Why there's no universal answer, just your skin, and what it needs today
Short answer: yes. But the real answer is more interesting than that.
I want to start by making it clear: AYA Balm is a hard-working, multi-tasking balm that does it all when it comes to a skin challenge, or a very tricky skin moment. As an ideal moisturising skin balm, yes, I use it when I need it - when my skin is absolutely squealing in need. But I don't use it as my everyday face balm; I have a whole lot of other more nourishing, replenishing face balms that I play with too (more on those soon).
So the real question isn't "can balm replace moisturiser" - it's whether you're choosing the right product for what your skin is actually asking for, right now.
Since day dot of my existence, I adhered to the trends of the beauty industry and was well trained to follow rigid, multi-step regimens: cleanser, toner, serum, eye cream, lotion, heavy cream, and sun protection. I had tricky skin and was always desperate to find my ease.
As I have gotten older, not sure wiser, but definitely more knowledgeable, I challenged the prescribed checklist and the punitive rule that skipping a step meant we had failed our skin, and with it, the social norm we're all tormented by, of never quite being good enough.
For me, there is no question it is all about what your skin is actually experiencing from day to day. Rebelling against the strict checklist stops feeling like self-care and starts feeling like an unnecessary second job.
The goal, then, is to break free from that beauty industry cycle - to look past marketing rules and understand what we're actually putting on our faces, and why.
Why I Won't Give You a Skin-Type Answer
People always ask me: Does balm work for dry skin? Oily skin? My age group?
I always push back on this, as I just don't believe skincare should be prescriptive like that. It's not about a fixed category you get filed into once and stay in forever. It's about where you are right now - the changing seasons, what's going on in your life, how much sleep you got last night, and how your skin is reacting to the wind or the indoor heating. A rule that says "balm is only for dry skin" or "moisturisers are mandatory for oily skin" ignores that.
When customers ask me if they can use balm instead of moisturiser, I always answer with a question: how does your skin feel today? How has it been feeling over the past few days? Has something changed that's affecting how you feel in your skin? The answer is always somewhere in their response - because the real work is finding your own way of working with the products you're choosing, or in many cases have already chosen. Go take a look in your bathroom or on your dressing table right now. Start with what you have, and work out if it's actually what you want to be using.
Understanding the Mechanics: Balm vs. Traditional Moisturiser
There is no universal formula - there is only your unique skin, and the secret language it speaks to you.
A balm and a moisturiser aren't just "richer" or "lighter" versions of each other. They're built completely differently - and that difference is where the magic of each one lies. Two of my most inspirational brands show this best.
Balm Philosophy (Whole-Plant & Anhydrous)
A balm has no water in it at all. That's deliberate. Formulas like this - entirely anhydrous, meaning zero water - don't need synthetic preservatives, emulsifying waxes, or diluting fillers, because there's nothing in the jar that can go off. Every single ingredient is there to do something for your skin.
Balms rely on raw, unrefined plant oils and butters to form a breathable, protective layer over your stratum corneum - the layer that decides how deep anything actually gets - replenishing your skin's lipid barrier, locking in existing moisture, and delivering real, targeted nourishment. That's part of why I've always loved balms as a category. Laurel Skin was a huge inspiration for me from the beginning — their whole philosophy of raw, whole-plant, water-free formulation showed me what a balm could be when it's built with real integrity, not shortcuts.
The one limitation: because balms are water-free, they don't supply water on their own. Applied to completely parched, dehydrated skin with nothing underneath, a balm will simply seal the dryness in rather than fixing it.
This is actually where Laurel Skin taught me something important: a balm isn't meant to be your only step in dry conditions (I know a “step in a routine”, but hear me out, this one makes serious sense.) In a dry or desert climate, drench your skin first with a water-soluble plant hydrosol or elixir and then press the balm over damp skin. The balm's job is to seal that moisture in, not supply it. When you skip the first step, you're just sealing in dryness.
The Traditional Moisturiser Philosophy (The Emulsion Approach)
When you apply a cream, you're applying a micro-droplet suspension of water and oil. The water phase gives you that immediate, light hit of hydration, drawing moisture to the surface fast. The oil phase follows behind to soften the skin and lock that hydration in. Done well, a good cream can even support your skin's own natural moisture balance rather than fighting it.
My reservation with most mass-market moisturisers is that while 70-80% of the jar is water, in a lot of cases this does double duty as a cheap filler. And water in a formula is a breeding ground for microbes; there is simply nothing else to it; a preservation system is essential. To bind that water with oil, and to stop it going off, they lean on synthetic emulsifiers, heavy binding agents, and chemical preservatives - some of which can disrupt the skin barrier over time with regular use. They always feel like a formula built for shelf life and profit margin first, skin second.
That is why, when it comes to moisturisers, I look to whom I refer to as the Chanel of Organics: Dr Hauschka. Their formulas are structured emulsions too, meaning they use emulsifiers to bind water, or plant hydrosols and juices, together with plant oils into a cream or lotion. But they operate on an entirely different chemical framework: they bind water and oil using plant-derived ingredients instead, lecithin from soy, beeswax, olive-derived sorbitan olivate, castor-derived polyglyceryl-3 polyricinoleate. Even their preservation system skips synthetics entirely, using fermented organic alcohol and ingredients like propolis to do that job instead.
Dr Hauschka is the proof that a moisturiser doesn't need synthetic emulsifiers or synthetic preservatives to work.
Balm vs. Moisturiser - It's Not Either/Or
They're different methods of doing the same job: nourishing your skin. A balm is richer, more concentrated, built to lock things in. Brilliant for a skin emergency or a deep-replenish moment. A moisturiser is often lighter, faster to absorb, built for daily wear.
Neither is more "correct." It comes down to what your skin is telling you, and to being willing to actually listen.
That's really what I want you to take from this. Not "swap your moisturiser for balm" as a new rule to follow instead of the old one. But permission to get curious about your own skin again, to notice it, respond to it, and let that guide what you reach for, balm or otherwise.
How I Actually Use AYA Balm
When my skin is tight, itching, uncomfortable, genuinely struggling, that's when AYA Balm comes in. It's not about a daily routine at that point; it's about calming things down fast and giving the skin barrier a soft place to land. That's what it's built for. It's why I still stand by 20 ways to use AYA Balm - it really does do it all.
Outside of that, I reach for balm as a deliberate, richer step when my skin needs deep replenishing, sometimes at night, sometimes mixed with serum on drier areas like my neck (which always feels parched compared to the rest of my face). Different balms for different jobs, all under the same idea: give your skin what it's actually asking for, not what a routine says it should get.
So it's not really "balm instead of moisturiser." For me it's balm and serum, balm as moisturiser, balm as rescue, depending entirely on what my skin is telling me that day.
Either way, the choice is yours to make. That's the whole point.