What is the moisturizing effect? Ineffective vs. effective moisturizing

This blog post was written by Earthcare Asia’s founder, Tatsuya Inoue. 

“I suffer from severely dry skin.” “I try my best to moisturize every day.” “I use products containing ceramide and hyaluronic acid, which are rumored to be highly moisturizing ingredients.” “I have tried numerous kinds of skincare products, applying more than enough every morning, afternoon, and night with high hopes that my skin will be well moisturized.” “But… I am not seeing any results.”  “Instead of getting better, my skin has recently become dull and I now have many wrinkles and age spots. My makeup doesn’t look good on my skin too.” “I’m doing everything I can, but I can’t feel the effects of moisturizing…“ “How can I improve my skin problems by moisturizing properly? Do I have no choice but to give up?”

I receive countless questions and consultations similar to this one on a daily basis.

From every word they say, I can feel the seriousness of their skin problems and their longing for a moisturizing effect.

I myself used to have extremely dry skin so I understand exactly how they feel.

From puberty to until I learned about the cosmetics industry, I didn’t even know the existence of the word “moisturize,” let alone “moisturizing effect.” Since research tools like the Internet didn’t exist back then, there was no way to find out about the irritation and pain caused by my skin’s dryness. I often cried myself to sleep, asking, “Why am I the only one with skin problems?”

After entering the cosmetics industry, I finally understood the most fundamental element of basic skincare: moisturization. From then, I spent the next year dedicating my entire life to developing a product that provides maximum moisturizing effects. 

Although it may be pretentious of me to say, it is thanks to this dedication that this effective moisturizer has continued to be loved for over 22 years.

Throughout this journey, I had over 100,000 people struggling with similar skin troubles who were longing for a proper moisturizing effect to test this moisturizer. From the actual product to the application method and timing, I asked these people to honestly compare my moisturizer to other ones to find the best effective moisturization method. 

With that said, I will be breaking down everything there is to know about the moisturizing effect that 100,000+ people and I have tested and verified over the past 22 years.

“But I already know everything about moisturizing effects!”

Instead of assuming what you already know, I encourage you to reset everything you know about moisturizing and hear me out.

Although it may surprise you, I am certain it will help you.

Want to know more about HOW to achieve the ultimate moisturizing effect?

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What is “moisturizing”?

Moisturizing means “to stay hydrated.”

In other words, “moisturizing” is the state in which an adequate amount of water is retained in the skin.

Many people mistakenly believe that moisturizing the skin is to simply ‘hydrate’ the skin by applying products with high water content. Unfortunately, this is not moisturizing.

This is because the water replenishes to your skin evaporates due to room temperature and body temperature, and your skin does not “stay hydrated.”

Temporary moisture is not moisturizing. It is just wet skin.

Preventing moisture evaporation and achieving moisture retention for a long period of time is what we can call moisturizing.

What is the “moisturizing effect”?

The moisturizing effect is the artificial creation of moisture retention.

Specifically, it is the way or act of creating a state in which adequate moisture is retained in the skin.

In many cases, the moisturizing effect is produced by basic skincare products.

In order to prevent the water you replenished to your skin from evaporating and to retain moisture, you need oil.

These essential oils are the sebum secreted by our body.

Although sebum has a negative image for causing oily skin, it is indeed necessary for retaining moisture.

In other words, moisturizing is a state in which water evaporation is prevented by good quality oils, and that water is retained in the skin for a long period of time. Thus, to conduct effective moisturizing is to replenish your skin with water and oil.

As I said earlier, the moisturizing effect can be produced by basic skincare products, meaning these products are simply made of water and oil. (They are also made of surfactants, preservatives, colorants, fragrances, etc., but I won’t go into that here because it gets complicated).

That is why skincare products made of both water and oil have a moisturizing effect. However, their moisturizing effects vary widely.

If all products could moisturize effectively, you would not be reading this right now. If you already discovered a product with high moisturizing effects, your skin would be wrinkle-free, blemish-free, firm, glowing, and young.

So, here is my question to you.

What basic skincare product comes to mind that you would expect to have a high moisturizing effect?

If we go by the order of use, perhaps the first product that comes to mind is lotion, right?

Don’t expect a moisturizing effect from lotions

Why lotions don’t have any moisturizing effect ①: The purpose of lotion is to hydrate, not moisturize

The purpose of lotion is to hydrate the skin, not to moisturize it.

Therefore, there is no moisturizing effect.

When you use lotion, your skin is hydrated. True, your skin will be moisturized, but only for a moment. It evaporates rapidly due to room and body temperature.

