Moisturizing helps with breakouts! Yeah I said it!

Moisturizing is the second to the last step (sunscreen is the last) and an important step in your skin care routine. Moisturizers are important for every skin type, especially oily skin. Sebaceous glands are your natural moisturizers that produce oil to moisturize hair and skin. Oily skin needs water to prevent the sebaceous glands from becoming over active and causing a breakout.

There are two types of ingredients to look for when picking a moisturizer: humectants such as urea or glycerin and emollients such as lanolin, mineral oil, or petrolatum. Oily skin needs water, so a humectant moisturizer is perfect. It works by absorbing water from the air around you. Emollients fill in the spaces between the skin cells to smooth the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. If the moisturizer has both then it is the best of both worlds.

I recommend you use a daytime and a night time moisturizer because you want a lighter moisturizer with sunscreen and a heavier, more intense moisturizer at night to replenish water loss. Remember, when dealing with skin it's all about balance.

Ever wonder why your skin (including your whole body) may feel itchy at night? It's because skin regenerates itself at night and is more likely to have a higher trans-epidermal water loss. Trans-epidermal water loss is defined as a measurement of the quantity of water that passes from inside a body through the epidermal layer to the surrounding atmosphere via diffusion and evaporation processes. You would not wear an expensive pair of leather boots that hasn't been conditioned. Skin can look leathery over time without proper moisturizing and your skin is just as thirsty as those leather boots! So lotion up to prevent itchy blotchy skin and help maintain its integrity.

The moisturizing step in your skin care routine is a must; you must replenish water and lipids to the skin. Do not be concerned that the ingredients will break your skin out. Remember your first and second steps (cleansing and exfoliating) in your skin care routine? Your skin will need the moisturizer after cleansing and exfoliating. Skipping this step over time will give the skin a rough, red, blotchy appearance. Your exfoliant and moisturizer can only repair the skin to improve; it's not a plastic surgeon. So protect that baby skin!

In my next post I'll tell you what my favorite moisturizers are and a little bit about them.

-Amber