Best fragrance-free lotion

How we chose

This page covers body lotions and hand-and-body lotions, plus the body creams that makers sell alongside them. Our test is simple: the maker’s published ingredient list must contain no fragrance, parfum, aroma, perfume, essential oil or fragrance-chemical entry. A statement such as “unscented” does not pass on its own. The FDA says fragrance ingredients are commonly used in body lotions, and that even some products labeled “unscented” may contain them, so the list matters more than the front label. For the wider definitions see fragrance-free vs unscented and how to read an ingredient list for parfum and aroma.

We work from documents and have not tested any product ourselves. Every product below was read from the maker’s own page; the retrieval date is given in each section. Prices are not stated; the price band on each card is a rough guide. Face-only products, cleansers and sunscreens are out of scope here: for the face see fragrance-free face moisturizer, for hands alone see fragrance-free hand cream, and for thicker body products see fragrance-free body butter.

What to look for on a body lotion list

Body products are bought by the bottle, so format and size come first. Pump bottles of 13 oz to 20 oz suit a household; 1 oz to 3 oz tubes and jars suit a trial. After size, the lists split along a few lines you can see without any chemistry background.

Base: petrolatum versus no petrolatum. Vanicream, Dove, Clinique and the Cetaphil cream list petrolatum. CeraVe and Cetaphil Daily Hydrating Lotion do not. Only Clinique lists mineral oil.

Plant oils. The Cetaphil Intensive cream lists sunflower seed oil and sweet almond oil; Clinique lists sesame oil and a sunflower seed extract. If you avoid nut- or seed-derived ingredients, those are the entries to check, and a clinician or allergist is the right person for that question.

Ceramides. CeraVe names three, plus cholesterol and phytosphingosine. No other list here names a ceramide.

Oat. None of these seven lists an oat ingredient. If oat is what you are after, see the pages on itchy skin and dry skin rather than this one.

Preservative. Vanicream’s lists use sorbic acid. The other five use phenoxyethanol. The Cetaphil cream also lists benzyl alcohol, which is on the EU list of 26 fragrance allergens; that is a preservative entry and not a fragrance entry, and the maker states the product is fragrance free.

Claims on the label. The FDA says it has no list of approved or accepted claims for cosmetics and that labeling claims must be truthful and not misleading. We therefore quote makers’ wording with attribution and rely on the ingredient list for our own test.

Vanicream Moisturizing Lotion

Vanicream Moisturizing Lotion has the shortest lotion-format list of the seven. Per the maker’s ingredient disclosure, retrieved 2026-11-13, it reads: water, petrolatum, propylene glycol, cetearyl alcohol, sorbitol, ceteareth-20, simethicone, glyceryl stearate, PEG-30 stearate, sorbic acid, BHT. That is 11 entries, no plant oil, no ceramide, and no entry resembling fragrance.

The maker states that “our Moisturizing Lotion is free of fragrance and masking fragrances.” The maker lists 16 oz, 8 oz and 2 oz sizes, which covers both a household bottle and a trial size. The caveat is the BHT entry: it is listed as an ingredient in the lotion but not in the cream, so if you want to avoid it, the cream below is the alternative. See also is Vanicream fragrance-free?

Vanicream Moisturizing Cream

Vanicream Moisturizing Cream is the shortest list on the page. Per the maker’s ingredient disclosure, retrieved 2026-11-13: water, petrolatum, sorbitol, cetearyl alcohol, propylene glycol, ceteareth-20, simethicone, glyceryl stearate, PEG-30 stearate, sorbic acid. Ten entries.

The maker states that “our Moisturizing Cream is free of fragrance and masking fragrances.” Compared with the lotion above, the cream list drops BHT and has the same preservative, sorbic acid. The maker page lists 16 oz, 4 oz and 2 oz. The Amazon listing we matched is a 3 oz size, which does not match any of those; confirm the size on the listing at checkout. For a side-by-side with the other two big brands, see Vanicream vs CeraVe and Vanicream vs Cetaphil.

Dove Fragrance Free Moisture Hypoallergenic Lotion

Dove Fragrance Free Moisture Hypoallergenic Lotion is the large-format option: the maker’s page shows 13 oz and 20 oz. Per the maker’s ingredient disclosure, retrieved 2026-11-13: Water (Aqua), Glycerin, Petrolatum, Stearic Acid, Glycol Stearate, Dimethicone, Isopropyl Isostearate, Triethanolamine, Tapioca Starch, Phenoxyethanol, Glyceryl Stearate, Caprylyl Glycol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Carbomer, Disodium EDTA, Stearamide AMP, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891).

The maker’s page copy begins: “A pediatrician-tested, fragrance-free hypoallergenic lotion that gently moistu” (the text is cut off on the page as we captured it). We cannot say what the sentence goes on to claim, so we do not rely on it. What the list shows is a petrolatum-and-dimethicone base, phenoxyethanol as the preservative, and one pigment entry, titanium dioxide (CI 77891), which is the only colorant on the list. No plant oils appear.

Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion+

Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion+ has the most unusual list of the seven. Per the maker’s ingredient disclosure, retrieved 2026-11-13, the 24 entries are: Water Aqua Eau, Mineral Oil Paraffinum Liquidum Huile Minérale, Glycerin, Petrolatum, Stearic Acid, Glyceryl Stearate, Sesamum Indicum (sesame) Oil, Urea, Lanolin Alcohol, Triethanolamine, Hordeum Vulgare (barley) Extract Extrait D’orge, Cucumis Sativus (cucumber) Fruit Extract, Propylene Glycol Dicaprate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Butylene Glycol, Helianthus Annuus (sunflower) Seed Extract, Pentylene Glycol, Bht, Disodium Edta, Tetrasodium Edta, Phenoxyethanol, Red 33 (ci 17200), Yellow 6 (ci 15985), Yellow 5 (ci 19140).