The moisturizing effect is to create a state in which moisture is maintained. Temporary moisture cannot be called a moisturizing effect.

Why lotions don’t have any moisturizing effect ②: Lotion dries out the skin

To make matters worse, the water on the surface of your skin takes the water inside your skin with it when it evaporates.

This is called overdry.

Therefore, if you only use lotions, you will end up with drier skin rather than achieving a moisturizing effect.

It may be easier to understand this if you imagine doing chores. When working with water, such as cooking, laundry, washing the dishes and bathtub, people with sensitive skin tend to have rough hands and fingers, and in severe cases, cracked skin.

If merely exposing your skin to water had a moisturizing effect, the skin on your hands would be healthier the more they come into contact with water.

But the reality is the opposite.

Instead of a moisturizing effect, your hands become cracked and hard due to a lack of moisture caused by excessive dryness (overdry). Parts of the skin that have lost their flexibility start to crack, causing bleeding and scars.

Doing chores is a good example of how hydration alone will not improve your skin problems.

Therefore, it is better to do nothing than to only use a lotion.

When I say this, people say, “It’s insane to only use lotion. How can there be people who only use lotion?” However, there is a surprisingly large number of people who only use lotion.

This is because the following situation often happens.

Moisturizing lotions: The cosmetics industry is misleading the public into believing that “lotion alone is enough to keep the skin moisturized”

For the past few years, many cosmetics manufacturers, including major companies, have been selling “moisturizing lotion” products.

The names and descriptions of these products make it sound as if a single lotion is effective for moisturizing the skin, so many people believe this and use only lotion.

However, when we look at the contents of moisturizing lotions, we find the harsh truth…

One “moisturizing lotion” is advertised to “contain beauty ingredients with higher moisturizing effects than existing lotions,” but it is unclear how many moisturizing ingredients were contained in the original, existing lotion.

This is a common practice in the cosmetics industry.

First, 0.001 ml of a beauty ingredient popular for its moisturizing effect is added to 150 ml of [Lotion A].

Then, they release “Moisturizing Lotion B,” which contains 0.01 ml of the same moisturizing ingredients in 150 ml of Lotion A, and advertise that “Lotion A has been upgraded and now contains 10 times more of the famous moisturizing ingredients!” 

When they say “10 times more of the famous moisturizing ingredients”, it may sound like the moisturizing effect of Lotion B is 10 times greater than that of Lotion A. In reality, however, there is not much difference.

No matter what kind of moisturizing beauty ingredient is contained in 0.001ml or 0.01ml in a 150ml product, there is no significant difference in the actual moisturizing effect.

That is why I am very suspicious of the “〇〇 times more than existing products” advertising method.

Another way these companies produce a moisturized sensation with just lotion is by changing the texture.

Normally, lotions are in liquid form, so it is smooth and silky.

If the texture of the new lotion is the same, the new lotion will be treated the same as the old one, so companies change it to a slightly slippery texture.

Surprisingly, people feel that a slippery texture is more moisturizing than a smooth one. In reality, the moisturizing effect is not any different.

If you have dry or sensitive skin and continue to care for your skin under the assumption that the so-called ‘moisturizing lotions can actually moisturize, it may cause serious skin problems later on.

Therefore, when products such as moisturizing lotions are released, more and more people mistakenly believe that “lotion alone can moisturize the skin”, and I feel sympathetic for those of you who continue to care for your skin with this misunderstanding.

When “moisturizing lotion” came out while denying the fact that lotion is a “hydrating product”, I felt the end of humanity because many manufacturers began selling in a way that neglected the customer’s skin in order to follow the trend.

Don’t expect a moisturizing effect from milky products and creams

Next, milky products and creams.

Their purpose is to replenish oil.

Therefore, you cannot use milky skin care products and creams to moisturize.

No matter how much oil prevents evaporation and retains moisture, if your skin is dehydrated to begin with, then there is no moisture to retain. Applying oils to dry skin will only make your skin drier because it creates a barrier over your skin. If you want a moisturizing effect, you must hydrate your skin at the same time.

When I say this, people say, “No one uses only milky lotion and cream,” but that is not true.

Misconceptions about milky products and creams ①: Preventing external stimuli ≠ moisturized

Covering the surface of the skin with oil prevents external stimulation and thus reduces pain caused by skin irritation.

When doing jobs that require water contact, as in the previous example, applying oil relieves the pain caused by extremely dry hands.

By reducing such pain, we feel that our skin condition has improved.

