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Having a good face moisturizer is essential for your skincare routine
Face Moisturizers
Having a good face moisturizer is essential for your skincare routine. But having a natural one that’s free of harsh and toxic chemicals is even better. We rounded up 32 of the best natural face moisturizers of 2023 for you to find the product of your dreams.
Your skin deserves to be soft and supple, which is why we love hydrating creams that moisturize the skin. Blu Atlas Moisturizing Cream is the best natural face moisturizer of 2023 because of its enriching anti-aging properties.
This all-natural face cream contains tropical mango seed butter—chock-full of vitamin E and vitamin C—that protects the skin from environmental irritants like the sun, blue light, and pollution. Antioxidant-rich seaweed extract removes dead skin cells, brightens, hydrates, and minimizes excess oil. Nobody has time for long skincare routines, and we love products like this cream that simplify your skincare goals into one easy-to-use product.
Neutrogena is one of the best skincare brands around. You simply can’t go wrong choosing anything from this affordable and convenient brand. If you’re on the hunt for a natural face moisturizer, Neutrogena has got you covered. Neutrogena Naturals Multi-Vitamin Nourishing Moisturizer is a fortifying lotion that will heal and soothe your dry, irritated, and cracked skin.
Because this moisturizer is derived from 97% natural ingredients, you know exactly what you’re getting. Vitamins B, C, and E and antioxidant omega bionutrients form a protective barrier across the skin, healing dry patches and hydrating the face all day long. Free of sulfates, parabens, dyes, and phthalates, we can’t think of a better moisturizer than this one.
Are you tired of brands not actually being natural and just “greenwashing” their customers? Us, too. We love brands that are honest and transparent about what goes into their products. Awake Human Organic Facial Moisturizer is committed to crafting organic products that are free of harmful ingredients and are natural.
We love this moisturizer because it’s unscented, which is an absolute must if you have sensitive skin. However, just because it’s unscented doesn’t mean it lacks rich ingredients. Aloe vera, jojoba oil, almond oil, green tea leaf extract, and other soothing ingredients combine to hydrate your skin and put a stop to itchiness and irritation.
How does a cocktail of lemon and lavender sound? If fruity scents are your thing, you’re going to love Farmstead Apothecary Lemon Lavender Face Cream. This fruity moisturizer is suitable for all skin types and helps tackle dryness, redness, irritation, and flakiness.
Formulated with jojoba oil, this face moisturizer unclogs the pores, which allows the skin to heal and repair itself. Other key ingredients—like vitamin E, sugar cane, and natural fruit fragrance—balance the skin and provide non-greasy anti-inflammatory properties to leave your skin radiant. Free of GMOs and other harmful chemicals, this is one of the best natural face moisturizers of 2023.
Your face is often the first thing people notice about you, which is why you should show your skin some love and care. Honeyskin Ultimate Face & Body Cream transforms your face into a bright, radiant, youthful, and glowing landscape. This hydrating moisturizer penetrates the skin, infusing intense moisture throughout the face. Plus, manuka honey, aloe vera, and coconut oil help soothe any redness and irritation—which is especially beneficial around the eyes.
This product is pH 5.5 balanced, allowing it to mimic your skin’s natural oils and avoid irritation. Sourced from only clean, organic, and pure ingredients, this moisturizer will become your new favorite product.
Here’s your sign from the stars to start taking better care of your skin and buy a moisturizer that you deserve. Ursa Major Fortifying Face Balm is one of our top picks and you’ll understand why after just one use. This lightweight, gentle, and creamy face moisturizer works to hydrate the skin without clogging the pores, creating a protective barrier and preventing signs of aging—like wrinkles and fine lines.
We love this product because it’s great for even the most sensitive skin types—no fragrances, parabens, sulfates, silicones, color. And it’s cruelty-free. You won’t have many other moisturizers like this, which is why you need to take this as a sign and go pick it up right now!
We’re all for using multi-use products because let’s face it, who has time for a 10-step skincare routine in the morning when they’re running late? We get it, and so does EraOrganics. We love their Complete+ Advanced 20-in-1 Moisturizer that truly simplifies any skincare routine.
