No matter where you look there are skin care products on offer that will make you supposedly 10 years younger in a millisecond. Yeh, right... Most of these products tend to be some type of moisturizing crème and they promise that regular use will make your skin look younger.
But sales pitch aside, what is it about moisturising crèmes that affects your skin? How do they actually work? Are all the moisturising crèmes the same?
Let’s take a basic look at the anatomy of a moisturizer.
The first thing to consider is the base that gives the moisturizing crème its over-all functionality. There are basically two types of moisturizing bases: Oil in Water and Water in Oil preparations. - Isn’t that the same thing, I hear you ask. No. They have quite different effects on the skin. Why? Because when the product is an emulsion of water in oil, the oil is more dominant and therefore it’s most effective for dry skin.
When the product is based on oil in water, however, products are less moisturizing and are formulated for slightly oily skin.
At this point however, it is also important to note that depending on the inclusion of other ingredients such as essential oils and herbal extracts, the overall effect of the base-cream can be modified.
The additional ingredients are chosen based on their therapeutic actions, as well as their vitamin, antioxidant, essential fatty acid, and fragrant content that ads to the functionality of the moisturizer. In other words, the formula of the moisturizer is targeted at a specific skin type or skin problem. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
A good quality moisturizing crème has two basic functions. Firstly, it prevents/reduces the loss of moisture from the skin; and secondly it acts to protect, nourish and hydrate the skin. How?
Okay, here we need to take a very quick, simplified look at how the skin works.
The skin is a living, breathing organ, that has a multitude of functions including protecting the inside of the body from our external environment. The skin is almost totally waterproof and it has a protective layer called the acid mantel, which prevents microbes from getting into our skin and cause problems. Because of its inherent structure, only very, very small molecules can freely pass through the skin to the inside of the body.
Other, larger molecules don’t get a free passage. They either remain on the surface of the skin or they get ‘carried’ across the skin-barrier. For example, some essential oils, certain drugs, etc., have molecules that are too big to pass through the skin, which means they need to be carried across the skin-barrier, by a ‘carrier agent’.
In a moisturizing cream this may be achieved by including a carrier oil such as Jojoba in the formula. Once carried across the skin-barrier, the essential oils or herbal extracts can then ‘do their job’ which may be to reduce inflammation or promote blood circulation, or what ever.
So, on the one hand a well formulated moisturizer has ingredients that stay on the skin’s surface and take on the functions of protection and moisture loss prevention, while on the other hand, it contains ingredients that do enter through the skin-barrier to act on the underlying skin layers.
Both these functions/actions of a moisturising crème are very important and the ingredients play a vital role in the effectiveness of a quality moisturising crème. This brings me back to the therapeutic actions, vitamins, antioxidants, essential fatty acids, etc., that ad to the functionality and effectiveness of the moisturizer.
As you are probably aware, there are two types of moisturizers – 100% natural ones and of course the non-natural ones. The difference is the type of ingredients that are used to make up the product and its functionality.
I don't think I need to go into why we should only consider using 100% natural skin care products, as I have covered this topic in considerable depth through many other articles, but it is important to reiterate, that many of the commercially available skin care products found in supermarkets and department stores do contain potentially harmful chemicals and for this reason alone we’d do well to stay away from them.
However, moisturizers that use exclusively natural ingredients such as herbal extracts, essential oils, natural carrier oils and shea nut butter and others, do help to prevent loss of moisture from the skin, benefit the underlying skin layers and can have significant therapeutic effects on the over-all health, look and feel of the skin.
It is for these reasons that a daily skin care regime should always include the use of a natural moisturizing crème.
Do we really need to use a moisturiser?
Now some people would argue that we do not need to use any moisturizers at all, as our skin is perfectly capable of moisturizing itself. After all, our skin contains literally millions of sebaceous glands that excrete sebum (the body’s natural moisturizer) onto the skin’s surface, which is sufficient to keep the acid mantel (protective layer) in tact.
Well, for some people, mind you very few of them, that may be right and indeed they may not need to use a moisturiser, especially if their skin is slightly on the oily side of normal and they are living in a moderate climate. But most of us know that if we do not use a moisturiser, our skin will have a tendency to become dry, rough and at times itchy and flaky.
The problem with today’s modern lifestyle is that we expose ourselves to heating and/or air-conditioning, are surrounded by polluted air, engage in regular physical exercise which makes us sticky and sweaty, and we are basically covered from neck to toe in clothing all day.
Obviously that requires a certain level of personal hygiene and most of us have a shower and use soap to wash our bodies – not the face maybe, but the rest of the body. As a result, this removes the natural oil that the body secretes thereby removing the moisturizing function of the skin.
Now for some people, the removal of the ‘acid mantel’ stimulates, or rather over-stimulates, sebum secretion and they end up with excessively oily skin... not exactly the aim of the exercise, is it. Others end up with dry skin because the body’s sebum production is not sufficient to rebuild the moisture/oil layer on the skin’s surface. In extreme cases this can lead to eczema and/or dermatitis, and who wants that...
So what becomes important now is the type of cleansing agent that is used - but that’s for another article. Suffice it to say that using most of the commercially available soaps is not a great idea, but rather we should use a mild, natural cleansing agent that is close to the skin’s natural pH (approx. 5.5-7.0) and use a good quality, natural, skin-type specific moisturiser to replenish the skin’s moisture and help it to rebuild the protective acid mantel.
I hope you’ve gained some insight into how moisturizing creams work and why they play an important role in the maintenance and health of our skin. Read more on natural skin care products.
