In order for your skin to perform its important functions of holding in moisture, protecting your body from irritants & bacteria and leaving skin smooth & flexible enough to resist wrinkles, it has to maintain a healthy lipid barrier. The lipid barrier is found in the outmost layers of the skin. It is basically comprised of fatty acids (ceramides) and hardened protein cells (corneocytes). Lipids are the fatty acids part of the barrier, which holds the hardened cells together. When skin becomes dry, lipids are lost and the cells flake off leaving your skin vulnerable.
Lipids also play a major role in the structure of cell membranes. This means lipids are needed for important active ingredients in your treatment products to get into your skin cells so they can do whatever it is that active ingredient was meant to do. In other words, for your treatment serums to work, you need to have healthy lipids in your skin. There is a lot of new research coming out that talks about how lipids protect skin from aging by interfering with destructive enzymes called MMPs. These enzymes break down collagen and elastin thus allowing the skin to wrinkle and sag. This is one reason why dry skin tends to age faster.
So what do you do if you have dry skin? You need to choose ingredients in your moisturizer that either replace lipids lost or (as found in some of the newer formulations) actually stimulate your skin to rev up production of its own natural skin lipids. Carefully chosen ingredients make vast improvements on the appearance of your skin and should start to work right away at reconditioning dry skin to become softer, smoother and younger looking.
ELIZABETH RENEE ESTHETICS
TOP MOISTURIZERS FOR DRY SKIN:
NORMAL TO DRY – PHYTOLIPID RECOVERY CRÈME
Contains a balance of lipid supporting ingredients from plants sources combined with super skin hydrators like What Germ Glycerides.
DRY – HAWAIIAN SEAWEED MOISTURE CRÈME
Contains of all eight essential amino acids known to help build a stronger skin while triglycerides add to a healthy protective lipid barrier.
EXTREMELY DRY – INTENSIVE LIPID REPAIR
Microspheres trigger ceramides synthesis to increase barrier strength by stimulating cells to crank out lipids that reinforce the skin’s natural lipid barrier.
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