Sure, there’s superstar hyaluronic acid – but what other ingredients are there that hydrate your skin?! And what products are really, really good? And which skintypes benefit from hydrating products?!
This is an on-going series for everyone interested in a basic skincare routine: I’ve already written about cleansers, moisturisers and antioxidant serums, all products I believe are beneficial for nearly everybody. (Also essential, obviously: sunscreen.) Hydrating serums are useful to have on hand even if you don’t have dry skin, because weather conditions (extreme heat, extreme cold), AC and heaters can take a toll on the healthiest of skins. Temporarily, a boost of moisture can smooth and plump skin for a younger look.
If you’ve got oily skin, additional moisture can help with minimised oil production if your skin is dehydrated at the same time. (My skin absolutely cannot characterised as being oily, but when my skin is at its driest, it can turn oily very quickly as well.) If you want to find out more about your skin’s hydration levels, I can only recommend a skin analyser – super helpful to determine your skin’s condition and around $10.
What ingredients to look out for
When looking for hydrating ingredients, we’re looking for humectants:
The best-known humectant is maybe hyaluronic acid: an ingredient that’s able to grab onto moisture from your surroundings and draw it into the skin. Urea, panthenol and sorbitol, but also ethylene and propylene glycol are examples for this as well.
Skincare Basics: Moisturisers (Twindly)
Also, let’s not forget glycerin!
Hyaluronic Acid: Pros
Hyaluronic Acid (HA) is a beloved staple for skincare formulators everywhere: first, it’s cheap, and second, it truly is great. It’s naturally produced in the human body and is able to hold on to 1000 times its weight in water. Sadly, the body’s ability to produce it diminishes with age, so if you want to help your skin’s moisture barrier and ramp up those hydration levels, do add a hyaluronic acid product in your skincare routine.
Hyaluronic acid comes in different forms with different molecular weights, all being able to penetrate different layers of your skin. (More on HA at The Inkey List post, including fancy schematics.)
Hyaluronic Acid: Cons
There’re also people who feel their skin is drier when they use Hyaluronic Acid in their skincare, which is totally possible: as it attracts water, it can draw moisture up from deeper layers of skin, when large molecules just sit on the surface. I find it best to use an occlusive moisturiser over any kind of hyaluronic acid product. (More: How to lock in moisture.)
Other hydrating ingredients to know
The new hot thing is polyglutamic acid that can hold even more water than hyaluronic acid (The Inkey List Polyglutamic Acid). Snow mushroom is another ingredient that is extremely moisturising, due to its polysaccharides (The Inkey List Snow Mushroom). Sugar can also help in binding water to the skin: look for Trehalose, Rhamnose, Mannitol and Xylitol on the inci list (Bioderma Hydrabio Serum, review here). Panthenol (also called B5) also moisturises extremely well, with the additional benefits of being anti-inflammatory and helping to strengthen the skin barrier (The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5, La Roche Posay Hyalu B5).
My favourite hydrating serums
Hada Labo Gokuyjun Premium Lotion
Ok, I lied: one of my fave hydrating products is actually an essence (let’s just not get into the differences between J-Beauty lotions and essences and Western toners and serums).
It’s now been reformulated, adding two additional weights of hyaluronic acid to their mix of already five. (I’m super excited for that, because one of the new forms is fermented Hyaluronic Acid, and I love fermented stuff. There’re people whose skin can’t tolerate it, so best patch-test before trying.) Why different sized HA molecules are great?
“This is good because different sized molecules can penetrate different layers of skin. Molecules will remain in the skin for different amounts of time before they’ll disintegrate. In short, instead of only one type of hyaluronic acid that’ll penetrate the skin only that deep and will disintegrate after an x amount of time, you’ll get different types of molecules.”
(Hydrating Serums: East vs West, Twindly)
Some people find it sticky and have problems with layering additional skincare products over it, which is one of the reasons I only use it in the evenings. Best for dry skin. (Around €19 for 170ml at Yesstyle.)
cosrx Galactomyces Tone Balancing Essence
Yeah, kill me now: my second fave is ALSO an essence. What can I say? Asian essences are exceptional for hydration. Do I really have to say anything about cosrx’s Galactomyces Essence by now? It’s been one of my staples for years, you must be sick of me harping on and on about it. It’s formulated with a minimalist approach, with hydrating ingredients Panthenol and HA and Galactomyces (the fermented yeast extract that is famous SK-II’s hero ingredient). Incidecoder claims that its main properties aren’t not only hydrating:
“(It) has antioxidant effects and increases hyaluronan production in epidermal cells. (…) (It) might be able to help with a healthy skin barrier.”
Incidecoder
This is great for all skintypes, as it truly feels very light, but still packs a punch. (Around €19 for 100ml at Yesstyle.)
The Inkey List Hyaluronic Acid Serum
This has become a staple since I first tried it last year, due to one simple fact: HA serums often tend to be either sticky, or make additional skincare products ball up and pill. This one (and the cosrx one above) doesn’t. I was a bit hesitant to truly praise it in my original review, but here’s what I really like it for: it definitely hydrates. It also has some peptides that help with inflammation and collagen production. But it’s also a very pared-back formulation that is great for adding actives to. I mix it with The Ordinary’s Vitamin C Powder and Paula’s Choice’s Retinol or Azelaic Acid boosters.
It’s not as affordable as it seems, as the bottle is tiny. (I’d love for them to release a bigger size, also from a sustainable point of view.) Combination skin would fare well with this one. (Around €6 for 30ml at Inkey List’s online site.)
Please note that this review is not sponsored in any way. We buy products ourselves, with our own money, and don’t accept exchanging goods, or money, for reviews. We are completely independent, and our reviews reflect that.
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