Caitriona Balfe's Go-To Skincare Brand Has a Cruelty-Free, Under-$20 Solution to Wrinkles

This may or may not be a hot take, but I would watch Caitriona Balfe read the dictionary. The Irish actress's performance as Outlander's Claire Fraser is one for the ages (to say nothing of the smallpox episode, which is now feeling highly relevant), so when Balfe spilled some of her beauty secrets earlier this year, I was all ears.

"I tend to take good care of skin. I think that's the one thing you can give yourself, so I use a lot of lovely serums," she told Allure in March, specifically calling out Sukin's face wash and NYDG's Formula 119 Cream as partially responsible for her glowing skin. While the latter is a $110 investment (that's somehow still frequently out of stock), shoppers confirm that Sukin's range of under-$20 products is just as phenomenal.

Balfe didn't specify exactly which of the Australian brand's face washes she uses, but Sukin's Cream Cleanser is one of its most highly rated products on Amazon — and according to shoppers, the line's Ageless Rejuvenating Day Cream is just as exceptional (especially for $18). That's thanks to a medley of ingredients like sesame seed, jojoba, argan, and rosehip oil, along with fatty alcohol, glycerin, cocoa seed butter, and vegetable protein. For antioxidants, baobab, hibiscus, acai, and goji extract enter the mix.

Shop now: $18; amazon.com

According to the brand, though, the real anti-aging powerhouse in the formula is ribose, a corn-sourced sugar that it claims visibly reduces wrinkles by up to 78 percent. A 2009 study in the journal of Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology found that topical ribose application enhances adenosine triphosphate regeneration, which increases cells' fibroblast activities and thus, decreases wrinkles — but studies are pretty scarce on the ingredient, so take the findings with a grain of salt.

That said, reviewers are highly pleased with the Day Cream's results. One person with "mature, dry skin" said the rich, creamy consistency gives them the moisture "key" to reducing their fine lines, and another user said the hydrator could "easily" go for two or three times as much money. A penultimate fan went so far as to call the cream "extremely amazing" for softening their skin, and a final customer credited it as fully responsible for their "silky smooth" face.

If you'd like to try the Balfe-approved brand for yourself, get Sukin's Ageless Rejuvenating Day Cream for $18 at Amazon, and the brand's Cream Cleanser for $10.