Kiehl's Skincare Guide: What's Worth Buying for Your Skin Type

Kiehl's is a New York skincare brand that began as a pharmacy in 1851 and has belonged to L'Oréal since 2000. Its best-known products, Ultra Facial Cream, Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado and Midnight Recovery Concentrate, are well-made formulas built on familiar ingredients like glycerin, squalane, shea butter and plant oils. They are worth the price mainly if you value texture and feel, because similar core ingredients cost less at the drugstore.

Before you buy, you can scan a product's barcode or label with the ingredient scanner in Pori to check its ingredients against your skin type.

Below we cover where Kiehl's comes from, what is actually in the hero products, which cleanser fits which skin, and what to buy for dry, oily, combination and sensitive skin. We compared published ingredient lists, brand claims and listed prices; we did not test these products on skin. Prices are US list prices at Ulta as of November 2026 and change often.

Who owns Kiehl's, and how old is the brand?

Kiehl's dates to 1851, when John Kiehl ran a homeopathic pharmacy at Third Avenue and 13th Street in Manhattan's East Village. Irving Morse, who had trained there, bought the business in 1921, and the Morse family ran it for most of the 20th century. In April 2000, L'Oréal announced an agreement for its US subsidiary to acquire Kiehl's Since 1851, Inc. The brand still sits in L'Oréal's luxury portfolio, which is why you'll find it at Ulta, department stores and its own shops.

The apothecary history explains the plain labels and the long, descriptive product names. It doesn't tell you much about the formulas, which are modern cosmetic emulsions like any other prestige brand's.

Is Kiehl's worth the price?

Sometimes. The hero products are fragrance-free or clearly labeled, sensibly built and pleasant to use. You pay a premium per ounce, though, and the headline ingredients in the marketing often sit low on the ingredient list. Here is how the best-known products compare.

For comparison, CeraVe Moisturizing Cream starts at $14.99 on cerave.com and lists three ceramides, petrolatum and dimethicone. A drugstore cream can cover the barrier basics. What Kiehl's adds is a lighter, silkier feel, and for many people that's the thing that makes them use moisturizer every day.

Is Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream worth it?

It's a solid, fragrance-free daily moisturizer for normal, combination and mildly dry skin. Ulta's ingredient list opens with water, glycerin, dimethicone and squalane, followed by emulsifiers, fatty alcohols and a run of plant oils. The listing calls it "paraben-free & fragrance free" and says it suits all skin types, including sensitive skin.

The marketed "glacial glycoprotein" is pseudoalteromonas ferment extract, and it sits far down the list. The 72-hour hydration claim comes from Kiehl's own instrumental study, with few details published. Our full Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream review goes through the list line by line and compares it with CeraVe.

What is in Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado?

It's a rich, bland eye cream. After water, Ulta lists shea butter, butylene glycol, several emollient esters and avocado oil, with sodium PCA, copper PCA and beta-carotene lower down. No fragrance or parfum appears on the list, and Kiehl's says it is paraben-free.

The puffiness and brightness numbers on the page come from Kiehl's own 4-week tests: a 32% reduction in puffiness and an 11% brightness gain by expert grading, and a 25% smoothness gain from a consumer perception study of 50 people. Treat those as brand claims. What you can count on is comfort for dry, papery under-eye skin. It won't fade pigmented dark circles; our guide to eye creams for dark circles covers what does.

What does Midnight Recovery Concentrate do?

It's a face oil. The ingredient list on Ulta starts with caprylic/capric triglyceride, dicaprylyl carbonate and squalane, then rosehip, evening primrose and jojoba oils. Kiehl's describes it as a "98% natural" overnight serum. In practice it's an emollient layer that softens dry skin and slows water loss at night.

The catch is scent. The same list includes lavender oil, geranium oil and rosemary leaf oil, plus linalool, citronellol, geraniol, limonene and citral, which are common fragrance allergens. Kiehl's markets the lavender as calming before sleep. If your skin is reactive, that's the part to watch; our guide to fragrance and essential oils in skincare explains why. A plain squalane oil gives a similar finish without the essential oils.

