Moisturizing 101: How to Make Skin Smooth, Soft, and Radiant

Most recently updated 1/10/21

It’s easy to underestimate moisturizer. When you’ve got gua sha tools and serums to choose from, moisturizer in comparison can seem almost too basic — like, moisturizers are certainly good, but not as powerful. After all, you might even ask, do you really even need moisturizer?

Spoiler alert: Yes! Moisture is *essential* to healthy skin, particularly the all-important skin barrier. And it’s as universal as it gets: Moisturizer should be a skincare staple no matter your skin type, be it dry or — counterintuitive though it may seem — oily. (“Oftentimes, that particular skin needs it the most,” says NakedPoppy skin specialist Tara Parenti.) Here, we’ll get into the why and the how of moisturizer, and the reason it’s designed to solve so many of your skin concerns.

Here’s your moisturizing roadmap:

• Understand whether your skin is dry, dehydrated, or both
• Healthy skin requires a combination of oil and water
• Make sure you’re getting a combo of humectants, emollients, and occlusives (note: the NakedPoppy assessment does this for you)
• Always apply moisturizer to slightly damp, not dry skin

Why Your Skin Needs Extra Moisture

In a perfect world, everyone would be born with just the right amount of moisture in the skin — enough to keep the skin barrier healthy, but not so much that skin ever looks greasy. But that’s not always the case. Plus, there’s the issue of water and oil. Your skin needs both — ideally, in the right proportions — to function properly.

Hydration Versus Moisture

Water, or hydration, is key for the inner workings of your skin. “Your skin, specifically the skin cells, needs water, like any other cell in your body,” says NakedPoppy research scientist Marisa Plescia. That said, water alone won’t keep your skin healthy — since some structures in skin thrive on oil.

Oil, meanwhile, delivers lipids — the “moisture” in this equation. Moisture serves a different purpose than hydration. “It’s extremely important for the health of the epidermis and barrier function of the skin,” says Plescia. “The lipid composition of the epidermis — the upper layer of skin — not only functions to help form a protected barrier, but also to reduce transepidermal water loss. Oils can help make the skin softer and smoother by integrating with the lipid matrix of the epidermis and filling in any gaps in the lipid matrix of the epidermis.” Basically, it fills in any cracks or gaps within your moisture barrier to keep it intact and healthy. (For more on what impairs the barrier, read here.)

Dry Skin Versus Dehydrated Skin

When your skin’s balance of oil and water is out of whack, it can cause either dry skin, which lacks oil, or dehydrated skin, which lacks water. Whereas dry skin tends to be rough and flaky, dehydrated skin looks lax and feels tight. An easy way to ID dehydrated skin is with the skin turgor test: Gently pinch the skin on your cheek with two fingers. If the skin takes more than an instant to snap back to a smooth state, you may be dehydrated.

“Nearly everyone has dehydrated skin at some point in their life, regardless of skin type,” says Parenti. That brings us to another key point of difference: Dry skin is a skin type, often determined by age and genetics, whereas dehydrated skin is a skin condition caused by external factors like dry winter air and just not drinking enough water. Thus, as Parenti points out, any skin type, be it oily or combination, can also be dehydrated. Check out this post to help determine your true skin type.

The difference between the two may explain why a moisturizer might not have worked for you in the past — maybe it targeted dryness by providing lipids when in fact, you actually needed more water in your skin. It’s more common than you might think, says Parenti.

“Feelings of dehydration, especially in the winter months, will cause many to reach for a much heavier, oil-rich, and more occlusive moisturizer — when all they needed was to up their humectants,” she explains. “This can be problematic for someone who is more of an oily skin type and possibly resulting in breakouts. When your skin is tight and parched, it just needs a drink of water.”

Remember, when you take the 3-min NakedPoppy assessment, you’ll get matched with the perfect moisturizer for you.

What You’ll Find in a Good Moisturizer

Not all common moisturizing ingredients are made equal. Some focus on hydration — that is, the drawing in of water — versus moisturization, which largely describes replenishing lipids in the skin barrier. “Moisturizers are three-pronged,” Parenti says. “Your moisturizing step should include all three pillars of moisture: humectants, emollients, and occlusives.”

• Humectants hydrate within skin
• Emollients replenish the barrier
• Occlusives seal it all in

Many traditional moisturizers have all three. (Good news: While you may have to check your ingredient list to know which are already in your routine — we lay them out below — you won’t have to worry when you shop at NakedPoppy, as we screen for only the most effective moisturizers.)

A word on face oils: If you’re using a facial oil as your primary moisturizer, pair it with a mist or essence to dampen the skin immediately before application. “Oils alone don’t hydrate the skin,” says Parenti. “While they replenish lipids, they provide zero water.” Again, only humectants can do that. So pairing a facial oil, which may serve as an emollient and an occlusive depending on the ingredients, with a humectant like a mist or essence ensures that you get the best of both worlds. In other words, the facial oil seals in the water supplied by the mist or essence.

Humectants

First up are humectants, which is your key defense against dehydration. “Hydrated skin is rich in water. Humectants are topical ingredients that help to provide it,” says Parenti. “They replenish water by pulling moisture from the atmosphere.” Some you may already recognize include glycerin, hyaluronic acid, panthenol, sodium PCA, honey, and the natural sugars of erythritol and sorbitol. Indie Lee’s Active Oil-Free Moisturizer and Ere Perez’s Moringa All-Beauty Crème both contain high levels of humectants.

Emollients

Emollients offer moisturization to skin; they basically restore lipids to the skin barrier so it can do its job effectively (think keeping out external aggressors and helping to lock in water). “They’re part of the lipid matrix of the epidermis,” says Plescia. They also fill in any cracks within the skin barrier to create soft, smooth skin. The most common examples are fatty acids, which can be found in a number of botanical oils, as well as squalane.

Occlusives

Occlusive ingredients, which tend to be oils and waxes (and often feel that way), seal the hydration into skin. They create a barrier of sorts over your skin’s own moisture barrier for extra protection. Beeswax is a common one, as is shea butter — which is also an emollient.

Confused? Don’t be. It’s not always an either-or situation: Some ingredients can offer humectant and emollient properties, or emollient and occlusive properties. If you’re a fan of the Revitalize Organic Facial Oil, for instance, the rosehip seed and jojoba oils are both emollients, while the poppy seed oil offers both emollient and occlusive properties.

The Best Way to Apply Your Moisturizer

Whether you’re working with a facial oil or not, moisturizer always works best on clean, slightly damp skin, says Parenti.

Think of skin as a sponge; it’s better able to absorb ingredients when damp than when it’s completely dry. If you let your toner or serum dry completely, “chances are, many of those water-loving ingredients just evaporated off your skin,” explains Parenti. “You want to see those little dew drops on your skin. Then, immediately apply your moisturizer or facial oil.”

It ensures you’re getting the most of your moisturizer — and your skin will be all the smoother and softer for it.

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Shop the story:

• Indie Lee Active Oil-Free Moisturizer 🧴
• Ere Perez Moringa All-Beauty Crème 🤍
• NakedPoppy Revitalize Organic Facial Oil 😍