Hydration does not start with a moisturiser. It starts at the cleanse, because most dehydrated skin is losing water it was never allowed to keep.
Hydration does not start with a moisturiser. It starts at the cleanse, because most dehydrated skin is losing water it was never allowed to keep.
Why moisture alone is not enough
Dehydrated skin is a water problem, not an oil problem, and the two need different answers. Adding water to skin is easy. Keeping it there is the hard part, and it is what most hydrating products quietly fail at. A stripping cleanser undoes a good serum before the serum is ever applied, which is why a hydrating routine that begins at step two is already behind.
Where ours begins
At the cleanse. Mild amino acid surfactants that lift sebum and sunscreen without taking the barrier lipids with them, so the skin that meets the next step still has something to hold water with. Only then do the humectants and the lipids have anything to work on.
Then both halves of the problem
Layered humectants, hyaluronic acid at more than one molecular weight, polyglutamic acid, sodium PCA, beta glucan and glycerin, hold water at different depths rather than all in one place. Barrier lipids, ceramides NP, AP and EOP with cholesterol and squalane, rebuild the layer that stops that water escaping again.
If your skin feels tight an hour after a moisturiser, the lipid half is usually what is missing. If it feels tight straight after washing, the problem is the cleanser.
Formulated and made by Clara Song, PhD, in our laboratory in Surrey, British Columbia.