On the surface, it certainly seems to be moisturized.

With this way of thinking, your skin is supposed to be ‘hydrated’ by coming into contact with water from doing chores.

If you apply oil to the skin afterwards, you can prevent the evaporation of water, and it seems that the moisturizing effect will occur. 

But the reality is different.

First, if one tries to apply milky products or creams such as hand creams with wet hands, it becomes very difficult to apply due to the nature of water and oil: water and oil repel each other.

Therefore, one usually wipes the water with a towel and then applies hand cream.

While it is better to apply the cream on dry skin, this prevents the skin from retaining water in the skin.

If anything, it prevents overdry rather than giving a moisturizing effect.

On the other hand, if the cream is applied before washing with water, the oil will repel the water. This helps reduce skin pain, such as in the case of wounds, but this too is not expected to have a moisturizing effect.

Misconceptions about milky products and creams ②: Soft skin ≠ moisturized 

Additionally, oil has the function of softening the skin’s surface.

This softening effect makes the skin surface feel moist and feel less dry.

• Prevents environmental stimulation
• Skin becomes softer

For these two reasons, some people think that “milky products and creams alone have a moisturizing effect.”

Again, the moisturizing effect is to create a state of proper water retention in the skin.

So, unfortunately, these 2 functions are not moisturizing effects.

To moisturize, both water and oil must be replenishedpresent.

Here, a question arises.

Water and oil have opposing properties and therefore do not mix and blend.

For example, when you apply hand cream to your hands, it repels water, right?

So, then, how can lotions blend with milky products and cream?

Without surfactants, lotions, milky products, and creams cannot be used together

As I have said many times before, both water and oil are necessary for moisturizing.

But the properties of each are opposites.

Oil repels water.

Even if they mix temporarily, they will eventually separate (imagine salad dressings).

But, if they are separated, the moisturizing effect cannot be achieved.

So, it is necessary to give both components the properties of both.

Give oil properties to lotion.

Give water properties to milky lotion and cream.

By doing so, they will blend together and exert a moisturizing effect.

Surfactants are used to provide water-based products like lotions with oil properties, and oil-based products like milky products and creams with water properties.

Surfactants have the properties of both water and oil. They stick water and oil together and are an essential ingredient for obtaining a moisturizing effect.

Surfactants are also found in nature and in foods like milk and mayonnaise.

In this sense, milk and mayonnaise have a moisturizing effect.

However, the effects of surfactants in milk and mayonnaise are weak, separating water and oil quickly.

They are also prone to spoilage and have no significant moisturizing effect compared to cosmetics, so we do not recommend them.

Although, I don’t think anyone would use them for skincare.

Although lotions, milky products, and creams are originally incompatible with each other, surfactants help them get along better to exert a moisturizing effect. That’s why we are able to use lotions, milky products, and creams together. 

If I say this, you may think, “Of course, that’s common sense. I use both of them. That is why I can properly moisturize.”

But there’s something I want you to think about.

Do you think it makes sense that lotions and milky products/creams are separated?

The truth behind why there are so many different types of moisturizing products

Why are lotions, milky products, and creams used separately?

Someone once said to me, “Well, that’s because you can expect greater effects if you use all of them because each product has a different purpose.”

Certainly, that is a good point.

Even in life, it is a common practice to increase the degree of achievement by focusing on a single goal purpose and specializing in that goal.

Lotion, milky products, and creams each have different characteristics and different purposes. So, by separating them, the effectiveness of each product increases, and as a result, a high moisturizing effect can be expected.

At first glance, this seems to be true, and one might think, “I see, that is why lotion, milky products, and creams are separated” and be convinced of this.

But is this true?

First, let’s look at lotion.

The purpose of lotion is to replenish water on the skin. It is the first step in moisturizing.

Hydrating the skin is easy. All you have to do is wet the skin with water.

Hence, your skin is moist when working with water or washing your face.

If your fingers look like prunes after soaking in a bath, they are too moist.

In other words, the purpose of hydrating the skin is very simple and not so difficult to specialize in.

Next, let’s look at milky products and cream.

The purpose of milky products and creams is to replenish oil. This is the second step in moisturizing.

Providing oil to the skin is easy. Just apply it to the skin.

Same with hand creams – you just have to apply it.

If you only use oil, you need to remove water on your skin surface, but since lotions, milky products, and creams all contain surfactants, this is not a problem.

It is not difficult at all.　

In other words, both objectives – replenishing water and oil – are very easy to achieve.

