Monday 12 March 2012

Sealing In Your Serums with A Moisturiser

Image from guardian.co.uk

A couple of years back, my normal skincare regime was basically: Cleanse > Tone > Moisturise. Yup, I have been doing the same routine for 4 years and many of you may have read HERE on how my skin condition was before introducing serums and oils to my regime.

I basically left out my moisturiser in the corner when I first started to use serums and oils. I was at an 'anti-moisturiser' moment when I discovered that many moisturisers does contain pore clogging ingredients and I just wanted to feed my skin with good ingredients, found mostly in my current serums and oils.

My skin was happy indeed with my new found regime and better yet, after incorporating my weekly hydrating yoghurt mask. Though my skin is better hydrated now than before, I feel bad to just ignore my moisturiser totally and...I don't like wastage. Might as well use it, right? I heard from other beauty bloggers that mentions that applying moisturisers on top of serums helps to optimise and seal in the goodness of the serums and provides extra hydration.




People are often confused about the differences between a moisturiser and a face serum, and may be unsure whether to use one or both products. Here's what wisegeek.com says:


" Due to their large molecules, moisturizers can only penetrate the first layer of skin, allowing them to hydrate  and seal in moisture. A face serum is able to penetrate into all three layers of the skin because it is made of smaller molecules. The serums ability to go deeper into the skin is what allows it to keep combat many common beauty complaints." 

While not wanting to discard my moisturiser, I have tweaked my night regime to this:

Cleanse> Tone > Eye Cream > Moisture Serum/ Skin Lightening Serum > Face Oil > Moisturiser

How did it fare for me?

Judging from the routine above, it seems that I am putting a lot of things to my face. Though it seems like a lot, I am glad to say it didn't break out on me. I have been following this new regime for 3 months now and I must say that it gives me better hydration than expected. Sure, my face was plump and nice to touch when I was using the face oil as a replacement for my moisturiser, but by sealing up all the serums and oils gives me even better hydration.

I have tried this regime on my hubby, who have oiler than combination skin and it works for him too. No breakouts, whatsoever. The most obvious improvement that I saw was that his pores were not as obvious as it used too and looked healthier.

Before I go on further, results of this addition of moisturiser may differ to each individual. It all depends on the ingredients of the moisturiser and even the serums. May I add that if your face serums contain some moisturising ingredients, adding moisturiser on top of it may not be necessary. You may only add if you have dry and dehydrated skin or when you feel that your skin needs the extra hydration.

So, have any one of you have gotten great results by sealing in with a moisturiser at the last step? Or do you think it is unnecessary? Do share.

4 comments:

  1. I added moisturizer after facial oil but only for a couple of days because of zits. Even now without the moisturizer, I have zits. I'm working on going back to only moisturizer. Those used facial oil are now going on my neck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dawn! Think zits issues are rather subjective. Zits may appear due to incompatible ingredients with our skin or it could be hormone related issues. Not sure about you, my zits would largely appear if I have stress, insufficient sleep or if I am 'toxic'.

    ReplyDelete
  3. hmmm.. i was thinking about the same thing. but moisturizer has a water part to it so shouldnt it go before the facial oil as oil is occlusive and retain moisture by trapping it inside our pores. And since oil and water dont mix, the water & oil emulsion of the moisturizer cant penetrate the oil layer from the facial oils. just my 2 cents.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Annie! As I wrote in my post, I use the moisturiser as sealing after my serums and oils because I didn't want it go waste. The moisturiser I have didn't so much justice for my face when used alone and if compared with face oils, face oils have much more goodness than moisturiser.
      I understand about oil and water don't mix, and that is why I started off with my water based serum, followed by my face oil and top off with the moisturiser. The moisturiser ( even though it is water based ) is served only as another layer of 'protection' for me when used in air conditioned room and not for the 'goodness' part. Like I said, I used it only to seal my oils.

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...