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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
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- 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. “You may need to switch up your wardrobe in the winter and 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.
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, cofounder 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—that de Lemos explains have data which supports that they 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.
“We hadn’t seen anything on the market that was both elegant enough to wear every day, under makeup or sunscreen, and also effective at taming skin that felt uncomfortably sensitized,” de Lemos says. Skin Mercy, however, is elegant enough for daily use and effective without feeling overly clinical. “When I use the product I don’t even think of it as a recovery cream because the texture is just so amazing. I think of it as my comforting moisturizer bestie that’s going to get me through this dry winter.”
Another benefit the team emphasizes is that this moisturizer isn’t just meant to provide instant short-term relief—it should deliver less reactive skin over time. As Palermino describes it, if your skin barrier is impaired—be it from eczema, general dryness, or harsh skin treatments—it’s going to react. “Think of your skin like a bouncer: When it’s healthy and in balance, it’s keeping bad things like irritants, pollution, and bacteria/pathogens out,” she says. “When it’s impaired and has fissures and cracks, those things get in more easily.” By stacking its ingredient list with actives that both visibly alleviate redness and scaling and soothe and protect with strong antioxidants, you achieve both short- and long-term benefits. If that’s not enough, Skin Mercy boasts the National Eczema Association Seal of Acceptance, passes the RIPT (Repeat Insult Patch Test) for eczema-prone skin, and is non-comedogenic, vegan, and fragrance-free. The cofounders credit such a thoughtful formulation to Perry for masterminding its “silky cocoon” emulsion without exacerbating sensitivities.
Perhaps its the heat of my new apartment or the realities of a colder-than-usual New York City winter, but the onset of chilly temps has done a number on my skin. I’ve already started experiencing redness and dry patches—plus I just got another MOXI laser treatment—and Skin Mercy has been my savior through it all. While I am certainly impressed by the clinical composition, which reads as something my dermatologist would send me home with, I can attest to the fact that they have really hit the nail on the head from the sensorial POV. This genuinely melts into my skin, leaving it softer and plumper. Over time, redness is neutralized and I experience less tightness in the hours following. It’s become my daily moisturizer (this never pills under makeup, by the way); I’ll layer beneath a moisturizing face balm on particularly impaired areas. In warmer weather, I can also imagine it’ll be useful to soothe sunburned, tanned skin.
For me, using Skin Mercy has been a reminder that, especially in winter, it’s important to rethink your skin-care routine beyond just visual benefits: You have to consider how to improve your skin condition and skin barrier from within. Palermino would consider this barrier repair plus. “With Skin Mercy, we’re deeply nourishing the barrier and tackling visible redness, irritation, and protecting the skin,” she says. “If you keep doing that, protecting your skin, long-term, you’re going to be left with more resilient skin.”
Meet the Experts
- Charlotte Palermino is the cofounder and chief brand officer of Dieux.
- Joyce de Lemos is the cofounder and chief of product of Dieux.