This product has everything you’d want—vitamins, minerals, proteins, and enzymes that work to diminish wrinkles and fine lines, protect the skin, hydrate, reduce dry patches, prevent sagging, brighten dark spots, and restore the skin to a healthy state. Nourishing hyaluronic acid and soothing manuka honey tackle every skincare concern you could have and leaves your skin flawless. What’s more to love?
We love face moisturizers that brighten the skin and make you look like you just spent a week on the beach. InstaNatural Vitamin C Moisturizer understands the assignment, crafting one of the best natural face moisturizers of 2023.
This soothing product contains niacinamide that brightens dark spots—like those pesky bags under your eyes you just can’t seem to get rid of. Aloe vera, hyaluronic acid, and sunflower seed oil nourish and hydrate the skin, preventing visible signs of aging, like wrinkles and fine lines. This moisturizer is so lightweight that it’ll feel like you put nothing on.
Goodskin Organics Ultra-Light Daily Moisturizer is one of those products you’ve seen scrolling on Amazon and overpassed because you didn’t think it was any good. You’d be mistaken. We love this lightweight, fast-acting moisturizer that can have your skin looking ten years younger in just one use.
Formulated with aloe vera, avocado, shea butter, and coconut oil, you’ll feel like you took a trip to that fancy spa down the road from your house that you swear you’ll visit one day but never do. Why waste your money on spa treatments when you can do it yourself even better at home?
Have you ever used a face moisturizer and it left your skin feeling and looking greasy? It’s not a pleasant experience and, unfortunately, there are so many products out there that harm the skin more than help. Luckily for you, we have the perfect product that will hydrate your skin without all the grease.
Honest Beauty Hydrogel Cream is a soothing, lightweight moisturizer that evenly distributes squalane and jojoba esters throughout the face to brighten, tone, and hydrate. There’s no catch. This product does what it says and is free of parabens, silicones, mineral oil, synthetic fragrances, and dyes. Pro tip: store in the fridge for an extra-chilly application that will wow your skin.
How many times have you wished you could instantly zap away any signs of aging? Yeah, we get it. It can be frustrating to wake up with new wrinkles and fine lines on your face, but there are plenty of products out there to help.
Eva Naturals Youth Restoring Hyaluronic Acid Cream Moisturizer is your go-to cream if you want to look youthful and radiant. This moisturizer contains anti-aging hyaluronic acid that works to boost your skin’s natural elasticity, preventing wrinkles and sagginess. Retinol kicks in to minimize the appearance of age and acne-related scarring, leaving your face spotless.
If you’ve ever used coconut oil before, you know first-hand how soothing and powerful this stuff is. It’s no wonder why Palmer’s loves to use it in most of their products. Palmer’s Coconut Oil Formula Coconut Water Facial Moisturizer is a splash of hydrating moisture for your face.
Formulated with coconut water, hyaluronic acid, and papaya enzymes—your face will feel like it took a dip in the ocean. We love that all of the ingredients are sustainably sourced and Fair Trade Certified, which makes this one of the best natural face moisturizers of 2023.
Do you remember when you were a kid and you’d get the worst sunburns after playing at the beach all day on your family vacations? One of your parents probably slathered your burn with aloe vera, soothing and cooling any irritation. That same concept applies to using aloe vera in face moisturizers.
We love Aloe Infusion Face & Body Cream because it harnesses the cooling, calming, and restorative powers of aloe vera. If your skin is red, dry, itchy, patchy, flaky, or otherwise irritated, this cream can handle it. After just one use, your skin will look supple, dewy, radiant, and healthy. I guess our parents were right about aloe vera after all.
There is nothing quite like walking around during spring and seeing all the flowers bloom. It’s bright, colorful, and vibrant. Do you ever wish your skin could go through that kind of renewal and blossom again? With LilyAna Naturals Face Cream Collagen-Building Complex, you can.
This botanical, fruity blend of ingredients increases your skin’s elasticity and collagen—making your skin look firm, tight, and bright. Cranberry, lemon, orange extract, rose, aloe vera, vitamin C ester, and provitamin A all work hard to restore and repair your skin—all while leaving behind vital moisture. Free of the usual suspects of harmful ingredients, this product is safe for any skin type, which is why it’s one of the best natural face moisturizers of 2023.
