Yes, You Should Get That Cute Skincare Fridge—Here Are Our Top Picks
Store and chill all of your serums, moisturizers, and a few cans of seltzer, too
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Ready to step up your skincare routine? A skincare fridge (or beauty fridge, as they’re sometimes called) gives you a compact place to store moisturizers, serums, masks, and some makeup products while keeping them chilled—which can feel amazing on your skin. You can even stash a can of sparkling water or prebiotic soda or two in it so that you have something to quench your thirst while you’re faithfully following your 10-step Korean skincare routine.
- Skincare Fridges: Products We Tried Benefits? How We Evaluated Them
This skincare fridge was just about perfect. It fit the most products of all the fridges we evaluated, was nearly on target with its temperature reading, and boasts an LED light mirror on the front door (though we do wish the light offered brightness adjustability).
Capacity: This was the only skincare fridge we evaluated that could hold nine 12-ounce cans of Poppi soda—the others held six cans. To accommodate them all you’ll have to remove the shelf and small side basket (which attaches to the inside door, is about 1-inch wide, and is ideal for holding sheet masks). This was also one of only two fridges that had an adjustable shelf that could be positioned to two heights: 5 or 7 inches from the base of the fridge, which is great if you have taller bottles that you want to fit. When we positioned the shelf so that it was 5 inches from the base, here’s what we were able to store:
Top shelf:
• 0.70-ounce lip mask
• 1.69-fl ounce moisturizer
• 2 2-fl ounce moisturizer
• 1.3-ounce cleansing balm
Bottom shelf:
• 2.02-fl ounce moisturizer
• 0.5-ounce niacinamide serum
• 0.84-fl ounce BHA toner
• 1.7-fl ounce moisturizer
• 5-ounce body cream
• 3.4-fl ounce face lotion
• 1.35-ounce niacimade serum
• 5 bottles of 1.0-ounce serums and facial oils
Inside door basket:
• 1 package of pimple patches
• 2 eye masks
• 1 beauty roller
What didn’t fit (frustratingly):
• 13.5-fl ounce Micellar cleansing water
• 8.4-fl ounce cleanser
Features: The LED light mirror on the front door features the word “Frigidaire” written in script at the top of mirror. Its touchscreen button turns the mirror on and off, but doesn’t allow for brightness adjustability. There is a built-in handle at the top. The door has a little button that you have to push to open it, and I liked how it made a sound when it closed, which made it feel securely shut. This fridge comes in white, pink, or black.
Temperature: A switch on the back of the fridge can be set to cool, off, and warm. According to the manual, when the room temperature is 75° F, the cooling temp can reach to 45° F. The warm temperature range is 131° F, according to the manual. When I independently tested it, the fridge temperature registered 48.7° F when it was set to “cool” and 125.9° F when set to “warm”—not too far off from the brand’s claims.
Noise: The fridge emits a very low hum that is barely noticeable.
Need a new fridge?
The Easy-Take Skincare Fridge is noticeably smaller than the Frigidaire Mini Beauty Lighted Mirror Fridge, and it didn’t fit as many products. But it still earned a place in our top three because it was the sole fridge with an LED light mirror on the front door that can be adjusted to three brightness levels. This comes in handy when grooming your brows or applying makeup and skincare.
Capacity: This fridge has one removable shelf but doesn’t allow for height adjustments. It also features a removable 1-inch-wide basket on the interior door and both the shelf and basket had to be removed to accommodate up to six 12-ounce cans of Poppi soda. As for skincare products, it stored fewer items than our top pick.
Top shelf:
• 1.69-fl ounce moisturizer
• 2 2-fl ounce moisturizer
• 1.3-ounce cleansing balm
Bottom shelf:
• 0.5-ounce niacinamide serum
• 0.84-fl ounce BHA toner
• 1.7-fl ounce moisturizer
• 5 bottles of 1.0-fl ounce serums
Inside door basket:
• 1 package of pimple patches
• 2 eye masks
• 1 beauty roller
Didn’t fit (frustratingly):
• 13.5-fl ounce Micellar cleansing water
• 8.4-fl ounce cleanser
• 5-ounce body cream
Features: The LED light mirror on the front door has a touchscreen button that adjusts the mirror to one of three brightness levels. A built-in handle is located at the back, not on top of the fridge like the others. When I closed the fridge door, it pulled tight with a magnet and felt securely shut. The fridge comes in white or pink.
Temperature: According to the manufacturer, the temperature should adjust from 35.6° F to 149° F. But when we measured the temperature on the cool setting it only registered 63.7° F. On the warm setting, it measured 147.2° F, which was more consistent with the brand’s claims. Another observation we made was that the fridge experienced some condensation on the bottom shelf after a day of running on the cool setting. I wiped it dry with a rag to avoid potential mold/mildew growth.
Noise: The fridge emits a very low hum that is barely noticeable.
The Facetory Skincare Mini Fridge-Ice Cream Series is the most luxurious looking of the fridges we evaluated, with a few glam features that set it apart. However, it lacks a mirror on the front door and doesn’t hold as many products or cans as the Frigidaire 9 Can Mini Beauty Lighted Mirror Fridge.
