TikTok’s Skin Experts Can’t Get Enough Of This Affordable Moisturiser

When it comes to smart new beauty trends, TikTok is the gift that keeps on giving. Recently, the app's biggest skin experts introduced us to skin icing: using 'ice globes' to bring down puffiness and make skin glow. Then there were game-changing new products like Dr Jart+'s Cicapair Color Correcting Treatment and benefit's Magnet Mascara. Lately, though, all skincare lovers can talk about is memory cream and it looks like it's about to become the new must-have moisturiser.

Right now, the product TikTokers can't get enough of is the Elizavecca Moisture Hyaluronic Acid Memory Cream, £13.13. The Korean beauty brand is world-renowned for its innovative skincare range but it's the moisturiser's unique texture which has made it such a fan favourite. Much like a memory foam mattress, which moulds to your body shape and slowly bounces back, the cream is equally springy, and the TikTok videos showing it in action are very much like ASMR.

"Moisturisers like these are highly viscous," explains Dr Mariam Adegoke, founder of Adegoke Wellness Clinic, meaning it is slightly tacky or gummy in texture. "When the product is disrupted, i.e. with a spatula, the friction between molecules opposes movement and it returns to its original state," adds Dr Adegoke. Basically, it jumps right back to its jelly-like consistency and appears entirely untouched, sans messy finger marks. Elizavecca isn't the only brand to use the word 'memory' to describe this new, stretchy, jelly-esque texture of moisturiser. Lots of popular beauty brands are formulating products which look and feel similar.

While memory creams are very fun to play around with, there are some serious beauty benefits. In Elizavecca's popular moisturiser, Dr Adegoke pinpoints dimethicone (a multitasking silicone) and fatty alcohols and acids as a handful of ingredients which make the cream bouncy. Beauty brands champion dimethicone in particular for smoothing skin texture, which is why you'll spot it in most makeup primers. Much like memory foam, it plumps out fine lines and wrinkles temporarily and makes skin appear smoother.

Hydrating hyaluronic acid is also a key ingredient in this particular cream, which Dr Adegoke says draws water into the skin and holds it there like a sponge. Other ingredients include moisturising glycerin and polyglutamic acid, which experts say boosts hydration incredibly well. "These particular creams are packed with powerful hydrators so they are more suited to normal to dry skin types, especially during colder weather when you need to lock that extra moisture in," adds Dr Adegoke. "A product with all three ingredients will help attract and retain water in your skin, which is the goal of any moisturiser." The above ingredients are also typically very gentle on the skin and work for all skin types so products like these can be used in both the morning and evening, and as often as you like.

Elizavecca isn't the only brand to champion bouncy, memory-textured skincare. Reviewers compare the texture of Erno Laszlo's HydraTherapy Memory Sleep Mask, £97, to blancmange, as it contains glycerin to moisturise skin deeply and dimethicone to prevent water from escaping so that skin appears soft and supple all day. Also try Gatineau Aquamemory Moisture Replenish Cream, £50, which uses hyaluronic acid and glycerin to make skin instantly softer, and L'Oréal Paris Revitalift Laser Anti Ageing Night Cream, £24.49, which boasts lots of nourishing plant oils and has a cushiony, memory foam consistency. Lip care is also benefiting from the memory cream trend. Florence by Mills Hit Snooze Lip Mask, £16, is a thick, jelly-textured lip balm which contains moisturising squalane and fruit oils to eradicate dry skin on lips. While the product is meant for overnight use, it's an excellent lipstick primer and makes lips appear smooth.

The texture has recently snuck into haircare, too. Hollywood hairstylist Chris Appleton recently teamed up with Color Wow to create Money Masque, £38.50, available in the UK on 25th March. Unlike intensely creamy hair masks, which can weigh hair down and make it appear greasy, this gel-like mask behaves very much like a memory cream and the results are unlike anything we've seen. Meant to be used in place of your conditioner, a small dollop takes dry, damaged hair and makes it feel soft, healthy and manageable in minutes, with an incredible gloss.

In skincare especially, memory creams are great for minimising fine lines and wrinkles temporarily. But if you're interested in preventative skincare, Dr Adegoke suggests stepping things up. "Using a retinol serum at night will increase cell turnover and improve the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles," she says. R29 rates L'Oréal Paris Revitalift Laser Pure Retinol Deep Anti-Wrinkle Night Serum, £24.99, and Medik8 Crystal Retinal 3, £45. You can follow your chosen retinol serum with your memory cream.

"You can also use antioxidants, like a vitamin C serum, which will help repair and correct," says Dr Adegoke. "Most importantly, though, you want to use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30+," says Dr Adegoke. "We need to protect our skin from UV radiation and prevent all the good work the serums and creams like these are doing from being undone." SPF should always be the last step in your routine, following your memory cream.