Hyaluronic acid and other moisturizing active ingredients

Hyaluronic acid is a substance found naturally in the skin, which has the ability to attract and hold 1000 times its own weight in moisture. By replenishing the skin's moisture levels, hyaluronic acid makes the skin look and feel healthier and more elastic.

What is hyaluronic acid?

Hyaluronic acid is an integral part of the skin's natural youthful structure. Its task is to keep the skin stable, protected and constantly renewed. Hyaluronic acid is also a humectant, which is a category for skin care ingredients that are hygroscopic, meaning they attract moisture from their environment. Humectants are often found in water-based moisturizers, serums and other skin care products, due to their ability to enhance moisture balance.

Check out our selecetion of products in which hyaluronic acid acts as one of the main stars.

Hyaluronic acid, despite its name, is not an actual acid, but a sugar molecule, which means it has no exfoliating properties.

Hyaluronic Acid - Uses and Benefits

So what does hyaluronic acid actually do to the skin? Its researched ability to quickly replenish moisture to the skin is not exaggerated. One gram of hyaluronic acid can bind up to six liters of water. In addition to this, it can benefit the skin with this magical property, without putting too much water on the skin. Too much water in the skin is not good either, because then the water starts to break the structures of the skin's key substances, which normally keep the skin's surface intact.

Hyaluronic acid therefore improves moisture content extremely well. It also revitalizes the outer layers of the skin, so the skin looks and feels softer, smoother and glowingly moisturized. This, in turn, fades lines and wrinkles, making the skin look younger and more vibrant.

Hyaluronic acid is suitable for everyone and can benefit every skin care routine. Dry, dehydrated and aging skin benefits the most from its use. When we are young, our skin has the ability to bind water and maintain a suitable moisture balance, but this ability slowly disappears as we age. As a result, the skin loses firmness, suppleness and fullness, which makes the skin look aged and causes lines and wrinkles. Hyaluronic acid also mitigates damage to the skin caused by the sun's rays and other free radicals.

The benefits of hyaluronic acid in skin care in brief

• Maintaining and replenishing moisture balance
• Fading lines
• Supporting the function of the skin barrier

What are its disadvantages of hyaluronic acid?

Hyaluronic acid is very gentle and is beneficial for all skin types, including sensitive, redness-prone skin. Hyaluronic acid also naturally soothes the skin, so it is suitable for acne-prone skin too.

Hyaluronic acid occurs naturally in the skin, so it has no known adverse effects or risks when used externally. If your skin reacts badly to a hyaluronic acid product, it is probably due to one of the other ingredients in the product.

Pregnancy also does not prevent the use of hyaluronic acid, and its use can be continued without worry.

What is Sodium Hyaluronate?

In the ingredient lists, you can come across a similarly named ingredient called sodium hyaluronate. These two are closely related, because sodium hyaluronate is a salt separated from hyaluronic acid. It also has the same beneficial properties as hyaluronic, but in addition, sodium hyaluronate is absorbed into the skin more easily and deeper due to its smaller molecular structure. It is best if the product contains both hyaluronic acid and sodium hyaluronate, in which case you get the best of both.

What is better hyaluronic acid? Is there such a thing?

You may have heard of polyglutamic acid (PGA), which was originally introduced more than 80 years ago as a substance that promotes wound healing. PGA is derived from soybeans and is an amino acid polymer derived from glutamic acid; PGA is created when glutamic acid molecules stick together.

Although the two have a lot in common, polyglutamic acid differs from hyaluronic acid in terms of its molecular size. PGA works on the surface of the skin and moisturizes the surface layer of the skin effectively, and minimizes the evaporation of water from the skin by creating a thin, breathable film on the surface of the skin. Hyaluronic acid, on the other hand, is absorbed deeper into the outer layer of the skin.

By utilizing both ingredients, you get effectively moisturized skin from several different layers. Also, PGA, like hyaluronic acid, works well in combination with retinol, niacinamide and vitamin C.