17 Best Wrinkle Creams of 2025 for Smoother, Clearer Skin
Every line on your face tells a story, but if you'd rather leave some of those stories untold, then the best wrinkle creams might help smoothen things out. We're not saying these recommendations will leave you completely wrinkle-free, but these are some of the best options for slowing down the signs of aging on the skin.
When it comes to anti-aging skin care products—or any skin care in general—active ingredients are key. “I kind of like to break it down with anti-aging ingredients: What happens with age that these ingredients can prevent?" Dr. Muneeb Shah, also known as the “DermDoctor,” a board-certified dermatologist and founder of the new skincare brand Remedy, says. “So, loss of collagen and elastin, thinning of the epidermis, slowing down of skin cell turnover…anything that's going to support collagen and elastin is going to be beneficial with aging.”
After months of testing anti-aging products (and some overall guidance from the good doctor), we narrowed down our medicine cabinet to the best wrinkle creams for nearly every skin type and issue.
The Best Wrinkle Creams for Men, According to GQ
Featured in this article
The Best Overall
Jaxon Lane Relax and Repair
The K-Beauty Pick
Cardon Hydro Boost Gel Moisturizer
The Under-Eye Pick
Ursa Major Forest Alchemy Eye Cream
The Best Wrinkle Cream Overall: Jaxon Lane Relax and Repair
Jaxon Lane
Relax and Repair
It's amazing how many research-backed anti-aging ingredients are contained in this $36 face moisturizer for men. It's proof that you don't have to spend $100 to start your own anti-aging skin care routine (there's a reason it won a GQ Grooming Award). The ingredients include niacinamide, ceramides, hyaluronic acid, squalane, and botanical extracts from ginseng and Indian pennywort. Guys, especially those with sensitive skin types, will appreciate the lightweight formula, which is also fragrance-free.
The Best Korean Skincare Wrinkle Cream: Cardon Hydro Boost Gel Moisturizer
Cardon
Hydro Boost Gel Moisturizer
Cardon is a Korean skincare brand that's a favorite of ours here at GQ Recommends. The brand won back-to-back GQ Grooming Awards in 2022 and 2023. We previously named this one of the best moisturizers for oily skin, but anyone can benefit from its potent formulation of niacinamide and botanicals. Apply this anti-aging moisturizer at night to the entire face and neck. For guys in their 20s and 30s who aren't quite ready for a retinol, make this your new everyday moisturizer.
The Best Wrinkle Cream for Eyes: Ursa Major Forest Alchemy Eye Cream
- Adam Hurly
- Adam Hurly
Ursa Major
Forest Alchemy Eye Cream
Everyone who's worried about signs of aging on the skin seem to focus a lot of effort on making sure that the skin around their eyes stay smooth and plump. The eye area is arguably one of the first places that show signs of aging, so it's best to find a wrinkle cream that specifically targets that area. Having tested the best eye creams, we found Ursa Major's Forest Alchemy to be the best. A cocktail of hydrating and fortifying ingredients help to plump the skin around the eye area, which makes it feel like wrinkles are being erased in real time. Wild birch offers a boatload of amino acids, antioxidants, and proteins, while mushroom extracts provide moisture retention while lightening dark circles. And just to round it out, algae increases collagen production, which is key for targeting wrinkles and fine lines.
The Best Luxury French Wrinkle Cream: Beau Domaine The Cream
Beau Domaine
The Cream
Speaking of $200 luxury French skincare products, Beau Domaine is the result of a partnership between Brad Pitt and famed French winemaker Marc Perrin. Along with the brand's face serum and cleanser, this moisturizer gave my skin an undeniable glow-up in just four weeks. It contains patented antioxidants derived from grapes and other natural hydrating agents. It's a luxe unisex moisturizer and wrinkle cream, and one of the best I've ever reviewed. If you really love skincare and want rapid wrinkle repair with natural ingredients, then this cream is worth the splurge.
The Best Lightweight Wrinkle Cream: Malin+Goetz Advanced Renewal Moisturizer
Malin+Goetz
Advanced Renewal Moisturizer
Moisturizer feeling a little too greasy for you? This Advanced Renewal Moisturizer is a lightweight hydrator, more akin to a serum than a moisturizer. Its super-concentrated formula delivers quick smoothing and firming action to your skin, offering a healthy dose of antioxidants and skin care ingredient holy grails like peptides and squalene. You don't need to use this every day (four times a week is great) and you can watch as the lines on your face practically fill themselves in.
