Do Hyaluronic Moisturizers work?

Hyaluronic acid moisturizers have become popular over recent years. But do hyaluronic acid acid moisturizers really work, and if not can you get the benefits of hyaluronic acid to your skin some other way?

Hyaluronic acid (which can also be called Hyaluronan or HA) is an important component of your skin, where it acts as a connective tissue, and it is also found to varying degrees in other parts of the body. Along with collagen and elastin it has an important role in maintaining skin health and elasticity.

Hyaluronan helps the skin retain water, being hygroscopic, thereby obviously aiding in maintaining skin hydration. It will absorb around 1000 times it’s own weight in water. This ability to retain moisture also helps keep the collagen and elastin in your skin moist which keeps the skin looking more supple and youthful.

Studies over the last few years have shown that those people who have a naturally higher intake of hyaluronic acid in our diets seem to age, or appear to age slower, and it is theorized that it is the higher levels of hyaluronic acid that are responsible for this. It has a significant role in skin elasticity in tissue repair.

There’s even been a documentary that has called hyaluronic acid be “key to the fountain of youth” for these reasons.

For this reason hyaluronic moisturizers are becoming more popular, on the presumption that if you include hyaluronic acid in a moisturizer you will improve the levels of hyaluronan in the skin merely by applying the moisturizer. This would seem to make sense.

However the obvious is not necessarily a correct conclusion. For example there are some doubts about whether some forms of hyaluronic acid included in moisturizers will successfully penetrate the skin. HA used in moisturizers generally comes from the eyes of cattle, the combs of cock birds and even from human placentas.

Although it is not entirely clear it would seem that some HA used in moisturizers has a molecule size which is effectively too large to enter the skin, and that for this reason, although increasing the levels of hyaluronic acid in the skin is good for the skin, doing so by means of this form of hyaluronic acid moisturizer is ineffective.

There is an alternative. Rather than attempting to add the stores of HA in the skin it may well be better to prevent destruction of HA in the skin, thereby preserving what is there already.

There is an enzyme in the skin called hyaluronidase. Hyaluronidase breaks down hyaluronic acid in the skin, and so therefore reduces the amount of HA in the skin. So if you’re able to reduce the capacity of hyaluronidase to break down the HA you are effectively increasing your skin’s supplies of HA.

There is a seaweed found around the coast of Japan called Phytessence Wakame. Phytessence Wakame is a large part of the Japanese diet and it is thought that this is one of the major reasons why the Japanese have such wonderful skin right into old age. Research has now shown that Phytessence Wakame helps limit the actions of hyaluronidase, thereby helping your skin maintain its existing stores of hyaluronic acid.

It is now possible to get high quality natural skin care products that contain Phytessence Wakame, and which therefore help the skin retain the skin healing properties of hyaluronic acid.

The company that makes these excellent natural skin care products does not make a hyaluronic acid moisturizer, in fact it does not make any moisturizer at all, because it includes Phytessence Wakame, along with some other excellent natural ingredients, in its entire range of skin care products, thereby eliminating the need for a dedicated moisturizer.

All skin care products from this company moisturize extremely effectively. And they give their customers a money back guarantee. That’s putting your money where your mouth is. Read the rest of this entry

Jojoba oil moisturizers are better for your skin, moisturize well and don’t risk your skin health.

Jojoba oil is a natural oil used in the best jojoba moisturizers. There are a number of uses of jojoba oil, including in skin care products, and we are going to answer some readers questions about using jojoba oil as a moisturizer.

If you’ve read this website before you will know that we attempt to highlight the use of unnatural chemicals and irritating substances such as petrochemicals in so many of the mainstream skin care products, health products and cosmetics that are so commonly in use today.

And we also seek to tell you about natural alternatives that work as effectively, and often more effectively, then their chemical alternatives. Jojoba oil moisturizers are a fine example of high quality natural anti aging products that use safe natural ingredients.

So let’s see why the oil from the seed of the jojoba plant is good for your skin and is safe when used as an ingredient in skin care products.

Unfortunately, as we have highlighted before, many anti ageing products use petrochemical ingredients to moisturize. We have written recently about the risks of petrolatum (a petrochemical oil) used in many skin care products, and have also explained that petrolatum does nothing to moisturize your skin other than to coat it in oil.

And there are other examples of petrochemical and chemical ingredients used in skin care products, including moisturisers, that do not actively moisturize and which may put your skin and your health at risk. These ingredients are used because they are extremely cheap.

There are many excellent natural ingredients which can be used in top shelf natural skin care products which are known for their excellent moisturizing properties, which are entirely safe to use on your skin and many of which have been used as a food for centuries. Olive oil is a good example.

Jojoba oil is another example of a natural oil which is safe to use on your skin and has excellent moisturising properties.

The oil is chemically extremely similar to the oil produced in human skin, called sebum, which is produced in the sebaceous glands. In fact technically the oil is more a liquid wax then an oil. It has been shown to be beneficial in treating acne, also has healing properties against other skin diseases like psoriasis and eczema and also has excellent skin moisturizing properties.

Unlike many of the chemical and petrochemical ingredients used in regular moisturizers it is able to penetrate the skin very effectively and it’s use does not result in a film of oil being left on the surface of the skin and face.

It does not create skin irritation or allergies because it’s chemical make up is so similar to the makeup of sebum. It actually helps balance the skin’s production of sebum which means that it is perfect for those with oily skin, helping reduce the production of oil.

It helps reduce wrinkles and stretchmarks.

And also unlike many regular moisturizers it does not block the pores, which is also good news for acne sufferers. In fact it helps clean the pores.

Because it has such beneficial effects it is used in a range of products including soaps and hair conditioners as well as lip balms. A few drops of jojoba oil very effectively helps remove eye makeup.

So why would you use regular moisturizers when jojoba oil does the job better? That’s a good question, however so many women still choose to use mainstream moisturisers containing the chemical and petrochemical ingredients.

If jojoba oil is so good at moisturizing then why not just use it on its own each day? Well of course you can however is always better to use skin care products which contain jojoba oil as an ingredient but also contain a range of other natural oils including olive oil and Shea butter, all of which have their own slightly different moisturizing properties.

Combine a range of such ingredients into high quality natural skin care products and you have the recipe for an outstandingly effective (and safe) range of skin care products. Jojoba oil moisturizers which combine a range of such natural ingredients are very effective.

The best jojoba moisturiser is not a moisturiser. That is because the company that makes what we consider to be the best natural skin care products available offer a range of products all of which moisturize very effectively and which use many such natural ingredients together. Because all the products moisturize effectively there is no need for a dedicated moisturiser. Read the rest of this entry