There is no worse feeling than cracking skin. Maybe you live in a dry, humid climate. Maybe the air conditioner is too high. Whatever the case, it’s an absolute drag when your skin is thirsty. Tree to Tub Ginseng Green Tea Deep Hydration Face Cream is one of our favorite products to fix this pesky problem.
Enriching and nourishing vitamin c, aloe vera, ginseng, organic shea butter, rose water, tea tree, vitamin B5, and vitamin E hydrate the skin and prevent visible signs of aging. The next time you feel your skin about to burst with dryness, grab your new favorite product and get to work.
Another natural, unscented face moisturizer? Count us in. If you love products that are no frill and fluff, you’re going to love Christina Moss Naturals’ Original Facial Moisturizer. This soothing, calming, and repairing moisturizer breathes new life into your tired, dull skin. Organic aloe vera alleviates dry patches and redness, calming swelling and irritation.
This product is non-comedogenic, making it suitable for sensitive skin. Plus, it’s free of parabens, sulfates, and dyes and is cruelty-free. Skincare should be simple. With Christina Moss Naturals, it is.
Honey can help just about anything—sore throats, minor cuts, and dryness. We adore Lily Sado Milk + Manuka Coconut Milk + Manuka Honey Deep Moisture Cream. This product contains some of the best, soothing botanical ingredients available. Coconut milk, manuka honey, Gotu kola, cocoa butter, rosehip, and sodium hyaluronate deliver nourishing hydration deep into the skin.
This moisturizer promotes healthy blood flow to the skin, which helps balance the skin’s complexion. If you want a moisturizer that’s fast-acting, non-greasy, and ultra-hydrating, you need this one.
Cruelty-free. Paraben-free. 100% vegetarian. All-natural. Alba Botanica Hawaiian Oil-Free Refining Aloe & Green Tea Moisturizer checks all of these boxes and more. We love this moisturizer and we know you will, too. It’s easily one of the best natural face moisturizers of 2023 because it’s effective, fast-acting, and non-toxic.
Give your skin the gift of a tropical blend of aloe vera, Gotu kola, cucumber, and green tea that helps minimize the appearance of pores and wrinkles, forms a protective barrier across the skin, and hydrates all day long. Your skin will look healthy, bright, and clear after just a few uses. You’ll truly feel like you’re in paradise.
A natural face moisturizer with UV protection? Count us in. If there is anything more important than hydration, it’s sun care. We love products that combine this step and simplify your skincare routine. OM Botanical Skin Soft Organic Moisturizer is a nourishing, lightweight, and non-comedogenic moisturizer derived from natural botanical ingredients.
Cucumber and rosemary extracts help your face retain water, keeping your skin moisturized and hydrated. This moisturizer also contains SPF 15, which helps protect your skin from the sun, preventing further visible signs of aging. Soak up all the natural vitamin D you want without the harsh effects.
If you struggle with acne, it can feel like the end of the world trying to find products that work on your skin. If you haven’t tried Clearbody Organics Chlorophyll Clear Vitamin-Rich Acne Cream, you’re missing out on one of the best natural face moisturizers of 2023.
We love this product because it not only works to keep your skin happy, healthy, and hydrated—it also stops acne in its tracks and quickly clears up your skin. Formulated with chlorophyll and vitamins C, A, E, and K, your skin is in for a real treat of soothing and nourishing ingredients.
It seems to be a common theme among facial moisturizers to contain aloe vera and manuka honey. It’s because they both work so well to hydrate and moisturize your skin. We love Green Leaf Naturals Amazing Aloe Vera Manuka Honey Moisturizing Cream because it nourishes dry, irritated skin that needs a boost of moisture.
Aloe vera and manuka honey help to diminish the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines, crow’s feet, and dark patches on the face. This moisturizer is so gentle and hydrating that it won’t irritate sensitive skin types and can be worn underneath makeup or other skincare products.
