In this Cetaphil acne prone moisturizer review I’m sharing my thoughts after several months of use.
If you are looking for an acne prone moisturizer with SPF protection, stay tuned because I am sharing everything.
Let’s get started!
Cetaphil Acne Prone Moisturizer Review
Here we are talking about a product that is supposed to moisturize your skin and provide sun protection SPF 30.
In addition, here we have the list of other benefits that you should expect by using this moisturizer:
- Acne control
- Oil and shine control
- Moisturized and soft skin
- Skin barrier protection and restoration
- Blemishes and redness reduction
In the next lines, we will discuss if these claims are really true, or at least if it really happened on my skin.
I didn’t suffer from redness or blemishes so I cannot say much about these aspects.
But I can share with you based on my own experience, after months of using it on my oily skin.
How to Use Cetaphil Acne Prone Moisturizer?
It is important to talk here about how to use the Cetaphil Acne Prone Moisturizer.
This is because, on the website, they have a very particular recommendation on how to use it, that I didn’t know.
- Apply 20 minutes before sun exposure
- Make sure to use another water resistant sunscreen in conjunction with this one if you sweat and go swimming.
- Re apply this every 2 hours
I am sure many people will go by without noticing it as well.
Firstly, for as long as I knew sunscreens are recommended to be used 30 minutes before sun exposure.
But this can (of course) vary according to the brand, so it is important to check out these instructions.
On their website, Cetaphil recommends using this product 20 minutes before sun exposure.
Consistency, Smell & Texture

On their website, Cerave says this is a non greasy, light-weight lotion.
The consistency is more like a thick milky lotion, that feels lighter on the touch than normal sunscreens.
On the face, it also feels lighter than most facial sunscreens which may help if you like to apply it before applying makeup.
The smell is just like a normal sunscreen so there is nothing really special about it.
If you have ever used sunscreen before, you already know how it smells.
But I noticed that after applying the product to my face, the smell goes away after a while.
First Impressions
I like the idea of having a sunscreen that is a moisturizer at the same time.
I can save money and time and it is more practical not to worry about using many products.

This is a great point for to what extent this is true?
Well, let’s start with the first impressions, later on, I will share if this product works or not.
Firstly I noticed this Cetaphil Acne prone moisturizer is a bit thicker than most lightweight moisturizers.
At the same time, it is lighter than most facial sunscreens out there, while we touch it.
So the more they say it is a lightweight product, when you apply it on the face it is not really so light weight as it feels thick.
Also, I noticed that the skin didn’t absorb the product so easily, but we have to keep in mind this is a sunscreen as well.
Having this in mind, I used it as a sunscreen.
If you want to use it as a primer to be used before makeup you can do that as well.
In my opinion, I don’t like doing it because I feel this is a bit too thick for that, but I have heard some friends who liked using it as a primer.
Then this is up to you to decide based on your own preferences.
Oil And Shine Control

It’s me Afer Applying the moisturizer
Since the moment I used it I didn’t notice any significant shine and oil control to be honest.
I do have oily skin and at the moment, I tested this product, I was in a very hot place.
Maybe in colder places, it could work properly as stated in the product description.
But from my own experience, using it in hot weather didn’t make much of a difference, regarding oil and shine control.
My Under the Sun Experience
I decided to use this sunscreen for my daily walks in the morning on the beach.
One good thing that I noticed straight away is that my skin doesn’t act weird while using this product.
Let me explain 🙂
I spent a while going for my walks without sunscreen. I know I should not do this.
But I kept on forgetting to buy one and ended up always postponing this for a reason or another.
When I finally bought this product, for testing purposes, I decided to use it for my beach walks.
Without sunscreen, I noticed my skin would get a little tough and my pores would be more open.
I definitely felt my skin was getting tough.
The first day I used this moisturizer / sunscreen I applied it correctly and went for my normal daily routine.
The next day, I noticed my skin had slightly improved and got better the next day.
Meaning, the skin was not as rough as before.
However, I am not saying it improved my skin texture by 100%. What I am saying is that I liked it because I could see some good improvement.
That makes me believe that in terms of sun protection and softness, this stuff works.
Review After A few Months Of Use

As I shared before, this moisturizer / sunscreen protects my skin from the sun since its first usage.
In the next few days, it got better, and I noticed that skin texture improved, let’s say, by 30%.
Over the months I was expecting that this percentage would increase but it didn’t.
This means that I noticed some good improvements in the first weeks but then it stagnated.
In relation to oil and shine control, it never went through but I give a discount because it is really hard to find a product that keeps that promise in my own experience.
But you must be wondering if this works at all on the acne control aspect, right?
I will share it with you now.
Acne Control Review
For me, it didn’t work and I even got a few spots on my face while using this product.
Acne is not a serious problem in my life, but as I have oily skin, I can get them from time to time.
In this case, this product left my skin softer I must say and I even felt protected.
But in terms of acne control, I cannot say it worked for me, as I experienced acne while using it.
In fact, I almost emptied the entire bottle and some spots still were stubborn on my face.
Cetaphil Acne Prone Moisturizer Review Conclusion
In this Cetaphil Acne Prone Moisturizer Review, I am sharing my honest review after a few months of usage. (almost 3 months).
I actually emptied the bottle so I can tell you my impressions after using it.
In sum, I can say this is a great product that works well for sun protection and to leave my skin softer and I noticed some skin improvements.
However, I did not notice signs of oil and shine control and didn’t notice any efficacy on acne control for my skin.
Nonetheless, I still recommend this product if you are going to have sun exposure for a short while (2 hours).
If you need to stay out for more than 2 hours, make sure to carry this product in your bag and re-apply it from time to time.
If you are going swimming, I do not recommend this product, as it is recommended to use a water resistant product instead.

Disclaimer
All products I mentioned in this Cetaphil Acne Prone Moisturizer Review, were purchased by me with my own money.
I did not receive any proposal from the company to talk about the product and every thought and idea shared here are my own.
Further Reading
Before you go, I would love you to take a look at these articles that prepared with love for you: