Moisturizing 101: Why You Should Invest in Moisturizers

The skin is the largest organ of the human body, measuring about 20 square feet. Given the importance of the skin, you must do your best to take care of it.

Aside from bathing regularly to keep your skin clean, you should also ensure that it is well moisturized. Through a daily basic skincare regimen, such as moisturizing, you can help keep the largest organ of your body healthy and in tiptop shape.

What is a Moisturizer?

By definition, a moisturizer is skin care product that serves to protect and lubricate the skin by preventing dryness. This means that using a moisturizer regularly can help you keep your skin hydrated and healthy.

Benefits of Moisturizing

Moisturizers should be a permanent part of your skin care routine. Keeping your skin well moisturized as early as possible will allow you to enjoy younger-looking skin for a longer time. Using moisturizers regularly will also provide you with the following benefits:

Skin Repair

Moisturizing helps keep your skin young, especially the parts of your body that are easily affected by the environment, such as the skin on your face, neck, and limbs. Since the skin cells on these parts of your body shed and regenerate, the additional layer of moisture helps repair the skin faster and prevent age lines from forming.

Controlled Hydration Level

Too much oiliness or dryness in the skin can cause other skin care problems, such as acne, flaking, or scaling. By keeping your skin moisturized, you can easily control your complexion’s extreme oiliness or dryness.

Reduced Acne

If you have acne-prone skin, you should never neglect using a moisturizer. Although applying moisturizer to oily skin might seem counterproductive, doing so can actually help you reduce the formation of acne.

Once you start using moisturizers made for acne-prone skin, it will not generate more oil than it needs. This means that you would not have to deal with excess oil that can clog your pores and turn into pimples.

Improve the Appearance of Blemishes

Healthy and moisturized skin has a sheen that can make your existing blemishes less visible. This sheen can also serve as a protective layer for your skin, which can help you prevent new blemishes from forming.

How do I know which moisturizer to use?

Before anyone can select which moisturizer to use, an individual must first check if they have dry or oily skin. Oftentimes, a combination of lotion and moisturizer after bathing does wonders for the skin, but it’s best to maximize the opportunity. 

Choose the moisturizer that provides the most noticeable effects. Dry or mature skin can require more frequent applications, so knowing which skin types react well with certain moisturizers will be more beneficial.

What Happens When You Don’t Moisturize?

Given the benefits of moisturizing, leaving it out of any skincare routine will likely produce adverse effects. Here are the disadvantages of not keeping one’s skin moisturized:

• Wrinkles develop and grow deeper when the skin is always left dry. Dehydrated skin has a compromised skin barrier, making low-grade chronic inflammation in the skin more likely to occur. This leads to the breakdown of collagen in your skin and the appearance of more wrinkles.
• When the skin on your face is not moisturized, it can eventually lead to a dull and flaky complexion. Especially during colder temperatures, the skin on the face dries faster, dehydrating it and removing a protective layer of lipids. This allows irritants to enter the skin and cause irritation and flaking.
• Dryness can cause acne to worsen. Because the skin’s natural barrier is compromised when it’s dry, acne-causing bacteria can easily enter your skin and cause breakouts.

What are the Types of Moisturizers?

Avoid suffering from various skin problems by using the right moisturizer for your skin. There are creams, lotions, and ointments that you can choose from, depending on what kind of moisturizer your skin needs.

The types of products listed above can be grouped depending on their base ingredients. Here are the categories that they can belong to:

Emollients

These are oil-based moisturizers that often come as gels, lotions, and ointments and have a creamy consistency. Emollients are mostly formulated to rebuild the lipids lost in your skin. This type of moisturizer also works by balancing your skin’s microbiome to prevent inflammation.

Humectants

Humectants are mostly gel moisturizers that work by drawing in moisture from the environment and trapping it in your skin. It then stores the water in your skin cells to keep your skin hydrated for longer periods. This type of moisturizer has a lightweight consistency and often contains glycerol, amino acids, lactic acids, and hyaluronic acids.

Occlusives

This type of moisturizer mostly works to trap moisture in your skin instead of depositing it. Because of their thick consistency, occlusives are effective in creating a physical barrier for your skin and preventing water from going out. You can find occlusives in wax, silicone, or oil-based forms.

How to Know Which Type of Moisturizer to Use

Before you shop for moisturizers, you must first determine your skin type. Learning about this information can provide you with a more informed decision when buying moisturizers.

Oily Skin

If you have oily skin, you should try using humectants. This type of moisturizer for oily skin is lightweight, so you would not feel oily or sticky after applying it. It also absorbs into your skin quickly, so you are not left with a sheen that will make your face look and feel oilier.

Normal or Combination Skin

You should consider getting emollients if you have normal or combination skin type. This type of moisturizer is effective in filling some of the tiny cracks on your skin, smoothing out its surface, and repairing your skin’s natural barrier.

Dry Skin

People with dry skin can also use emollient-based moisturizing creams to rehydrate their skin and repair any damage. This moisturizer will also make your skin look smoother and healthier.

You can also use occlusives if you have severely dry skin because of certain conditions, such as aging and eczema. Using this kind of moisturizer will allow you to prevent any extra water loss that may cause more damage to your skin.

The only thing you need to remember when choosing a moisturizer for your skin is the drier your skin is, the thicker your moisturizer’s consistency should be. Thicker products can trap moisture in your skin more effectively.

When is the Best Time to Moisturize?

The most crucial times to moisturize are after bathing, shaving, or exfoliating. A hot shower, for instance, will merit moisturizing more than the other occasions, as this leaves the skin dry. Naturally, your body produces oils that keep your skin moisturized, and a warm bath washes off these oils.

It also helps to moisturize your skin right before going to bed. Doing so allows the skin to regenerate as the body recovers at night.

Other Products to Moisturize Your Skin

Aside from using lotions, creams, ointments, your other skin care products should also have moisturizing properties. First, you need to make sure that the soap you are using when cleansing is not stripping away your skin’s natural oils.

If it does, you should switch to a non-drying soap, such as Gluta-C Face and Body Soap with Papaya Enzymes. This soap bar provides your skin with the nutrients it needs to prevent it from drying up.

You can also use a moisturizing toner on your face to serve as a hydrating base for your moisturizer. To prevent your skin from becoming dry, you should use an alcohol-free toner like Gluta-C Intense Whitening Facial Toner. This product has powerful antioxidants that can exfoliate your skin but are also gentle enough that they will not cause peeling or stinging.

Lastly, finish off your skin care routine by applying a rejuvenating facial night serum before going to sleep. This product can help lock moisture in your skin so that it does not dry up as you are sleeping.

Take Care of Your Body by Taking Better Care of Your Skin

Your skin is a large part of your body, so taking care of it is essential if you want to keep your whole body healthy. One of the best ways you can take care of this organ is by moisturizing it regularly.

Now that you have learned more about moisturizers and how to choose the right one for your skin type, incorporate it into your skin care routine. After some time, you will notice a great improvement in your skin and you will be able to flaunt your more radiant and youthful complexion.