We love Burt’s Bees, and you honestly can’t buy a bad product from them. Burt’s Bees Firming Moisturizing Cream is one of the best natural face moisturizers of 2023, and you’d be a sucker to miss out on such an incredible product. This face cream hydrates, repairs, and calms dry, itchy, and inflamed skin in just one use.
Using Bakuchiol—a natural retinol alternative—this face cream tones the skin, diminishes visible signs of aging, and helps brighten dull spots. After a few uses, you’ll look tighter, firmer, healthier, and rejuvenated.
Turn back the clocks with one of the best anti-aging face creams on the market. If you’ve never heard of Andalou Naturals Hyaluronic DMAE Lift & Firm Cream, today is your lucky day. This natural, soothing, and gentle face cream will help diminish signs of aging—like wrinkles, fine lines, crow’s feet, dark spots, sagginess, and uneven skin tones.
Using age-defying hyaluronic Dmae moisturizer, your skin will feel hydrated in just one application. Sourced from fair trade and organic ingredients, this cream is free of GMOs and other harmful chemicals.
Stop wasting your precious dollars getting facials and facelifts that don’t help your skin. You need a product that will brighten, firm, lift, tighten, and sculpt your face on a budget. We love Torsten Naturals Anti-Aging Face Cream.
This nourishing facial moisturizer is extremely gentle, lightweight, and calming. Blended with antioxidant-rich minerals, vitamins, and nutrients, your face will look radiant and glowing after application. You won’t be able to get enough of this luxurious face cream, and we don’t blame you.
Tea tree oil is one of the best ingredients to use when targeting acne, redness, and irritation. It’s naturally soothing and can reduce even the worst acne of them all. Majestic Pure Cosmeceuticals Tea Tree Oil Face Cream is an enriching face moisturizer, filled with rejuvenating ceramides and tea tree oil.
This product is best suited for acne-prone skin since it works to heal and repair the skin from acne-related concerns. This cream also fights inflammation and hydrates the skin, soothing any dryness you may have.
You know a product is going to be good if it has aloe vera and vitamin C—two of the most beneficial natural ingredients for your skin. Love Daily Day + Night Vitamin C + Organic Aloe Anti-Aging Moisturizer is one of our favorite natural face moisturizers.
This creamy blend of organic aloe vera and vitamin C infuses the skin with rich antioxidants that boost the skin’s complexion and fight against visible signs of aging. It’s lightweight, vegan, cruelty-free, and free of harmful toxins. We could go on and on, but we think you get the point: we love this cream.
Do you want to wake up every day and smell like a bouquet of roses? Try using Pacifica Dreamy Youth Day and Night Face Cream. This floral concoction of geranium and rose absolute will transform your complexion into a beautiful, flawless garden. Okay, not literally. But your skin will look healthy, bright, and hydrated after using this cream.
We love Pacifica because its products are always free of parabens, mineral oil, and phthalates. And they’re a vegan and cruelty-free brand. What’s not to love?
Just because this is near the bottom of our list, doesn’t mean it’s not great. Kleem Organics Advanced Retinol Moisturizer Age-Defying Solution is an absolute powerhouse face moisturizer. Hyaluronic acid, vitamin E, green tea, jojoba oil, and retinol infuse their powerful properties into the skin to clear up acne, reduce dark spots, tighten saggy areas, and hydrate dry patches. If your moisturizer isn’t doing all of that for you, it’s time for an upgrade.
Sometimes, simple is better. You don’t need the fanciest, most expensive face moisturizer to get the job done. How about some good old-fashioned shea butter? We love Now Solutions Shea Butter—a USDA Organic face cream that will help any skincare woe you have. Seriously, shea butter doesn’t mess around.
Dry patches, flakiness, irritation, redness, and inflammation stand no chance against the nourishing and hydrating powers of shea butter. Your skin will look and feel brighter, softer, healthier, and younger after a few uses. We promise you’ll love this product as much as we do.
We’re big fans of Biossance around here, and we love their Squalane + Omega Repair Cream. This moisturizing cream infuses the skin with essential lipids and ceramides that nourish and soften the skin. Hyaluronic acid works to retain water in the skin, helping slow down and prevent some visible signs of aging—like wrinkles, fine lines, and dark spots. Squalane aids in additional hydration. Omega fatty acids plump the skin and make you look radiant and luminous.