The Best Retinol Cream: Dr. Loretta Concentrated Firming Moisturizer
Dr. Loretta
Concentrated Firming Moisturizer
This dermatologist-founded brand makes some of my favorite anti-aging products. I recommend this wrinkle cream for anyone dealing with more than just fine lines—although it helps with those, too. It contains retinoid derived from vitamin A to fight wrinkles, improve overall skin brightening, and smooth out skin, while antioxidants such as CoQ10 support your body's natural collagen. The formula isn't oily at all, and I found it absorbed quickly into the skin. Just a couple small drops was enough to keep dryness at bay for my entire face.
The Best Night Cream: Korres Black Pine Primus Youth Renewal Sleeping Facial
Korres
Black Pine Primus Youth Renewal Sleeping Facial
If you prefer to apply skin care products at night, then go with Korres' Black Pine Primus Youth Renewal Sleeping Facial. Out of the jar, the cream is thick and rich, and while it feels that way when you first apply it to your face, the cream quickly softens and melts into the skin applying its wrinkle-fighting ingredients to the source. Skin feels instantly hydrated, leaving behind a dewy appearance that's actually just three kinds of hyaluronic acid doing their job to suck moisture into the skin. You'll wake up the next day with instantly plumped skin and soft-to-the-touch feel that'll hope you wishing it were nighttime again, not to get more hours of sleep, but so you can slather more of this good stuff on your mug.
The Best Upgrade Wrinkle Cream: Skinceuticals A.G.E. Interrupter Advanced
Skinceuticals
A.G.E. Interrupter Advanced
One of the newest products in this guide, this award-winning Skinceuticals anti-wrinkle cream does more than moisturize. It supports your body's elastin and collagen production, which means it can fight wrinkles at the source. It also contains more proven anti-aging ingredients such as niacinamide and licorice extract. While it's a pricey balm, it's worth it if you're fighting deep wrinkles. This is a good option if you don't tolerate retinol, although it would be a good complement to a retinol moisturizer, too.
The Custom Moisturizer: Prose Custom Moisturizer
- Timothy Beck Werth
- Timothy Beck Werth
Prose
Custom Moisturizer
Prose takes customization seriously. For instance, the brand might add extra UV protection to your products based on your sensitivity, location, and the season. I recently tested the brand's new custom skincare regimen, and I actually liked it more than the famous Prose hair products. The vegan formula I received contains moisturizers such as glycerin and squalene, as well as anti-aging ingredients such as red algae, amino acids, and niacinamide. I normally prefer fragrance-free products, but I love the scent of this gel-like moisturizer, which is non oily. Like all of the best anti-aging moisturizers, it’s also cruelty-, phthalate-, and paraben-free.
The Best Budget Wrinkle Cream: RoC Retinol Correxion Deep Wrinkle Anti-Aging Night Cream
RoC
Retinol Correxion Deep Wrinkle Anti-Aging Night Cream
Need a concentrated dose of anti-aging ingredients in an affordable package? Not only does this wrinkle night cream contain retinol to fight wrinkles, but it also contains exfoliating glycolic acid to help with dark spots and other signs of aging. Additional moisture comes from squalane and shea butter. Suitable for men and women, we recommend saving this product for deep wrinkles.
The Best Easy-to-Absorb Wrinkle Cream: Kiehl's Age Defender Cream Moisturizer
Kiehl's
Age Defender Cream Moisturizer
Kiehl's anti-aging moisturizer for men contains two potent ingredients: salicylic acid and caffeine. The former is a powerful exfoliating agent, useful for more than just acne, and the latter helps to energize the sensitive skin under the eyes, just like your favorite eye cream. It also has additional botanicals and moisturizers and a subtle, masculine fragrance. The whipped-cream like texture is soft to the touch and absorbs quickly.
More Wrinkle Creams We Love
Ursa Major
Golden Hour Face Moisturizer
Want to glow like it's golden hour? This Ursa Major moisturizer is one of associate commerce editor Tyler Chin's favorites for the way it deeply hydrates his skin, leaving him glowy and dewy all day long. It absorbs into the skin quickly leaving it moisturized but not oily, allowing for all the vitamins and minerals to reach deep into the face to help stave off wrinkles before they've even begun to form.
Then I Met You
Renewing Rich Beauty Cream
“Renew” is exactly what this cream from K-beauty brand Then I Met You does. It's a super rich and creamy moisturizer that helps the skin glow and plump up, which makes wrinkles appear to smoothen out, leading to a smoother and youthful appearance. It may be a little to hydrating for use in the morning, but slather this on at night and wake up feeling like you got the best eight hours of sleep of your life.
SK-II
Skinpower Face Moisturizer
SK-II is a GOATed brand when it comes to skin care, and its Skinpower moisturizer might be one of its most popular products. Why? Just ask the millions of people who use it and have noticed the diminished appearance of fine lines or those who have yet to see any little wrinkles start to crop up.
