These ingredients are the holy grail in your moisturizer
Moisturizers are a vital part of your skincare game. That’s because ingredients in moisturizer lock in the moisture in your skin and keep it from getting dry. For dry, combination, and oily skin alike, moisturizer is significant.
That’s because without a moisturizer, your skin will suck the moisturizer of the skin layers and that’s not what we want as it makes our skin more prone to damage. For oily skin people, this can cause the production of extra oil which causes more problems like acne.
So, what are we looking for in our moisturizers?
Emollients
Emollients are your softeners and their primary work is to make our skin soft while we feel soft and supple. Emollients fill the dry gaps in our skin cells with fatty substances called lipids. These lipids make us feel soft and smooth.
Example – Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Octyldodecanol.
Occlusives
Occlusives are your thick moisturizing agents that act as barriers for our skin to protect it from any harmful particles and pollutants. They also seal in the moisture. They are a form of thick emollients.
Example – Petrolatum, Cetyl alcohol, and Lanolin.
Humectants
Humectants love water and attract it like a magnet. They pull water from the deeper layers of skin, especially the dermis, and transfer this moisture to the first layer of skin called the epidermis, thus, locking in the moisture.
Our skin produces dead cells called desquamation. Humectants help in the shedding of these cells by breaking down the proteins that hold these cells together.
Examples – Hyaluronic Acid, Propylene Glycol, Glycerin, Nanolipid Gel, Butylene glycol, Urea, Sorbitol, Dicyanamide, Sodium PCA, Sodium lactate.
Ceramide
Ceramides are your fats called lipids and they make up for 50% of your skin. These fats hold the skin together and form a barrier that locks in moisturizers and also protects your skin from pollution and other environmental stressors. They protect skin from anti-aging and that’s a proven fact in the skincare world.
Examples – Phytosphingosine and Sphingosine are ceramide precursors, which means they help skin make more ceramides.
You can look for names like Ceramide AP, EOP, NG, NP, NS in your moisturizer. Others are Ceramide 3, Ceramide 6-II, Ceramide I, which are great if present in moisturizer together.
No matter how much cramp your skin with antioxidants and sheet masks, if your moisturizer is not in place, then no amount of skincare is effective in the long run. Never miss the step of applying a good quality moisturizer in your skincare for healthy, plump-looking skin.