Add this product to your daily skincare routine and you’ll watch your skin transform into a glowing complexion. We love this product, which is why it’s one of the best natural face moisturizers of 2023.
If a product is USDA Organic, you know it meets certain standards that ensure its quality. Bee Friendly Skincare Rest & Repair Night Cream meets that standard and so much more. If you ever wished you could find a face cream to use before you go to bed to help relax you, this is it.
This night cream uses nourishing beeswax, raw honey, olive oil, propolis, royal jelly, vitamins, and minerals to tackle signs of aging, dryness, and loss of elasticity. This product will make your skin look younger, happier, and healthier. And, hey, you’ll notice how much better you’re sleeping at night thanks to this perfect little cream. Free of parabens, fillers, and harsh chemicals, you can feel good about knowing what is going into your body.
Rounding out the list is a true hidden gem. Ancient Greek Remedy Butter Cream 100% Pure Nature’s Moisturizer feels like a gift from the gods. Formulated with seven natural raw ingredients—sweet almond, organic castor, grapeseed, sunflower, vitamin E, lavender, and extra virgin olive oil—this moisturizer will make your complexion look like a Greek God (or Goddess).
We love natural moisturizers that work, and this is one for the history books. This product works to tighten and increase elasticity, minimize the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, shrink pores, reduce acne, and hydrate the skin. Free of parabens, GMOs, and gluten, this product is safe for your skin and your body. Plus, you can even use this product in your hair. This nourishing moisturizer can tame frizz and flyaways in your locks. Talk about a 2-for-1 bargain.
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The San Diego home remodeling company works on full homes, kitchens, bathrooms, home additions, ADUs, garages, landscapes, and hardscapes.
Most homeowners want two things before they commit to a remodel: a realistic sense of cost and a clear picture of what the finished space will look like. Milan Design + Build helps deliver both through its online remodeling estimator and personalized design consultations, supported by a showroom experience and 3D renderings.
“The online estimate gives homeowners a starting number in about a minute, and the showroom and 3D renderings let them see materials and layouts before anything is built,” says David Noriani, CEO of Milan Design + Build. “Keeping design, permits, and construction with one team helps us manage expectations and keep everyone working toward the same vision.”

Modern design is a particular focus for Milan, with an emphasis on clean lines, natural light, functional layouts, and carefully selected materials. The team adapts each design to the homeowner’s lifestyle and the character of the property. Milan Design + Build combines thoughtful design with construction expertise, creating spaces that are as functional as they are beautiful.
The online estimator covers kitchen remodels, bathroom renovations, full-home remodels, and ADU construction. At Milan’s showroom on Carroll Road, visitors can review real materials, finishes, and design options, meet the design-build team, and discuss project scope, budget, and timing. Consultations can also be held virtually for homeowners who prefer to start remotely.
At Milan Design + Build, one integrated team works on the entire project. Design and construction aren’t divided between separate firms. The process begins with a consultation and feasibility review, followed by design, space planning, and 3D renderings developed from detailed measurements and digital scans. The team also coordinates architectural plans, structural engineering, city approvals, and material selection, with construction overseen by a dedicated project manager.
Homeowners can explore their remodeling options, get an initial estimate, or request a design consultation at MilanBuild.com.

The Campaign for La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) will fuel scientific innovation and medical advances
La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) is going public with a bold bet: a $55 million campaign to propel medical research into a new era. The Campaign for LJI will fuel discovery, empower scientific innovation, and expand the impact of immunology on human health.
The Institute quietly kicked things off in 2023, guided by its Board, campaign volunteers, and early believers. Nearly 80% of the $55 million goal is already in hand. Now LJI is opening the doors and inviting the whole community to carry their visions across the finish line and back discoveries that change how LJI researchers understand, treat, and prevent disease.
And there’s a bonus. To mark the public launch, LJI Board member and Campaign Honorary Chair Anthony R. Carr is offering a special matching gift so new donors can double their impact. Full details are here.
