Hydration Hero Ingredient: Hyaluronic Acid
There are a few everyday habits that can help your skin maintain maximum hydration: Avoiding hot showers, drinking lots of water + keeping exfoliation at a minimum, to name a few. But if you really want your skin to stay moisturized, (particularly during the coldest months of the year) you'll want to pair these habits with the application of topical hyaluronic acid—which is arguably among the best-of-the-best ingredients for hydrating skin.
The benefits of hyaluronic acid
When we're born, our skin has a hefty supply of its own naturally occurring hyaluronic acid (HA). But as we get older, we make less + less of it on our own, which is why adding a topical form of the ingredient into your routines becomes extra-important once you hit 30. Yes, we said 30.
HA is a humectant, which means that it works to hold water underneath the surface of your skin. It's become famous in the skin-care world thanks to the fact that it can hold 1,000 times its weight in water, making it a great pick for anyone with a parched complexion. Hyaluronic acid is commonly referred to as a moisture magnet because its job is to find water and keep that water within the skin.
How to use hyaluronic acid
You'll likely find hyaluronic acid in a number of different skin-care products (it's a mainstay in cleansers + moisturizers alike), but using a serum infused with the stuff will give you the most bang for your buck. For the best—and most hydrating—results, we suggest layering your HA serum under your moisturizer. The reason? Because of hyaluronic acid's humectant properties, it will pull the hydrating ingredients from your moisturizer into the skin, allowing them to penetrate more deeply and quench your complexion from the inside out.
What to look for in a hyaluronic acid serum
It's essential to find a hyaluronic serum with various molecular weights. Different serums + products use different sizes of molecules for different effects on the skin. Meaning, bigger hyaluronic acid molecules sit closer to the top of the skin, while smaller ones make their way to the deeper layers of your epidermis. Medical grade skincare products, for example, tend to contain a higher concentration of smaller sized molecules, allowing the product to not only maximize absorption but also penetrate much deeper into the skin. For a really well-rounded effect, you want to make sure that you have high + low-weight hyaluronic acid so that every level of skin is being hydrated + plumped.