Why is moisturizer effective at making skin look younger?
How the skin reflects light plays an important role in its appearance. Dry skin looks dull and scaly, usually with a whitish, powdery residue on the surface, which tends to scatter as opposed to reflect light, giving the skin a lackluster appearance. Scanning electron microscopy of normal skin (1) Scanning electron microscopy of dry skin (1) Moisturizers make the skin softer and more pliable by increasing its hydration, primarily by decreasing evaporation of water from the surface of the skin. They also improve the surface characteristics of the stratum corneum to improve light reflection (2). Certain ingredients added to moisturizers can improve skin appearance by inducing a more rapid skin cell turnover. Examples of such are alpha and beta hydroxy acids. Essentially, they work by removing a small amount of the dead skin layer, stratum corneum, which is in a sense wounding the skin (in a minute way). The skin responds to this “wounding” by making more skin cells to repair the defect a
