Hydration Heroes: Skin Looks Healthier and Younger
The key to keeping your skin looking younger and healthier is keeping your skin’s moisture levels topped up. Hydrated skin is happy skin, and here are the ingredients and products to know to keep it that way.
Hydration heroes: the best ingredients to hydrate our skin
• Hyaluronic acid
You may have already heard of hyaluronic acid’s hydrating benefits. This powerhouse ingredient forms part of your skin’s framework and is responsible for its plump and hydrated appearance. It functions as a humectant – a substance that helps the skin hold onto water to stay hydrated – and can bind to up to 1,000 times its weight in water.
It’s produced naturally by our bodies, but ageing and exposure to external threats like UV radiation from the sun and pollution can cause levels to deplete. Fortunately, it’s available in topical products such as serums, so you can top up your supplies and give parched skin a healthy dose of moisture.
When your skin is hydrated, your skin may appear smoother and fine lines and wrinkles can be softened. Hyaluronic acid serums can therefore be effective in reducing signs of premature ageing. Hydrated skin also appears more radiant and can help your makeup glide on more easily.
• Glycerin
Turn over your moisturisers and you’ll probably see glycerin among the ingredients. It’s one of the most commonly used ingredients in skincare. It’s a natural softener that’s derived from vegetable oils or animal fats and a humectant, which attracts moisture from the air into the top layer of your skin (the stratum corneum). It helps to keep skin soft and supple, and prevent moisture loss.
• Ceramides
Our skin barrier helps seal in the good stuff our skin needs to stay healthy (moisture) and keeps out harmful elements such as pollution and UV rays. Ceramides are the glue that holds our skin cells together, the mortar in our brick wall if you like, that keeps our skin barrier intact and functioning properly.
• Squalane
Like hyaluronic acid, a version of squalane (squalene) can be found naturally in our bodies. It is a main component in sebum, the oily substance that moisturises and protects our skin and skin barrier. And like hyaluronic acid, the amount made and retained by our bodies declines with age. Fortunately, the squalane found in skincare is as effective and safe as that we naturally produce. It is also gentle enough for all skin types, and can provide relief from skin conditions such as inflammation, eczema, acne and rosacea, which are linked to a compromised skin barrier.
Our best hyaluronic acid serums for healthier and younger-looking skin
These are the serums we love for glowy, hydrated skin and the creams to combine them with for optimal results.
AWARD WINNER
Rénergie range
Our bestselling anti-ageing Rénergie range is our secret weapon against sagging skin, and a younger-looking, more lifted appearance. Our hero Lancôme Rénergie H.C.F Triple Serum gets its name from the three active ingredients – hyaluronic acid, vitamin C+ niacinamide, and ferulic acid – that make up its potent formula. Each formula is housed in its own chamber to preserve its potency and stability, meaning that this dose of hyaluronic acid helps your skin to retain moisture and encourages a plumper, smoother appearance. This triple dose serum is also rich in antioxidants to reduce signs of ageing such as wrinkles, sagging skin and dark spots, and prevent further damage from free radicals.
Génifique range
With over 15,000 five-star online reviews, our Génifique anti-ageing range is another bestseller, loved for encouraging luminous, more radiant skin. The lightweight and fast-absorbing Advanced Génifique Serum draws on 20 years of research and is inspired by microbiome science, helping to protect, regulate and repair the skin microbiome. It’s enriched with hyaluronic acid to encourage instant radiance, and a complex of seven prebiotic and probiotic-derived extracts that help to support your skin’s barrier recovery. Apply a layer on clean skin across the forehead, cheeks, chin and down the neck in long gliding strokes, morning and night, before following with your favourite moisturiser to help improve your skin tone and texture.
BESTSELLER
Hydra Zen range
Our Hydra Zen range is enriched with sodium hyaluronate to help provide long-lasting, 24-hour hydration. It’s designed to not only hydrate skin but calm visible signs of stress to leave it feeling more comfortable. Our Hydra Zen Day Cream-Gel’s gel-like consistency is similar to a serum and helps it to absorb easily into your skin. It is also enriched with moringa seed extract, rose extract and peony root extract to help intensely hydrate and soothe even dry, sensitive skin to leave it looking more radiant.
Absolue range
Lancôme’s Absolue range draws on the revitalising and regenerative power of the Lancôme Rose, which is extracted through a combination of unique processes such as steam distillation to make this one of the brands more premium, luxury skincare ranges.
The Absolue Soft Cream combines a blend of three extracts from the iconic Lancôme Rose to help intensely hydrate and nourish skin, and improve its elasticity. Its long-term benefits also include firmer skin, a more luminous appearance and the reduced appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
The Absolue Serum intensive concentrate has Rosa Perpetua Absolue extract at its heart, known for supporting four essential cellular functions that prolong the longevity of the skin. It credits its anti-ageing efficacy to 10 years of research, too. Apply the serum on a clean face day and night, using light movements from the inside of the face to the outside and smoothing motions from the chin outwards, and the upper part of the face from the forehead to the cheek and temple.