Capacity: This fridge has a removable shelf that can not be adjusted and it comes with accessories that include a small interior door shelf for holding masks and other slim items and a separate sheet mask compartment that will take up considerable space on the bottom shelf, but would be convenient for anyone who uses a lot of masks. When its shelving is removed it fits up to six 12-ounce soda cans. With its shelf in place and without the sheet mask accessory, it accommodated the following:
Top Shelf:
• 0.70 ounce lip mask
• 1.69 fl ounce moisturizer
• 2 2 fl ounce moisturizer
• 1.3 ounce cleansing balm
Bottom shelf:
• 5 bottles of 1 fl ounce serums
• 0.5 ounce niacinamide serum
• 0.84 fl ounce BHA toner
Inside door basket:
• 1 package of pimple patches
• 2 eye masks
• 1 beauty roller
Didn’t fit (frustratingly):
• 13.5 fl oz Micellar cleansing water
• 8.4 fl oz cleanser
• 5 oz body cream
• 3.4 fl oz face lotion
• 2.02 fl oz moisturizer
Features: The fridge has a built-in light that turns on whenever you open the fridge door. It also features a real-time temperature display within the fridge and a sturdy brown fabric strap at the top for portability. Its lack of a mirror on the front door is a miss, but its color selection—which include ice-cream flavor hues like vanilla, strawberry, and mint—make up for it a bit.
Temperature: This was the only fridge we evaluated that had distinctive temperature options—you can set it to 50°F or 64.4°F. When I set it to 50°F and evaluated its temperature after 10 minutes, the thermometer read 50.2°F. When I set it at 64.4°F and evaluated its temperature it registered 62.3°F after 10 minutes—nearly accurate on both accounts.
Noise: This was the only fridge that was designed with noise settings. “Quiet” mode uses normal power operation and has little to no sound, according to its manual, while “Eco” mode uses low power operation and has minimal sound. I didn’t notice much difference between the two modes, as both produced a low, barely audible hum.
Other Skincare Fridges We Evaluated
Our bottom two skincare fridges weren’t terrible options, but they lacked the kind of features and capacity needed to win us over.
This mini fridge is a retro-design-lover’s dream come true, and may be ideal if you’re looking for something that doesn’t scream “skincare fridge” and can be easily repurposed. It lacks a mirror on the front door and instead has a small oval-shaped window and the brand name “Frigidaire” etched in script across the front with contrasting white trim along the door. The door has a small silver handle to open and securely close it, with a built-in handle at the top.
But its one shelf can’t be adjusted, it doesn’t come with a basket for the interior door to hold masks, and it fit fewer products than most of our other fridges. It offers one temperature setting—cold—that measured 54.1° F in our evaluation. Most important to note is that it was the noisiest of the fridges in our evaluation, with a persistent moderate hum that would drive me up a wall if I had to sleep in the same room with it.
This skincare fridge has a few great features going for it, including an adjustable shelf that can be positioned so that it’s 5 or 6.5 inches from the base of the bottom shelf and an LED light mirror on the front door with a touchscreen button. It features a built-in handle at the top, its door has a handle that you have to push in first to open, and it feels sturdy when it’s closed. It’s relatively quiet, has a small basket on the inside door that’s great for holding masks, and can fit a decent number of products (not the most, and not the least). But its mirror lacks brightness adjustability and it only has one temperature mode (cool). The temperature measured 55.8° F in our evaluation.
Are Skincare Fridges Beneficial?
In an interview with CR, cosmetic chemist Ramón Pagán summed up skincare fridges in one sentence: “They’re by no means necessary but they’re fun!” When skincare and makeup products are being formulated, Pagán says they go through a series of stability tests, including in chambers with extreme conditions, such as heat, colder temperatures, and in light and darkness. You never want your skincare products to freeze, Pagán says, but a temperature of around 50° F—which falls in line with the “cool” mode on most of the skincare fridges we evaluated—lets products chill without compromising their ingredients. “If it just makes them feel more cooling and more refreshing on the skin, that is one pro to refrigeration,” Pagán says. “But again, it’s not necessary.”
A few things to be aware of: if a fridge has a heat mode, these higher temperatures are not designed for skincare products that are best kept at room temperature or slightly cooler, though you may find heat a nice perk if you want to warm up face towels and eye masks. Several fridges, including Facetory and Easy-Take, warn in their manuals against using the fridges to store foods that need to be kept frozen or very cold, like ice cream, fresh food, fish, dairy, and meat.
How We Evaluated Skincare Fridges
We plugged in each skincare fridge, set each to cool or cold mode, and allowed it to sit undisturbed for five days before placing a food thermometer inside and registering the temperature. If a fridge also had a warm mode, we let it heat up for 24 hours before performing the same temperature evaluation. The temperatures were taken in a room with temperatures hovering between 75° F and 79° F.
We evaluated their shelving, including how easy the shelves were to remove and whether they were adjustable. To evaluate capacity, we removed the shelves and filled each fridge with as many 12-ounce cans of Poppi soda as we could fit inside. We then replaced the shelves and filled each fridge with as many serums, moisturizers, cleansers, body lotions, masks, and tools as we could accommodate inside of them. We observed how much noise each made and independently weighed them (while they were empty) on a scale that measured one-tenth of a gram. Finally, we released two pumps of niacinamide serum into each fridge and allowed it to sit on the bottom shelf for two days before unplugging the fridges and wiping them clean with a damp cloth. All of the fridges cleaned easily so this was not a significant part of the evaluation.
