BACKGROUND: Skin delivery of a therapeutically effective drug is imperative for local cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) treatment. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to formulate, optimize, and characterize curcumin-loaded nanoemulgel for enhanced skin drug retention to treat CL locally. METHODS: Nanoemulsions were prepared by high-speed homogenization, characterized, and optimized for size, PDI, zeta potential, stability, morphology, drug contents, encapsulation efficiency, RESULTS: All nanoemulsion formulations had size in nano range with negative surface charge, homogeneously distributed, with spherical droplet geometries, where C3 being highly stable, had good encapsulation efficiency and drug contents (85 ± 5.4%, 68 ± 3.2%), released 90% of drug within 4 h, while C3 gel released the drug significantly sustained up to 46% in 24 h. The C3 formulation demonstrated significant CONCLUSION: These results suggested that curcumin nanoemulgel could be an effective alternative strategy for treating CL locally.