Immunology has already rewritten human history. Advances in immune science helped wipe out smallpox, pushed polio to the brink of elimination, and revolutionized how we prevent and treat infectious disease. Today, immune-based therapies are opening doors for patients with cancer, autoimmune disorders, and other serious illnesses once considered untreatable.
For nearly four decades, LJI scientists have stood on the front lines, driven by one insight: the immune system shapes disease in virtually every organ in the body. By decoding how the immune system works and how to harness it to prevent and treat disease, LJI researchers are chasing the Institute’s ultimate mission: Life Without Disease®.
To make that mission real, the Institute pairs world-class scientists with cutting-edge technology, speeding up breakthroughs and turning discoveries into transformative new therapies that ease suffering worldwide.
The Campaign for LJI supercharges that momentum, uniting the vision of the Institute’s scientists with a community that believes in research. Focused on advancing LJI’s most promising areas of study, the campaign aims to help build a future free from the burden of disease, a goal that demands bold ideas, lasting partnerships, and generous philanthropic support.
The Campaign for LJI will advance research across three critical pillars:
1. President’s Priority Fund. Flexible, unrestricted dollars let big ideas move now, not later. Scientists can launch high-risk, high-reward projects, bring experts together across disciplines, build transformative technologies, and train tomorrow’s scientific leaders.
2. Center for Sex-Based Differences in the Immune System. Male and female immune systems don’t respond the same way, and LJI researchers are tracing the fundamental differences down to individual cells and molecular pathways. The Campaign will speed up this pioneering work, revealing hidden drivers of disease and paving the way for more precise, biologically informed therapies for autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, cancer, and beyond.
3. Center for Vaccine Innovation. Immunologists, bioengineers, and vaccine experts are teaming up to design the next generation of vaccines and immune-based therapies. With donor support, LJI scientists can engineer longer-lasting and more personalized vaccines, pinpoint the cellular mechanisms driving protective immunity, and refine delivery methods to prevent autoimmune disease and treat cancer.
As the campaign enters its public phase, LJI welcomes new partners and supporters to join this landmark initiative. Community support is essential to accelerating scientific discovery, and there are many meaningful ways to help shape the future of immunology. Donors may direct their gifts to any campaign priority or other area of interest. As a comprehensive campaign, all gifts to LJI count toward the campaign goal, regardless of designation. Join the campaign, and multiply your impact with our limited-time matching opportunity.
To explore the campaign, visit imagine.lji.org.
Scripps orthopedic surgeons are investigating stem cells as an alternative to joint replacement
Shiley Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education at Scripps Clinic recently received a $12.7 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to investigate whether they can transform stem cells into tissue that can repair some types of knee injuries. Currently, if a patient has lost most, if not all, of the cartilage in their knee, then their doctor will recommend a total joint replacement. Joint replacement is safe and effective, but patients who’ve only lost part of their cartilage often don’t qualify. A stem cell-based treatment would provide these patients an option that doesn’t involve donor tissue. Click here for more on the preclinical trial process.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
Artwork throughout the Lusardi Tower at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas promotes hope and healing
The recently opened Lusardi Tower at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas is a state-of-the-art addition to the hospital staffed by dedicated team members who’ve helped make Scripps one of the nation’s leading healthcare systems. Complementary to that medical excellence, the Lusardi Tower also represents the latest expansion of the Scripps Arts for Healing Program. The philanthropic initiative strategically places nature- and community-based artwork throughout the hospital to support health and well-being. Both Scripps Encinitas and Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla have healing arts programs as part of new building projects and growth on the campuses. Click here to read more about the Healing Arts Program and how residents from a nearby retirement community showed their support.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
From century-old Craftsman homes to vegan fantasy bars, dive bars, and a tiki room built for exactly two people, this is one of San Diego’s great little neighborhoods
You may not realize it, but Balboa Park is bigger than Central Park (in fact, 1.5 times larger). Pressed right up against its southeastern edge is a little architecture farm built on old trolley bones, where houses look like someone was collecting architectural styles and local businesses are still run by people who seem personally invested in keeping this place interesting.
This is South Park.
To understand why it feels the way it does today—less like one commercial strip and more like a handful of tiny villages—you have to go back to the trolley.
