oxide on its own gives broad-spectrum protection and is usually well tolerated, which makes this one of the more useful products in the range. See our zinc oxide sunscreen guide.

Is Kate Somerville worth the price compared with drugstore skincare?

For most of the range, a drugstore product with the same key ingredients costs much less. The AAD says a product doesn't need to be expensive to work. The DeliKate cleanser's ceramide formula has close cousins at CeraVe and other drugstore brands for about a third of the price; see our CeraVe guide. EradiKate costs $29 while Mario Badescu's similar Drying Lotion is $18.

Here is where the premium buys something:

• Combination formats. ExfoliKate Intensive packs acid, scrub and enzymes into one two-minute step. Few drugstore products copy it closely.
• Disclosed strengths. The 24.5% zinc oxide drops and 10% sulfur treatment state their actives clearly.
• Clinic heritage. If you get facials at the Los Angeles clinic, the home products match what you get there.

The premium buys less in the moisturizers and serums, which rely on common hydrators and peptides, and in the brand's "clinical-grade" wording, which has no regulatory meaning. Our drugstore vs luxury skincare comparison goes further.

What should I watch out for with Kate Somerville?

• Fragrance in the famous products. ExfoliKate Intensive and the Goat Milk and ExfoliKate cleansers contain fragrance or essential oils. Cinnamal, in ExfoliKate Intensive, is a well-known fragrance allergen. Choose the DeliKate line if fragrance bothers you, and patch test first.
• Over-exfoliating. ExfoliKate Intensive twice a week, Liquid ExfoliKate at night and an acid cleanser in the morning add up quickly. Our guide on how often to exfoliate helps you set limits.
• Drying spot treatments. EradiKate is mostly isopropyl alcohol with sulfur. Use it on individual spots only, never over the whole face.
• Retinoids and acids together. Start MEGA-A slowly and keep it away from nights when you use ExfoliKate. Wear sunscreen daily.
• The ownership change. New owners sometimes reformulate or trim ranges. Check the label on new stock.

Is Kate Somerville good for sensitive skin?

The DeliKate line is made for it. The cleanser lists ceramides, cholesterol and soothing extracts and no fragrance, and the Oil Free Moisturizer and HydraKate drops are reasonable add-ons. The brand's best-known exfoliant is a poor fit for sensitive skin. If you have rosacea, eczema or persistent acne, see a dermatologist before adding strong exfoliants or retinoids, and compare gentler options in our cleansers for sensitive skin catalogue.