Dermatologist Best Guide to Choosing A Body Moisturizer

With Singapore’s humid weather, most of us fall back on body lotions and moisturizers to keep our skin smooth and hydrated all year round. Yet, faced with a multitude of choices for body moisturisers, we may never know where to begin – here are some quick tips to help guide the choice of body moisturisers.

Read the product’s ingredient list

This is no easy feat, but it pays to know what is in your product. You need not know all the ingredients in detail, a simple trick would be to scrutinise the order in which the ingredients are presented. Right at the top would be the ingredient with the highest percentage, and the concentration of each ingredient decreases with a descending order of mention in the ingredient list.

The first five ingredients or so usually make the bulk of your product. Given that, it does not necessarily translate that an ingredient has to be in greatest concentration for the most impact. Certain ingredients work well at low concentrations.

One tip would be to watch out for creams or lotions that have the highest concentration of water or plain silicones. While these constituents may give the instant feel of moisture, they quickly disappears and do not repair our skin barrier.

How do moisturizers work?

The most essential feature is to increase the water content of the stratum corneum. The ‘valleys’ between skin contour ridges smoothen with hydration, allowing the skin to be more soft and supple.

Ingredient you want in your moisturizer: ceramides

Ceramides are an essential lipid component of the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of our skin that is largely recognized as the skin barrier. Preventing unwanted materials from entering, it can be seen as our skin’s first line of defense. Ceramides contribute to the permeability of the skin barrier by mediating with cell signaling and with processes such as cell growth, differentiation, proliferation and cell death as a lipid messenger.

A deficiency of ceramides in our skin causes a decrease in water-holding capacity and barrier function. Conversely, with a topical application of phytoceramides, barrier abnormalities are improved and impaired skin barrier function can also be repaired. Thus, if you are looking for a good body lotion or moisturizer, phytoceramides definitely should be on your ingredient check list.

Phytoceramides: What are they?

Phytoceramides are derived from plant-oil and it mimics the lipid component of our skin barrier. With an equivalent function of restoring the skin integrity, we can rely on moisturizers with phytoceramides to repair our skin barrier as do synthetic ceramides do.

Ingredient you want in your moisturizer: glycerin

Glycerin is a natural humectant found in our skin and contributes to normal hydration levels of our skin. Topical glycerin helps to correct the hydration abnormality in our skin, causing glyercol to be included in topical dermatological preparations.

Humectants are hydrophilic compounds that hydrate the stratum corneum when they form hydrogen bonds with water molecules. Glycerin is a typical, yet effective water-binding agent. Humectants draw water to our skin from two difference sources: from a humid environment or from deeper layers of our skin. By absorbing water from these sources, it locks in the moisture in our skin.

According to Dr Teo Wan Lin, an accredited dermatologist at TWL Specialist Skin and Laser Centre, she said: “Glycerin may accomplish more complex mechanism beyond water absorption. It may interact with the skin lipid structure and alter their water-binding properties. This effect causes an expansion of skin cells on the outermost skin layer, and between those cells, leading to a visible full thickness of the skin layer. With an improvement of water-holding abilities, it results in more effective moisturization of the skin.”

Repeated applications of lotions with high glycerin content have been found to improve skin hydration.

Ingredient you want in your moisturizer: squalane

Found in certain fish oils such as shark liver oil, squalene is a polyunsaturated hydrocarbon. As squalene is unstable and oxidizes easily, squalane has gained more attraction in the area of cosmetics. As a saturated derivative of squalene, squalane’s inert properties and low toxicity have paved its way into the cosmeceutical industry, favoured over its unsaturated analog, squalene. Although squalane is produced naturally by the body, we experience a slower production of this hydrocarbon when we hit thirty.

Squalane has high emollient properties, being absorbed easily by the skin without leaving an oily residue. An emollient helps keep our skin hydrated and supple by reducing water loss from the epidermis. Squalane increases skin hydration due to skin surface occlusions. Occlusives provide a layer of oil on the skin surface to reduce water loss from the stratum corneum.

These properties accentuate the moisturizing effect of squalane and coupled also with its stable nature, have contributed to a continual rise in demand for squalane in cosmeceutical approaches.

To round things up, make a mental note to check the ingredient list before you purchase your moisturiser. A good moisturiser would contain at least one of these ingredients: squalane, glycerin or ceramides. Even better, the Multi-CERAM moisturizer contains all 3 ingredients and more. This makes the Multi-CERAM a popular choice with our dry skin and eczema patients. With these points in mind, a good moisturiser can be easily differentiated from the plethora of options out there.

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