Which Kiehl's cleanser should you buy?

Kiehl's cleansers differ more than their packaging suggests. Pick by what you need to remove and how your skin reacts.

• Ultra Facial Oil-Free Cleanser ($26 for 5.1 oz) is a foaming wash for normal, oily and sensitive skin, according to Ulta. Its list pairs myristic, palmitic, stearic and lauric acids with potassium hydroxide, which is soap chemistry, plus kaolin clay and a trace of salicylic acid. A review of soaps and syndets notes that soap-based cleansers are more alkaline than synthetic detergents, so dry or easily irritated skin may find it tight.
• Clearly Corrective Brightening Exfoliating Daily Cleanser ($39) is a gel with mild surfactants (sodium cocoyl glycinate, coco-betaine), perlite grains for gentle physical exfoliation and salicylic acid at the end of the list. Its price is high for a rinse-off product with a low dose of acid.
• Midnight Recovery Botanical Cleansing Oil ($38 for 5.9 oz) dissolves makeup and sunscreen on dry skin, then emulsifies with water. Kiehl's calls it non-comedogenic and ophthalmologist-tested. It shares the lavender and fragrance allergens of the concentrate.

If you wear water-resistant sunscreen or long-wear makeup, the oil works as a first step before a gentle water-based wash. Our double cleansing guide explains when that's worth the extra minute.

How can you tell which Kiehl's products contain fragrance?

Read the full ingredient list, because the front label won't always tell you. Kiehl's mixes fragrance-free formulas with scented ones inside the same collections. Three things to look for:

• "Fragrance" or "parfum" on the list. This is added scent, and the individual components may not be named.
• Essential oils. Names like lavender oil, geranium oil or rosemary leaf oil add scent even when no "fragrance" entry appears. The Midnight Recovery products are the clearest example.
• Fragrance allergens near the end. Linalool, limonene, citronellol and geraniol usually come from essential oils or perfume and are the ones most likely to bother reactive skin.

By that test, Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado lists none of the three, and Kiehl's says Ultra Facial Cream has no fragrance, while both Midnight Recovery products list essential oils and fragrance allergens. If you're not sure about a product in a store, scanning its label is quicker than reading the small print on the box.

What should you buy from Kiehl's for your skin type?

Dry skin

Ultra Facial Cream for daily moisture, Creamy Eye Treatment if the under-eye area flakes, and the cleansing oil as a makeup remover if fragrance doesn't bother you. Pair them with a non-foaming wash; our best cleanser for dry skin guide lists cheaper creamy options.

Oily and acne-prone skin

Ultra Facial Oil-Free Cleanser is the obvious Kiehl's pick. Skip the face oil. For a moisturizer, a light gel usually sits better than Ultra Facial Cream. If breakouts are the main issue, a 2% salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide wash will do more; see the best face wash for acne.

Combination skin

Ultra Facial Cream in a thin layer, heavier on the cheeks, works for many people. The oil-free cleanser handles the T-zone, but follow it with moisturizer if your cheeks feel tight.

Sensitive skin

Stick with the fragrance-free hero products, Ultra Facial Cream and Creamy Eye Treatment, and patch test first. Leave out Midnight Recovery Concentrate and the cleansing oil, which carry several fragrance allergens. Our best cleanser for sensitive skin guide covers gentler washes.

Where does Kiehl's fall short?

• Price per ounce. The eye cream works out to about $78 an ounce for what is, on paper, a well-built shea butter cream.
• Brand-run evidence. The hydration, barrier and puffiness numbers come from Kiehl's own tests, with little published detail.
• Essential oils in the Midnight Recovery line. Pleasant to many, a problem for reactive skin.
• Marketed ingredients sit low on the list. Glacial glycoprotein and the cleanser's lemon extract are minor players next to glycerin, squalane and the cleansing base.

None of that makes the products bad. It means you are paying for formulation polish and feel. If that's what keeps you consistent, it can be money well spent. If you're shopping on ingredients alone, browse our cleanser catalogue or the picks for dry skin and oily skin.