MOISTURIZERS: Introduction

The use of moisturizers creates a whole new set of problems. Why? Moisturizers can weaken the skin.

From the 1930’s through to the early 1980’s moisturizers were essentially petrolatum (or Vaseline) mixed with water into an emulsion scented with rose. In terms of skin fatigue at the cellular level they were better than what is on the shelf today. Why? Because the grease did not absorb.

The skin wasted no energy hauling off metabolites (food) from topical products it could not use and in so doing did not sacrifice energy it needs. Energy needed to protect now goes to hauling things to a skin landfill – there are such things – we call them ‘pigment spots’ and they have skyrocketed in appearance.

This has given rise to the spot removal business using lasers. However, those same spots will return a few months later in the same place, post laser, because these are the skin’s reservoirs (landfills) for cellular waste, called lipofuscin – which resembles dried linseed oil.

Moisturizers can be difficult to formulate if you care about avoiding problems like adding to skin landfills, creating spots and premature aging.

302 Skincare moisturizers have very little in common with most other formulas today. The days of using petrolatum and mineral oil are over because consumers do not like the idea of straight chain hydrocarbons on their skin and the greasy feel.

Most formulas in skincare today however are built around the same architecture of 1955 except without the petrolatum and mineral oil. These formulas tend to be sticky and will ‘bleed out’ on a hot day. They are occlusive and use a variety of glycols to dilute the occlusive, heavy feel. Glycols are fine for car antifreeze, but not so much for skin.

302 Skincare does not use this formula architecture. We have found that we can keep things up on the surface without using grease. We rely on polymers sourced naturally to do this and some know-how in combining these with natural oils to keep those near the surface also.

We found also that the use of natural oils, whose chemistry resembles skin oils, tends to not be metabolized by the skin, just like petrolatum, and feels much better if these oils are not emulsified but simply suspended in a formula. Or just go freestyle and use only oils as a means to put desirable metabolites into the skin.

Choosing a moisturizer to avoid problems is what makes sense and 302 Skincare has several ways to go about this. Our MISTS are very convenient. Our pure DROPS can be mixed with MISTS for a very effective barrier that avoids all the emulsifiers and waxes and so on that only wastes skin energy.

Our polymer suspended formulas that look more traditional are very unique in their combination of barrier protection and light feel.

Learn more about this approach to skincare at our REFERENCE TOPICS.