The maker’s wording is “Dermatologist developed Dermatologist tested Allergy tested Fragrance free”; these are the maker’s claims and we saw no test data. The list shows no fragrance, parfum or essential oil entry, though it has botanical extracts (barley, cucumber, sunflower seed) whose purpose the page does not state. It is the only one here with mineral oil, lanolin alcohol, sesame oil and added colorants. The maker page shows 0.5 fl oz, 1.7 fl oz and 4.2 fl oz sizes. See is Clinique fragrance-free?

CeraVe Daily Moisturizing Lotion

CeraVe Daily Moisturizing Lotion is the ceramide product on this page. Per the maker’s ingredient disclosure, retrieved 2026-11-11, the 25-entry list includes ceramide NP, ceramide AP, ceramide EOP, phytosphingosine, cholesterol, sodium hyaluronate and glycerin, alongside dimethicone, cetearyl and cetyl alcohols, and phenoxyethanol. There is no petrolatum, mineral oil or plant oil entry.

The maker’s page callout says “Free of Added Fragrance”, and the page also says the product contains no sulfates or fragrance. Note the maker’s wording: “added” fragrance. We read the full list, and it shows no fragrance, parfum or essential oil entry; the list ends with a maker code, “(CODE F.I.L D215763/2)”, which is a formulation reference and not an ingredient. The maker page does not state a size, and the page is filtered to the “normal to dry skin” version of the product. This is a separate product from CeraVe Moisturizing Cream, which we could not verify (see below). See is CeraVe fragrance-free? and CeraVe vs Cetaphil.

Cetaphil Daily Hydrating Lotion

Cetaphil Daily Hydrating Lotion has a 16-entry list. Per the maker’s ingredient disclosure, retrieved 2026-11-13: Water, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Hydroxyethyl Urea, Cyclopentasiloxane, Glycerin, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate, Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Homarine HCI, Sodium PCA, Cetyl Alcohol, Caprylyl Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Erythritol.

The maker’s features line reads: “Fragrance free Paraben free Oil free Hypoallergenic”. The list is consistent with “Oil free” in the sense that it has no petrolatum, mineral oil or plant oil entry; it does include silicone-type and ester-type emollient entries (cyclopentasiloxane, dicaprylyl carbonate). It is the most different in construction from the Vanicream and Dove lists, so it is the one to look at if you want to avoid petrolatum without choosing a ceramide product. The maker page does not state a size. See is Cetaphil fragrance-free?

Cetaphil Intensive Moisturizing Cream for Dry Skin

Cetaphil Intensive Moisturizing Cream for Dry Skin is a cream with a 23-entry list. Per the maker’s ingredient disclosure, retrieved 2026-11-13: Water, Glycerin, Petrolatum, Dicaprylyl Ether, Dimethicone, Glyceryl Stearate, Cetyl Alcohol, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Peg-30 Stearate, Panthenol, Niacinamide, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate, Pantolactone, Dimethiconol, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Carbomer, Propylene Glycol, Disodium Edta, Benzyl Alcohol, Phenoxyethanol, Sodium Hydroxide, Citric Acid.

The maker’s features line reads: “Fragrance free Paraben free Hypoallergenic Won’t Clog Pores”. This is the only product here that combines petrolatum with plant oils, and the only one with niacinamide, panthenol and benzyl alcohol. As noted above, benzyl alcohol is a preservative that also appears on the EU fragrance-allergen list; it is not a fragrance entry. The maker lists 1 oz, 1.7 oz, 3 oz and 8.8 oz sizes.

No Amazon listing found; this link goes to the maker’s site and is not an affiliate link.

Body oil

The old body oil page was merged into this one, but no body oil is recommended here. The only oil we looked at, NOW Solutions Sweet Almond Oil (offered in 4, 16 and 32 fl. oz), is BROWSER-CAPTURED: it was captured from the maker’s page in a browser on 2026-11-13 and our automated fetch was blocked, so we do not present it as fetch-verified. A single-ingredient oil is simple to read, but oils are also where essential-oil blends turn up, so read the whole list. The lotions above that list oils (Cetaphil Intensive, Clinique) are creams or lotions, not body oils. For related pages see fragrance-free body butter and are essential oils fragrance-free?

What the label does not tell you

An ingredient list shows what is in the product, not how it behaves on any one person’s skin, and none of the pages we read gives data on that. The lists also show entries in descending order only up to a point, and give no concentrations, so “Petrolatum, third entry” tells you it is a larger component than the ones after it, not by how much.

Fragrance can be hidden behind a single word. The FDA says that under U.S. regulations fragrance ingredients can be listed simply as “Fragrance”, so an unfamiliar-looking entry such as a botanical extract is worth a second look. On the seven lists here we found no such entry, but we cannot rule out that a plant-derived entry is used partly for scent; the lists do not say.

A seal is a different test from ours. The National Eczema Association describes its Seal of Acceptance as meaning a product is free from ingredients on its Ecz-clusion List and has passed an independent panel’s review of ingredients, formulation and testing data. We did not check any of these products against that directory.

Not every well-known lotion could be verified. Six were left out because a second fetch did not reproduce the first, or because the maker’s page blocked our automated fetch (First Aid Beauty and NOW Solutions are browser-captured only); they are named in the unknowns section. For other brand questions see is Aveeno fragrance-free? and is Eucerin fragrance-free?. For a broader view of how this page sits with the others, see fragrance-free moisturizer and fragrance-free skincare.

Caveats

Formulas change, and the same name can be sold in different versions in different countries, so check the list on the package you receive. If you have a skin condition, or have reacted to a product before, bring the ingredient list to a dermatologist or allergist; this page does not give medical advice.