The land that became the original South Park Addition (the subdivision’s original name) was surveyed in 1870 and officially filed in 1890, but the neighborhood really started becoming a neighborhood in the early 1900s. The Bartlett Estate Company began developing and marketing the tract in earnest around 1906, pairing lots and new homes with something extremely useful if you lived outside Downtown in the horse-and-buggy era: an electric streetcar.
On May 1, 1906, the South Park and East Side Railway made its first trip. Developers didn’t just build near transportation; they helped pay for the transportation, then used it to sell the dream. Downtown had industry, noise, and congestion. Out here were palms, sidewalks, utilities, room to breathe and a four-cent ride back to the city.
It worked. Homes began filling in around the streetcar route, and little commercial clusters grew around the places where people got on and off. That transportation pattern is still written into South Park’s geography. Some of the neighborhood’s odd street geometry is also due in part to the trolley—the old line cut across parcels instead of politely obeying the grid, leaving behind pieces of land that later businesses learned to build around. Places like Station Tavern sit on the former easement and station site of San Diego’s No. 2 trolley line.
Then San Diego went big for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in neighboring Balboa Park. The exposition transformed much of the park and helped push the city through another burst of building and growth. South Park was right there to absorb some of that momentum.
And the people building houses here had taste.
Walk the residential streets now and it can feel like somebody planted an architectural sample garden: Craftsman, Prairie, Mission Revival, Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival. Creedence Clearwater Revival. All the revivals. The neighborhood includes work by Irving Gill, one of the defining architects of early modern California; Gill-designed Prairie homes still stand along Granada Avenue.
The city formally designated the South Park Historic District in 2017, recognizing roughly 400 properties and a period of significance stretching from 1906 through 1949. In other words, a lot of what makes the place feel old is actually old.
While the trolley eventually disappeared, the basic idea behind it didn’t. South Park is still a neighborhood organized around little pockets of human activity: a couple blocks where you can buy a record, drink a beer, find a 60-year-old lamp, eat a vegan burger beneath gothic beasts, browse a bookstore, and walk home past a century-old Craftsman.
The 30th-and-Fern area may be the clearest example. Several surviving buildings there date to South Park’s early development, including the old Fire Station No. 9, Rose Grocery building, and Burlingame Garage. What began as infrastructure for a young streetcar suburb became the neighborhood’s commercial heart.
That history is also partly why buying a house here can be competitive. There isn’t some endless supply of vacant land waiting around the corner for another subdivision. Much of the neighborhood filled in generations ago, and the architecture itself is part of the appeal.
San Diego Mag’s been documenting the city for 78 years. And we’ve been looking for a partner who loved the city enough to help us tell its stories. Redfin is that partner. They’re helping us tell the story of some of the city’s most unique neighborhoods. They launched Redfin Early Access this year to get their people in first and to see certain coming-soon and exclusive listings on Redfin before they appear on other major real-estate sites.
First up: South Park.
Here are some of the people and places worth knowing here:

Start with Judy “the Beauty” Forman, because it’s difficult to explain South Park without her. The former social worker bought Big Kitchen in 1980 and turned a neighborhood breakfast joint into a gathering place for artists, musicians, activists, politicians, eccentrics, and pretty much anyone who needed somewhere to belong. As Judy puts it, “I built this for people who others passed over.”
One of those people was a young single mom named Whoopi Goldberg, who worked as a dishwasher here before the Whoopi Goldberg part of her career happened. Today Big Kitchen still serves breakfast and lunch Thursday through Monday.
3003 Grape Street
Whistle Stop reopened in 2001, right as South Park’s little independent-business ecosystem was finding a new generation. Owner Sam Chammas—also connected to Live Wire and, later, Station Tavern—helped turn it into the kind of neighborhood bar where the calendar can jump from a DJ night to live bands to some strange communal event nobody at a normal sports bar would propose.
The room still has that laid-back, slightly sweaty house-party quality. Check what’s happening before you go, because Whistle Stop changes personality depending on the night: sometimes neighborhood beer, sometimes everyone dancing beneath the disco ball like work tomorrow was canceled.