Noble Panacea
The Exceptional Chronobiology Sleep Mask
Are we recommending a single-use product? We sure are. These sleep masks from Noble Panacea contain a hearty recipe for keeping your visage youthful, featuring the gentle exfoliator polyhydroxy acid, the collagen booster retinol, and barrier-repairing ceramides to name a few of the ingredient bonafides. Above all else, your smooth-as-butter face will be the only selling point you need.
Ilia
Barrier Build Skin Protectant Cream
Ilia's Barrier Cream looks towards oatmeal to help repair the layer of skin that's most likely to be damaged by environmental factors. Its calming and protecting formula work exceptionally well in the cold weather, but manages to stay light enough to work year round.
Estée Lauder
Re-Nutriv Ultimate Diamond Transformative Energy Moisturizer Cream Rich
Set aside the fact that this cream contains black diamond truffle extract (a.k.a. four words that are guaranteed to inflate the price of this product by 200%), but know that years of innovation have led to a skin care product that's simply a Fountain of Youth in a glass jar. Skin not only looks smoother and wrinkle-free, but hydrated and healthy no matter your age.
What to Look for in a Wrinkle Cream
If you’re fighting wrinkles, it’s all about retinol, retinol, retinol. But what other ingredients will help give your skin a glow-up?
“Retinol is probably the most studied ingredient over time for all the signs of aging,” Dr. Shah says. "Niacinamide is a great ingredient for this…Exfoliating acids like glycolic acid, lactic acid, mandelic acid, salicylic acid, can all be beneficial.”
With anti-aging products, you also need to manage expectations and practice patience. While some of the best wrinkle creams can provide near-instant plumping and firming effects, long-term results take time. That’s because the skin cells in your face take months to fully turn over. “So when you see a product that says, like, results in 24 hours, that's generally just due to the moisturizing effect. It's not really a long-term effect on your collagen or elastin,” Dr. Shah says. “With texture, you should see an improvement in texture in like, two weeks. If you're talking about dark spots, discoloration, uneven skin tone that you see with aging skin, give it a month, six weeks. Anything like fine lines, wrinkles, you gotta give it at least three months, and probably a lot of times six months, to see results, quite honestly. And, if you think about it, how long did it take you to form wrinkles? A decade for you to develop wrinkles? And so it does take time, just like exercising, to kind of reverse those things.”
Lastly, there are limits to what you can achieve with over-the-counter products. Dr. Shah says that proactively seeking out professional treatments, rather than waiting for wrinkles to form and skin to sag, can also pay dividends. Prevention will always be easier than treatment.
“And then I wouldn't discount having a routine to get procedures done,” Dr. Shah says. “A lot of people get procedures done, almost reactionary, to an issue, right? Like, they develop a wrinkle, or they develop a dark spot, and they go in. But there is something to be said about getting regular [procedures]. Not to the point where it's taking over your life, but going to a dermatologist and getting a laser treatment once a year, which really can make a big difference to your skin health, or doing micro-needling, you know, every six months, or picking something and just having some routine.”
How We Tested
We chose these face creams and anti-aging moisturizers based on a combination of hands-on testing and expert input. While Shah didn’t recommend specific products, we looked for the ingredients he said would make the biggest impact on the signs of aging—wrinkles, fine lines, dark spots, uneven skin tone, and sagging skin texture. After finding a good curation of creams to try, we did exactly that: slathered our faces with the contenders to evaluate their texture, how they felt on the face, how quickly the absorbed into the skin, and how it affected our faces over a certain period of time. The final list of the best wrinkle creams includes a wide array of products for various skin concerns and people.
Wrinkle Cream FAQ
What are the best anti wrinkle creams?
We think the items listed above are the best wrinkle creams out there right now. Our favorite is the Jaxon Lane Relax and Repair.
What are the best wrinkle cream ingredients?
Things like retinol, niacinamide, glycolic acid, lactic acid, mandelic acid, and salicylic acid, are all ingredients to keep an eye out for.
What causes wrinkles?
Over the years, our bodies produce less collagen and elastin, which presents itself as fine lines and wrinkles. In addition to constant facial movements and sun exposure, wrinkles make people feel like they're showing signs of aging. To combat wrinkles, you'll want to look for moisturizers that help to plump and hydrate the skin, as well making sure you apply sunscreen regularly to avoid exacerbation from the sun's UV rays.
About the Author
Timothy Beck Werth is an experienced journalist, editor, and editorial director. He’s based in Brooklyn, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. In addition to his work for GQ, Tim also works as a freelance editor for Mashable. He was previously the site director of SPY.com, a men’s product review website. He’s been reviewing men’s skincare products since 2019, and he’s reviewed dozens of face moisturizers for men. He recently finished his first novel and is actively seeking representation.