Anyone who has spent even a few scrolls on the beauty side of TikTok has likely seen someone use the Dieux Instant Angel moisturizer. Rich, without being too heavy, and packed with fatty acids, peptides, ceramides, glycerin, and squalane, the product has held universal appeal since its 2022 launch—apt for both hydration and skin barrier repair. But despite so many reasons to love it, Dieux co-founder and chief brand officer Charlotte Palermino didn’t anticipate it skyrocketing to viral acclaim.
“I saw how my skin responded to Instant Angel, so I knew the formula was good, but I didn’t expect celebrities who have access to everything, like Hailey Bieber, just organically posting our product, which did help supercharge adoption and press coverage,” she tells Vogue. “The versatility, the gorgeousness of the texture, and the fact that your skin improves over time and visibly firms… I think that’s why loyalty is so high.” And while she jokes that she doesn’t like to tempt fate, she believes that the team has another standout formula with the new Skin Mercy Intense Recovery Cream, available to shop today.
Dieux Skin Mercy Intense Recovery Cream
- Why We Love It: Certified OTC with the National Eczema Association Seal of Acceptance, the Dieux Skin Mercy Intense Recovery Cream looks to soothe and comfort sensitive and impaired skin. Powered by 1% colloidal extract, this helps to calm itchiness, irritation, and inflammation—while a soothing complex reduces redness.
- Key Ingredients: 1% colloidal oatmeal, 3%+ soothing complex (tazman fruit, bisabolol, allantoin, panthenol), 10%+ glycerin, 0.1% licorice root
- Size: 50 mL
It’s the third moisturizer in Dieux’s face cream collection (following the launch of Air Angel gel-cream in 2024), a category Palermino sees as one they can keep building out for what she calls moisture wardrobing. “The same way you may need to switch up your wardrobe in the winter, the same is true based on the weather, the state of your skin, if you’re having a reaction, or if you just got a laser,” she says. “We wanted to create something that tackles the appearance of redness and soothes skin (a universal good during these polluted times), but wasn’t something you’d skimp on.” To ensure you’d actually want to wear it, texture was a key consideration. Chalky or greasy creams were unacceptable.
Photo: Courtesy of Dieux
Photo: Courtesy of Dieux
Where they landed was a mid-weight cream that envelopes skin in a protective cocoon of moisture for lasting comfort, imparting a natural, skin-like radiance. “[Dieux chemist Becca Perry] chose to build the formulation around what we call a ‘crystal lamellar’ base,” Joyce de Lemos, co-founder and chief of product, says. “This has a similar structure to skin and can help with reducing TEWL (transepidermal water loss) and increasing active efficacy. The experience is soft, supple skin with a nourishing, cloud-like after feel.” More granularly, the formulation is centered around four soothing actives—stearyl glycerrhetinate, bisabolol, allantoin, and panthenol—which de Lemos explains have data that supports these work synergistically to bolster calming effects on skin. Calming skin visually involves taming redness and irritation, for which a botanical extract from the Tasmanian pepperberry is especially useful.
These soothing properties are bolstered by the inclusion of 1% colloidal oatmeal—a clinically-proven skin protectant that is recognized by the FDA as a non-prescription drug, making this Dieux’s first certified over-the-counter formula. While it can be challenging to adhere to strict FDA testing, Palermino and de Lemos say this additional hurdle was well worth it to ensure adequate treatment of compromised skin types.
