12 best men’s moisturisers with SPF for everyday skin protection

Jack Black might share its name with a comedian but America’s bestselling men’s grooming brand is deadly serious about skincare, as this high-performance SPF moisturiser shows. As well as packing an SPF 20 broad-spectrum sunscreen (composed of two chemical UV light absorbers) to guard against sun damage, it features a veritable army of antioxidant vitamins that help protect against the damaging effects of stress, pollution and blue light. Phospholipids, meanwhile, help keep skin hydrated throughout the day.

Particularly impressive is the super-lightweight texture – which dries to a matte finish within seconds – while the scent is minimal. The pump action bottle, meanwhile, helps minimise wastage. Having road-tested it, we can see why it’s so popular Stateside.

As affordable as the razors for which this brand is better known, this daily face Lotion from Harry’s was one of our absolute favourites. Lightweight and quickly absorbed (it’s a lotion, so it’s runnier than a traditional cream moisturiser), it sinks into skin without any residue – an impressive feat, given the broad spectrum sunscreen is a physical one using zinc oxide. The inclusion of shea butter, meanwhile, keeps skin soft and hydrated, while liquorice extract soothes irritation.

What impressed us most about this face-saver, though – apart from the price – was the smell. Infused with a subtle combo of mint and eucalyptus oils, it’s fantastically fresh on application, providing the perfect morning wake-up call as well as all-day protection.

CeraVe is to skincare what Aldi is to middle-class shoppers: cool to name-drop, because it shows you’re a savvy customer. Loved by beauty-industry insiders, this brand specialises in straightforward, affordable skincare with the main focus of helping skin help itself. That’s why its products contain three skin-saving ceramides – natural lipids found in the skin that support barrier function – while hyaluronic acid draws moisture to the skin and helps keep it there. Designed for normal to dry skin, it uses time-release technology to help deliver hydration throughout the day, and our skin certainly felt as supple at the end of the day as it did on application in the morning.

It offers SPF 50 protection and, like all CeraVe products, is great value for money. It does have a slight sunscreeny smell but it wasn’t overpowering enough to put us off. On the plus side, the pump delivery system is handy, helping prevent wastage and minimising accidents in travel or gym bags.

If you’re a guy with oily skin and enlarged pores, this clever SPF moisturiser from Murad is for you. It contains tiny grease-busting micro-spheres that neutralise excess oil from the skin, while also reducing the appearance of shine with special optical filters. It’s also formulated with avocado and African yellow wood bark extracts, which help shrink pores.

It glides onto skin, has a lightweight texture and since it uses chemical sunscreens, offers an impressive SPF 45, with no chalky residue. The best mattifying moisturiser we tried, it keeps skin shine-free all day.

It might not be the most affordable moisturiser we tried but what you’re paying for is the ingredients included in this luxury offering. For starters, peptide carnosine firms skin and protects against harmful free radicals, while grape stem cells help guard against sun damage and age spots. Then there’s the ‘next gen’ SPF 50 broad-spectrum sunscreen, which uses a special delivery system designed to optimise its performance in a way that makes it suitable for people who sometimes find chemical sunscreens irritating (it certainly didn’t irritate our skin).

Fragrance-free, with the feel of an after-shave lotion, and coming with a high SPF, this brilliant wrinkle buster is the kind of moisturiser that makes anti-ageing easy. Housed in super minimalist packaging, it’ll look cool on your bathroom shelf, too.

When we reviewed this Nivea Men moisturiser for our round-up of the best anti-ageing creams for men, it bagged the title of best budget multitasking cream.

An anti-ageing face-saver, it’s a pretty good buy if holding back the years is your priority. Not only does it aim to tackle fine lines in the short term (thanks to wrinkle-busting hyaluronic acid) but the SPF 15 chemical sunscreen helps protect skin from further damage in the long term.

It also contains tapioca starch to mop up excess oil, and we noticed a slight skin-tightening effect as it sank into skin, which helped firm things up a little – not quite a facelift but every little helps, right?

We could probably have done without the fragrance – one that runs throughout the Nivea Men range – but, all things considered, it’s a great addition to any man’s daily skincare routine.

