Key Ingredients for Long-Lasting Hydration

In skin care we hear, hydration over and over again. What does it mean? It’s simple, it’s essentially the amount of water content in your skin cells. The more water, the more hydration. And why do we love hydrated skin? It gives us a plump, glowy  and overall healthy outer appearance.

Glycerin for Hydration 

Glycerin is a well known humectant, which is an ingredient in skincare that maintains moisture by pulling hydration into the skin. Glycerin makes sense in skincare, especially for sensitive skin, as it’s already a naturally occurring substance in skin. For this reason, glycerin is known as a skin-identical ingredient- your body just knows what to do with it. Glycerin is well known for hydration for a more than one reason, outside of being a humectant. 

Glycerin has been shown to be involved in the transport and activity of aquaporins. Aquaporins are proteins in the skin that transport water between cells. Sometimes aquaporins are called “water channels” for this reason. Glycerin helps them flow hydrating substances, like water, to the skin’s top most layers.

Hyaluronic Acid for Hydration

Hyaluronic acid is an ingredient that is tried and true when it comes to skin hydration. Like glycerin, hyaluronic acid is a humectant as well. It’s also a naturally occurring substance found in many areas of the human body, including the skin, which is part of the reason it’s used so much! However, like collagen, as we age there is a decreased production of hyaluronic acid in our skin. So the use of hyaluronic acid in skincare really just makes sense.

What’s important to know about hyaluronic acid is that they’re not all created equal. The larger the molecule, the better at water binding, the less skin penetration. The smaller the molecule, the less water can be retained, the better the skin penetration. This is why the selection of hyaluronic acid used in a skincare product should be carefully selected based on other hydrating actives in the formulation. If hyaluronic acid is the only hydrating active in a formula, a range of high and low molecular weight molecules should be used.

In the case of Multi Moisture Mask, we’ve chosen to utilize a very low molecular weight hyaluronic acid (50 kDa) to complement the other hydrating actives in the formula. Our hyaluronic acid is optimized for delivering deep skin hydration. Because of the deep layer of hydration this ingredient provides, this hyaluronic acid has even been proven to have anti-aging benefits like improving viscoelasticity in the skin and reducing even deep wrinkles.*

Multi Moisture Complex for Hydration

Our Multi Moisture Complex is a unique blend of ingredients designed to promote hydration in the skin for up to 24 hours. At 3%, this combination of ingredients has been shown to increase skin hydration significantly; at 7 hours after application there was +50% hydration in the skin and at 24 hours after application there was +20% hydration in the skin. 

One of the key actives in this complex is called Imperata Cylindrica Root Extract. It is a plant extract that can survive in a desert environment and is known as a osmoprotective. Not to dive too deep into the science, but what you should know here is that this plant’s extract has captured its ability to survive in extreme conditions. Imperata Cylindrica Root Extract has proven ability to increase hydration in skin cells by drawing water in, as shown by the ingredients’ clinical in our complex and other clinicals alone tested by the producers of this extract. If you’ve tried the Mult Moisture Mask, you’re sure to see hydration as a benefit.

*Claims reflect clinical data for individual ingredients and may not match combined results. Individual results may vary.