Verified Beauty Data

Dupe report Nº 029 / Hyaluronic acid moisturizers

Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel dupes, ranked by formula match

The Ordinary discloses 2% of a broader HA complex for under half the price — but check the format.

Some links earn us a commission. It never changes the verdict — the methodology is public.

02 / The scoreboard

2 formulas, one number that matter

Read the actives column first — it is the apples-to-apples comparison. $ per gram of active is what the working ingredients cost you; the base-formula score is supporting evidence, not the verdict.

Product Actives vs original $ / g of active Price Base formula Verdict
Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel - 1.7 oz Ingredient disclosed; concentration undisclosed $0.00 $21.40 50 mL 100% the reference The original
Exact disclosed active the direct clones — same actives, same percentages
The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 Hydrating Serum with Ceramides - Hydrating Serum 1.0 oz Concentration disclosed in product name (2% Hyaluronic Acid) $16.74 $9.90 30 mL 80% highest measured The winner Amazon →

✓ same % as original ≠ different % ? in formula, % undisclosed — not in formula

03 / The original

Why the original is the original

Hydro Boost's headline hydration comes from Sodium Hyaluronate — the salt form of hyaluronic acid, a humectant that can hold many times its weight in water. It sits mid-formula in Neutrogena's own verified INCI, after the water-gel's emulsifier system (Dimethicone, Cetearyl Olivate, Sorbitan Olivate), with no percentage disclosed. The rest of the formula is a genuinely built-out Natural Moisturizing Factor stack — amino acids, PCA, urea, sodium lactate — plus fragrance and Blue 1 dye.

The Ordinary's Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 discloses 2% for a broader three-molecular-weight complex: Sodium Hyaluronate (the same salt form Neutrogena uses), plus Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid and Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, each sized to hydrate at a different skin depth. It is fragrance-free and dye-free, where Neutrogena's formula is neither.

The material trade-off is format, not the active. Neutrogena is a stand-alone moisturizer with its own occlusive base built in, ready to use alone. The Ordinary is a serum, designed to be layered under a separate moisturizer — apply hyaluronic acid to dry skin with nothing to seal it in, and in low humidity it can pull moisture out of skin rather than in, which is why The Ordinary's own guidance is to apply it to damp skin and follow with a cream. If you want one product that moisturizes on its own, that is Neutrogena's genuine edge. If you already layer a moisturizer on top, The Ordinary delivers the shared active for under half the price, fragrance- and dye-free.

04 / The candidates

Every candidate, examined

01 / The Ordinary

The winner
$16.74 per g of active
$9.90 retail · 30 mL
80% base formula · highest of 6

The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 Hydrating Serum with Ceramides - Hydrating Serum 1.0 oz

Shared formula DNA 1 of 36 original ingredients present
Water Glycerin Dimethicone Cetearyl Olivate Sorbitan Olivate Sodium Hyaluronate Serine Glycine Alanine Threonine Arginine Proline Lysine HCl Glutamic Acid Sodium PCA PCA Sodium Lactate Urea Sodium Chloride Citric Acid Betaine Allantoin Fructose Maltose Trehalose Glucose Pentylene Glycol Synthetic Beeswax Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6 Dimethicone Crosspolymer Dimethiconol Ethylhexylglycerin Caprylyl Glycol Sodium Hydroxide Fragrance Blue 1

shared with original not shared rare marker — weighs more in the score

What matches
Shares the same headline molecule, Sodium Hyaluronate, confirmed in both INCIs, as part of a disclosed 2% three-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid complex (Sodium Hyaluronate, Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid, Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer). Fragrance-free and dye-free, unlike the original.
What differs
A serum, not a stand-alone moisturizer — it has no built-in occlusive base the way Neutrogena's water-gel does. Applied without a moisturizer on top, especially in low humidity, a hyaluronic acid serum can pull moisture out of skin rather than in.
Who it's for
The winner if you already layer a moisturizer over your serums — $9.90 versus $21.40, under half the price, fragrance- and dye-free. If you want one product that hydrates and seals on its own, Neutrogena's built-in base is the genuine reason to keep it.
Ships in
Packaging not verified No brand or retailer statement on the bottle — we won’t guess.
pH
pH not published L-ascorbic acid needs pH below 3.5 to absorb
Data source
Concentration disclosed in product name (2% Hyaluronic Acid) The Ordinary discloses 2% hyaluronic acid in the product name — a three-molecular-weight complex (Sodium Hyaluronate, Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid, Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer), confirmed in the INCI (Ulta product page). ASIN B01MYEZPC8 price + 29.5735 mL size verified from the verifiedbeautydata products.json record.

$9.90 for 30 mL → $16.74 per gram of active — 0.0× cheaper per active gram than the original's $0.00.

Buy on Amazon $9.90

05 / Methodology

How we verified this

Verified 2026-07-29

Every formula on this page was tokenized — split into its individual INCI ingredients — and matched against the EU CosIng ingredient database, so "Aqua," "Water," and "Eau" all resolve to the same ingredient.

The base-formula match score works like this: sharing a rare ingredient counts far more than sharing a common one. Almost every serum contains water and glycerin — that proves nothing. Almost nothing contains Ethoxydiglycol or Laureth-23, so when a candidate shares those with the original, it says something real about how the formula was built. (For the statisticians: it is an IDF-weighted Jaccard similarity over the normalized ingredient lists.)

Scores are computed, not opinions. The verdict tags are our editorial read of the actives, the scores, and the prices — and the methodology stays public so you can disagree with us precisely.

Where the ingredient lists come from

  1. Ingredient disclosed; concentration undisclosed

  2. Concentration disclosed in product name (2% Hyaluronic Acid)

Sources for this report

  • INCIDecoder / Ulta product pages — Sodium Hyaluronate confirmed present in each product's INCI
  • Amazon Creators PA-API — ASIN/price verification
  • verifiedbeautydata products.json verified records

06 / Questions

Frequently asked

What is the best Neutrogena Hydro Boost dupe?
The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 ($9.90) shares the headline molecule, Sodium Hyaluronate, confirmed in both INCIs, as part of a disclosed 2% three-form hyaluronic acid complex, for under half Neutrogena's price. The trade-off is format — it's a serum, not a stand-alone moisturizer, so it needs a cream layered on top to seal the hydration in.
Can I use The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid instead of Neutrogena Hydro Boost?
Only if you also apply a moisturizer over it. Neutrogena's water gel has its own occlusive base built in (Dimethicone, Cetearyl Olivate, Sorbitan Olivate) and works as a stand-alone product. The Ordinary's serum has no such base — applied alone, especially in low humidity, hyaluronic acid can pull moisture out of skin rather than in. Apply it to damp skin and follow with a cream.
Is Neutrogena Hydro Boost bad for sensitive skin?
It contains Fragrance and Blue 1 dye, which some sensitive or reactive skin may not tolerate well. The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 ($9.90) is fragrance-free and dye-free, sharing the same Sodium Hyaluronate active, if avoiding those ingredients matters to you.

→ / Related

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