Do You Actually Need a Neck Cream? An Investigation

I​​rked. This is the only way I can describe how I felt the first time a neck cream landed on my desk. “Great,” I huffed. “Like women need yet another skincare category to complicate their already taxing and insecurity-riddled beauty regimens.” I had so many thoughts about their existence and efficacy but I dismissed them—and the products—simply promising myself never to become that ridiculous person who actually uses neck cream.

Recently, though, I looked in the mirror and noticed these odd-looking lines around my neck. Not wrinkles, per se, more like those annoying creases you get in bedsheets that no amount of ironing can eradicate. I then remembered neck creams and began to ask the questions I couldn’t be bothered to investigate all those years ago: what do neck creams actually do again? What makes them different from your face moisturizer? Does anyone in the world actually need a neck cream? And, most importantly, will they sort out my creased bedsheet neck?

Society’s obsession with a supposedly aging neck and décolletage is nothing new. Beauty brands, however—too distracted tackling the wrinkles on our face, perhaps—only began focusing on necks in more recent years. “The market for anti-aging creams targeting necklines and wrinkles became more pronounced when fears around ‘tech neck’ started bubbling up a few years ago,” explains Lisa Payne, head of beauty at strategic trends intelligence agency Stylus. And yet, unlike other categories that started out as niche—SPF, liquid exfoliators, eye creams—and became wildly popular, neck creams have not garnered the same traction. This, says Payne, is “in part due to distrust around the validity of claims. But also in a recession or financial pinch, high-priced products outside of the core skincare suite—like neck and décolleté cream—are the first to be axed.”

The addition of a neck cream to your skincare ritual purely for the purpose of moisturizing is unnecessary, argues Dr. Emma Craythorne, who says, “the creams we use for our faces can simply be extended down onto the neck.” However, explains Craythorne, a dermatologist and president of the British Cosmetic Dermatology Group, there are caveats. “If your face cream is for a particular concern, it may contain more active or irritant ingredients and the skin on the neck is much more fragile than that on the face so it can become irritated more easily. Therefore, in that instance, a dedicated cream for this area would be beneficial.” Aesthetician Jasmina Vico attests to this. “Neck creams can help with firmness and hydration but for a lifting effect this can ultimately only be done with treatments, tailored machines, and lasers.”