When it comes to choosing a daily SPF moisturiser, this high-performance skin saviour from British brand LifeJacket leaves few boxes unticked. As well as being suitable for all skin types (including sensitive ones), non-greasy and fragrance-free, it’s also superb value for money, being double the size of most SPF moisturisers on the market.

Then there’s the chemical sunscreen, which is broad-spectrum and offers factor 30 protection, including a maximum industry rating of five stars for protection against the sun’s ageing UVA rays. We tested it on a particularly sunny day and there was no sign of redness.

If we have one criticism, it’s that it lacks additional skin protectors, such as antioxidants, and hero ingredients such as hyaluronic acid but if it’s a straightforward SPF moisturiser you’re after, this is one of the best.

The Swiss army knife of SPF skincare, Lab Series’s BB tinted moisturiser is a true master of multifunctionality. Not only does it offer broad spectrum protection with SPF 35, it features antioxidant and anti-inflammatory wheat germ extract, sodium PCA – a humectant that helps keep skin hydrated – and special blurring technology that acts a bit like a filter for your face, evening out skin tone and minimising imperfections.

It’s also tinted. At first, we were a little worried about this but the colour is adaptive to all skin types and just adds a little warmth rather than obvious colour.

Texture wise, it was thicker than the other moisturisers we tried and because it uses both physical and chemical sunscreens, you do need to rub it in thoroughly. One minor gripe is the smell (yep, it’s that sunscreen odour again) and it’s a little on the pricey side but then it does work a lot harder than most moisturisers out there.

British brand Auden might not be one of the best-known male skincare brands out there but it deserves to be, if this superior anti-ageing cream is anything to go by. Designed to address modern man’s biggest skin challenges (stress, pollution, Old Father Time), it features 23 active ingredients – including an SPF 30 broad spectrum sunscreen – to create an invisible defence shield for skin.

Hyaluronic acid, peptides and vitamin B5 keep skin supple and hydrated, a raft of antioxidant vitamins minimise the potentially damaging effects of blue light emitted by mobile phones and computer screens, while rhatany root extract calms irritation.

It’s more like a serum than a moisturiser in texture, and has a barely there, slightly fruity smell. Although pretty pricey, given the size of the bottle, it was our favourite premium offering.

If tired, washed-out, generally stressed-out-looking skin is your main grooming concern (we’ve all been there), you might want to make this excellent all-rounder your go-to moisturiser.

As well as offering excellent, long-lasting hydration, protection against pollution and a broad-spectrum SPF 15 chemical sunscreen, it’s formulated with two hero ingredients to improve the overall appearance of skin: vitamin C (to brighten skin) and caffeine-rich guarana (to energise and revitalise skin).

A pimped-up version of L’Oréal’s best-selling hydra energetic 24hr anti-fatigue moisturiser, it has a great, silky texture, is absorbed in an instant and definitely does feel revitalising – especially on application. Think of it as an energy drink for your skin.

Formulated for acne-prone skin, this daily hydrator protects against sun damage while also controlling shine, reducing redness and minimising the chance of spots in the process. It achieves this last feat with the help of LHA (beta-lipohydroxy acid) – an ingredient that works a bit like the more familiar acne-busting salicylic acid, keeping pores clear of dead skin cells that can clog them. Antioxidant carnosine, meanwhile, helps prevent damage caused by daily pollution.

Unlike the other moisturisers in our list, it has a gel formula that feels super refreshing, and we loved the way it kept skin shine-free for hours. Not the cheapest SPF moisturiser here but an absolute godsend for oil-slick skin.

Although it doesn’t say moisturiser in its name, Green People’s scent-free, vegan-friendly, cruelty-free and 73 per cent organic facial sun cream has been designed to be worn daily as a two-in-one hydrator and sun protector. With that in mind, it’s been formulated with aloe vera and squalane (two skin-savers), prebiotics (to help keep the skin’s surface biome healthy) and a broad-spectrum mineral sunscreen to see off sun damage.

Since it’s fragrance free, contains skin-calming antioxidant green tea and uses a mineral sunscreen, it’s great for sensitive or easily irritated skin. You do have to take time to work it into the skin (patting once applied helps dissipate any chalkiness) but, other than that, we really rated it.