subscribe to beauty blog via RSSOils vs. Creams: The Moisturizer Face-Off
October 21, 2009 3:11 pm
This column features weekly tips and advice from a revolving cast of industry leaders, on hand to discuss your beauty dilemmas, from blemishes to Botox. To submit a question, e-mail celia_ellenberg@condenast.com.
A friend of mine has recently been touting the benefits of face oils over regular cream moisturizers, and I’m wondering if there is any truth to her ravings. If so, what kind of oils should I be slathering on my face?
The bigger truth is that there are many ways to moisturize, and it all comes down to personal preference. Oils, creams, ointments, sprays, and roll-ons all vary as vehicles that carry the main ingredients. When thinking about skincare products, there are active ingredients and there are vehicles. Moisturizers are complex combinations of occlusives, humectants, hydrocolloids, and emollients. They block water from evaporating out of the skin, suck water up into the top Gore-Tex-like layer of the stratum corneum, seal the skin, and fill in the cracks. Face oils and regular cream moisturizers are often a mixture of these categories, so as to provide the best skin barrier. You don’t even have to understand the basics about the skin’s anatomy to know that well-moisturized skin is more beautiful and much healthier than dry skin. New face oils are better at moisturizing than the baby oils of the past because the blend of water-retaining ingredients is more advanced than ever before. However, the occlusive components to face oils offer about 50 percent efficacy against water loss from the skin, compared to the 99 percent efficacy of petrolatum ointments. For those of you who do not suffer from tight-feeling dry skin, that may be perfect. I still prefer a silky, thick cream, or sometimes even a greasy ointment, on my skin to an oil. Even so, for a nice face oil, check its clarity and shine on your skin before you buy it. Check that it has mineral, coconut, or vegetable oil of some kind as the occlusive agent. Look for glycerin, too. Glycerin reduces transepidermal water loss up to 30 percent, and it is a humectant that draws water in. Other humectants are sorbitol, propylene glycol, urea, sodium lactate, and vitamins. Soy and oatmeal proteins may help, especially for dermatitis. If you want to be totally up-to-date, take note that new water channels called aquaporins have just been discovered in the skin. Aquaporins exist in rest of the body and transport water in and out of cells. In the skin, they also transport urea and glycerol. So when you pick up that tantalizing bottle of face oil off the shelf, turn it around and squint at that super-fine print. Scan the ingredients for the key words “glycerol” and “urea,” plus a few choice ones listed above.
Ellen Marmur, M.D., is the Chief of Dermatologic and Cosmetic Surgery at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. A skin cancer survivor herself, Marmur specializes in skin cancer surgery, cosmetic surgery, and women’s health dermatology. She recently published Simple Skin Beauty, a book that focuses on how to maintain the health and beauty of your skin at every stage of life.
tags: Glycerin