2236 Fern Street
Station Tavern may be the most literal example of old South Park becoming new South Park. It opened in 2009 on land once crossed diagonally by the No. 2 trolley line, and architect Lloyd Russell incorporated that history into the design rather than pretending the weirdly shaped lot wasn’t weirdly shaped. The project won the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s Grand Orchid Award the same year it opened.
Sam Chammas built the place as an open-air burger-and-beer spot with big communal tables, a backyard, room for kids, and room for dogs. It still works exactly that way: get a burger, get the tots, let everybody spread out, stay awhile.
2204 Fern Street
Kindred arrived in late 2015 looking nothing like the beige-and-leafy vegan restaurant stereotype. The place went full gothic fever dream—heavy music, wild cocktails, decadent plant-based food—and eventually collected national vegan accolades plus local Restaurant of the Year and design honors.
And in 2026, it got even weirder. Hidden behind a chain-mail passage inside Kindred is Throne Room, a medieval-fantasy cocktail chamber whose mythology grew out of a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired map the Kindred team created for a 2017 Coachella pop-up. The 90-minute experience has scroll menus, plant-based mezze, cocktails and zero interest in pretending restaurants need to behave normally.
1503 30th Street

Vinyl Junkies has good music-scene DNA. Founder Eric Howarth previously ran indie label Hi-Speed Soul, whose roster included acts like Nada Surf and Swervedriver, then teamed with Casbah owner Tim Mays after the pair had spent years putting on Vinyl Junkies record swaps.
They opened the South Park brick-and-mortar shop in 2017, and it remains a buy-sell-trade temple for people who understand that owning music on a physical object is irrational in exactly the right way. Go flip through the new arrivals. Leave holding something you had absolutely no intention of buying.
2235 Fern Street
Bad Madge is what happens when “vintage store” doesn’t quite explain the situation. Owner Tanya McAnear and her team fill the shop with furniture, clothing, barware, records, art, jewelry, collectibles, and various objects that seem like they may know things about their previous owners. The shop opened in 2011 and has made reuse and upcycling part of its identity ever since. Go in without looking for anything specific—specificity will only slow you down.
2205 Fern Street
Across the neighborhood’s vintage-and-vinyl universe sits Thread + Seed, a local boutique built around clothing, denim, gifts, and personal styling. Its South Park shop has an especially deep denim program—petite, tall, wide-leg, straight, flare—and the store also offers one-on-one styling built around color and body type. In other words, this is where you go after deciding the jeans currently on your body have betrayed you. South Park understands that sometimes personal renewal begins with pants.
2220 Fern Street
Seth Marko started The Book Catapult as a book blog in 2006. In 2017, he and his wife, Jennifer Powell, turned it into an actual bookstore in South Park, specializing loosely in fiction, local interest, and children’s books while maintaining the more important bookseller skill: putting something into your hands that you didn’t know you needed.
There are staff picks, author events, signed books, and the dangerous possibility of walking in for one title and emerging with four. Because no one ever died thinking, “I shoulda read less.”
3010-B Juniper Street
Chefs, restaurateurs, sommeliers, and craft mixers - meet our 2026 Tastemakers, the minds behind the magic.
Chef Roberto Alcocer showcases all that Mexican cuisine and culture has to offer at Oceanside’s Valle. The Michelin-guide recommended restaurant takes inspiration and techniques from all over Mexico—with a heavy Baja influence—and blends them with local San Diego ingredients to create original and delectable contemporary Mexican cuisine. The seasonal tasting menu allows Chef Alcocer to experiment with the freshest available ingredients, creating dishes that defy guests’ expectations, while the wine list features more than 100 labels from Mexican artisans. Even the restaurant’s walls are a celebration of Mexican culture, all decorated with work from artists of Baja.
“My favorite part of being a chef of Valle is being able to showcase the Mexico that I know to everyone who visits,” Chef Alococer says. “Not only through the food, but with the design, culture, and welcoming service.”
Lobster Taco: Flour sourdough tortilla with lobster shell bisque and local red spiny lobster

222 North Pacific Street, Oceanside, California 92054
866-723-8906 | valleoceanside.com