Hydration vs. Moisturisation
In developing and formulating I am eternally curious about all the many products out there. And yes I often go down the rabbit hole of You Tube! I see many claims about totally oil based products that claim to hydrate the skin. Is that true? Well actually no! But why you ask - “I use oil based products and my skin feels so good!” And yes they will - but what your feeling is your skin being nourished and moisturised with those lovely plant oils reducing trans-epidermal water loss or TEWL for short. The upcoming SG Face Elixir+ I promise is going to do an excellent job at nourishing, softening and moisturising your skin but it won’t hydrate. Let’s talk about why!
Cleaning, hydrating and moisturising are two of the most basic elements of anyone’s skin care regime. Basically with cleansing you are removing excess dirt and oils and hydrating and moisturising is putting what you need back! Cleansers have an annoying habit of not distinguishing what they need to remove and what needs to stay put to protect your skins microbiome and keep it hydrated and moisturised. I have found this many times when my skin feels as tight as a drum after cleansing with many surfactant based cleansers. Not pleasant! We won’t go into the science of cleansing here and will leave that for another day.
Moisturisers in their simplest are basically playing their part to stop TEWL by placing a impermeable barrier over your skin. At their most complex they also can deliver many beautiful actives into your skin. The use of natural plants oils to moisturise the skin goes back centuries. Plant oils and their compounds mimic the skins own oils that our bodies make, and can nourish and protect your skin. Jojoba Oil is a well studied plant for example that has shown to have many topical benefits for the skin including anti-inflammatory, skin aging repair and treating skin infections (Lin et al., 2017).
In skincare we have hydration and moisturisation - two superheroes for your skin but they play two different gigs. Hydration is like giving your skin a big gulp of water from the inside. Think ingredients like hyaluronic acid and the humble vegetable glycerin that are humectants and pull in water and keep your skin feeling plump and juicy. Oils as gorgeous as they are don’t contain any water or humectants and can’t deliver it to your skin. So the best way to look after your skin is to combine the two - combine a water based product with an oil based product like SG Glow Elixir +. And what’s the best way to hydrate your skin? Its pretty simple really - drink lots of water!
Reference
Lin, Tzu-Kai, et al. (2017) “Anti-Inflammatory and Skin Barrier Repair Effects of Topical Application of Some Plant Oils.” International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 19, no. 1, 27 Dec. 2017, p. 70, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5796020/, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19010070.
Recommended reading about Lipids and the use of plant oils for your skin
The Power of the Seed by Susan M. Parker
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