Hi beauties!
It's been a while since we've wrote here, sorry for our delay but we're back! We're writing about 4 different types of moisturisers (humectants, emollients, occlusives and ceramides), what they are used for and some examples of the ingredients you may see on your skin care ingredients list. Your skin care should have a mixture of these moisturisers unless you are using a single ingredient product.
Humectants:
Emollients:
Emollients help to improve appearance of the skin making it softer and smoother. The properties help to 'fill spaces' between cells that need lipids. These are normally plant derived and great for dry, dehydrated and mature skin. Generally known as a 'nourisher.'
Ingredient examples: shea butter, lanolin, mineral oil, petroleum, isopropyl palmitate, linoeic acid
Occlusives:
Occlusives are moisturisers that create a protective layer to trap moisture on the skin. It's known to be greasy as it's thicker than emollients and humectants. It's normally used on the body than the face. Unless you have extremely dry skin then you may want to look for a face cream that is greasy. It's not great for general skin types (for the face as a cream on it's own) as it can clog your pores.
Ingredient examples: rose hip, avocado oil, hazelnut oil
Ceramides:
They are naturally found in skin as the 'glue' holding your skin structure together. If your ceramide levels are low, it means you have damaged / dry skin. This is generally used in products for people with eczema as it helps to retain moisture.
Ingredient example: ceramide
XOXO