How to Effectively Moisturize Your Skin
Sounds pretty easy--just use a moisturizer, right? Well, not always. If you're one of the many people who deal with dry and/or dehydrated skin even after using rich moisturizers, this is our guide to using humectants, emollients, and occlusives (and explaining what they are) to effectively hydrate and moisturize your skin.
To properly moisturize the skin, there are three general steps to follow as outlined below:
1. Start with a liquid layer of hydration. Whether it be essence (fermented liquid ingredients), toner (pH balancing or chemical exfoliating), face mist (soothing ingredients), or literally just water, an initial liquid layer allows physical water molecules to be present on the surface of the skin to be drawn deeper within through the following steps.
2. Apply your humectants (preferably in the form of a serum). Humectants include hyaluronic acid, propylene glycol, glycerin, and urea, which all work to move water from the surface of the skin to within the skin’s extracellular matrix, actively allowing the process of hydration to occur. Now, humectants (like all things in chemistry), follow a gradient, so if you don’t have some sort of occlusive to physically seal in that hydration, it will actually pull water out of the extracellular matrix, a phenomenon known as trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL).
3. Finally, seal in that hydration with occlusives and emollients. Occlusives are specifically designed to trap water in the skin. They are necessary for adequate moisturization to occur, and include petrolatum, lanolin, mineral oil, and our personal favorite: silicones. Emollients are oilier substances that help “fill in” the gaps between flakey skin to create a more cohesive, smooth texture. Occlusives and emollients are often combined in moisturizer formulas, but not always!
Additional moisture-retention can come from direct repair of the skin barrier, which is comprised mainly of ceramides, cholesterols, and phospholipids. Some of our moisturizers that combine the best of occlusives, emollients, and skin barrier components include: the Stratia Liquid Gold, Drunk Elephant's F-Balm Electrolyte Water Facial, the Paula's Choice Omega+ Complex Repair (or their electrolyte cream), Eighteen-B Hydrate+Restore, and the Cetaphil Restoraderm Cream.
If you want to ensure your humectants will be thoroughly sealed in by a blanket-like layer of emollient or occlusive ingredients, you can layer a fatty acid-rich facial oil over your moisturizer (rosehip, jojoba, marula, sea buckthorn, etc. are all great options) to ensure TEWL does not occur and all other ingredients are being well absorbed into the skin. We recommend doing this at night only, especially in the winter.