All About Skin Hydration

Skin hydration is important to relieve dryness and tightness, improve flexibility, and build better barrier so the skin can withstand environment insults.  Skin Inc products are ideal for moisturizing since they contain high levels of ingredients known to hydrate skin.

For example, Vitamin C Serum contains 10% butylene glycol, 8% glycerin, and 3% pentylene glycol.  That’s a total of 21% hydrating ingredients.  As another example, Pure Onsen Mist contains 7% glycerin, 12% butylene glycol, and 1% hyaluronic acid.  That’s a total of 20% hydrating ingredients. 

These ingredients have been shown in many published technical studies to be effective in skin hydration, even at levels much lower than those present in Skin Inc products.  In these studies, hyaluronic acid is particularly effective in hydrating the skin surface, while the small liquid glycerin and glycol ingredients readily enter the outer layers of skin to hold water and hydrate the tissue.  And once the ingredients are inside the outer layers, they resist removal by washing, thus maintaining skin hydration for hours.

Importantly, these moisturizing ingredients are effective across many formulation types, for example, in emulsions, lotions, gels, creams, serums, and mists.  Thus, they are very versatile cosmetic agents.It is worth noting that hyaluronic acid and glycerin are moisturizing materials found naturally in the skin.  So using them as cosmetic hydrating agents is replenishing the loss of these materials that occurs with aging.  And for glycerin, the skin even contains a protein (Aquaporin) that transports glycerin and water in the skin for hydration.  So using glycerin for hydration is indeed the right natural choice for skin.

Additionally, it is worth noting that hydration improves skin barrier.  A healthy skin barrier is critically important for holding water in the skin and preventing entry of irritating materials such as detergents.  Barrier damage contributes to several skin problems, such as dryness, itch, sensitivity, and redness.  Hydration creates a healthy normal environment inside the skin, which allows the skin to begin healing damage to the barrier.  In fact, hydration with ingredients such as glycerin is often used as part of therapeutic approaches for managing more serious problems such as dermatitis, dandruff, and blemishes.While daily hydration alone will not solve all skin problems, it is a good foundation on which to build an effective skin care routine.  Using the skin's own natural hydrators (glycerin and hyaluronic acid) is a good start.  And supplementing them with other moisturizing glycol ingredients (such as butylene glycol and pentylene glycol) provides even greater effectiveness.

 

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THIS TECHNICAL SUMMARY WAS PREPARED BY DONALD L. BISSETT, PHD.  DR. BISSETT EARNED DEGREES IN CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY, AND WORKED FOR OVER 32 YEARS IN SKIN CARE RESEARCH IN THE COSMETIC INDUSTRY.  SINCE 2008, HE HAS SERVED AS A SKIN SCIENCE TECHNICAL CONSULTANT.  HIS DISCOVERIES LED TO DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF MANY ACTIVE INGREDIENTS IN SKIN CARE PRODUCTS THAT ARE ON THE MARKET TODAY.  HE IS AUTHOR OF OVER 60 PUBLISHED TECHNICAL MANUSCRIPTS AND INVENTOR ON OVER 30 US PATENTS.