Therefore, the idea that “Separating products allows them to specialize in one purpose and maximize their moisturizing effects” does not make sense. 

So why separate them?

The dark side of the cosmetics industry: They separate products because… 

This is very strange for myself, as a cosmetics producer, to say, but to be honest, I cannot find any reason.

If I had to take a guess, I would say that it is because “companies can make more profit if they produce and sell more products.”

I myself was surprised when I made lotion for the first time in the laboratory of a cosmetics company. To make 100 ml of lotion, you need 959-995 ml of purified water and 1-5 ml of glycerin (which has a moisturizing effect), and mix it together and you are done.

Of course, other beauty ingredients are added, including preservatives and moisturizing ingredients, but it is still very easy and inexpensive to make.

This may be a very ‘male-perspective’ statement, but at the time, I felt it was too much of a waste to spend so much money on something with such minimal moisturizing effects and not much else.

But in reality, lotion is not that bad compared to other products. 

If anything, it is one of the cheaper ones.

Milky products, creams, beauty essence, whitening cream, etc., cost a lot of money.

Of course, spending such a large sum of money is understandable if the product has a high moisturizing effect.

However, the contents of cheaper cosmetics and high-end cosmetics are not much different.

Thus, of course, the moisturizing effect is not much different.

And this is when it hit me.

Many people use basic skincare products from the same series. 

Therefore, the more types of products companies create, the more money per person the customers will spend. 

Even if they have to make something forcefully, as long as companies create products that other companies do not have, it would be a big advantage for them. 

This was just my personal guess at the time I entered the cosmetics industry, but looking at the cosmetics industry today, 22 years later, I don’t think it is far off the mark.

Compared to those days, the purposes and targeted areas of use of skincare products have become more and more segmented, and the types of products continue to increase.

From a consumer’s point of view, however, it is a prediction that I did not want to be true.

How to achieve maximum moisturizing effects

This is not to say that using common skincare products such as lotion, milky products, creams, serums, and other creams will not have any moisturizing effect at all.

I’m sure there will be a moisturizing effect.

It’s just that there’s a much better way of achieving it.

As I mentioned earlier, cosmetics are becoming more and more segmented.

For example, what used to be a single product called “cream” is now forcibly divided into “eye cream for the eye area,” “neck cream for the neck area,” and so on.

It would be nice if the moisturizing effect could be increased for every segmentation made, but the result is pretty much the same. That’s why the only reason that makes sense to me is that cosmetic manufacturers want to increase their profits.

I can’t help but think, “They don’t even care about the moisturizing effect.”

From a user’s point of view, more types of cosmetics means more complicated procedures, and more time and money.

There are only disadvantages.

Moreover, even when we look at this in terms of moisturizing effects, there are many disadvantages.

No matter how hard you try, this is why you can’t moisturize your skin properly: Disadvantages of lotion, milky products, and creams in terms of moisturizing effects

Because the products are separated, you have to apply milky products or cream immediately after using lotion.

If excessive drying occurs between the time you apply lotion and the time you apply a milky product or cream instead of a moisturizing effect, the opposite will occur.

During the hot summer season, if you apply lotion while being exposed to the wind from a fan or AC, it will evaporate in an instant.

The same applies to heaters during the cold winter season.

It can be said that you yourself are destroying the moisturizing effect by doing these actions.

Moreover, the ratio of water to oil is also unstable. To maximize the moisturizing effect, it is important to have a good balance of water and oil.

More importantly, you must apply it evenly to the skin.

For example, your entire face is dry and you apply lotion to moisturize it.

Are you sure you are applying it evenly all over your face?

When you take some lotion in your hand, the first area your hand touches will have the most moisture, and wherever else you touch afterwards will receive less product.

After that, the lotion is gradually depleted.

And the first area where you touched is fully moisturized, but… the process repeats itself.

Also, lotion is not colored, so once it is applied, it is difficult to tell where and how much water is on your skin.

Moreover, the lotion will evaporate over time.

No matter how good the senses of human fingers are, it is impossible to apply it evenly and completely in a short period of time.

The same goes for milky products and creams.

In most cases, both lotion and milky products or creams are applied unevenly.

After application, they are transparent and inconspicuous, so you just don’t notice this as much.

Of course, the moisturizing effect is virtually nonexistent.

In some cases, there may be areas where only lotion or milky products/creams have been applied.

Of course, such areas have zero moisturizing effect.

Thus, from my point of view, applying cosmetics separately is seen as “a hundred harms with no single benefit” and “a waste of time and money with no moisturizing effect.”

So, I began to wonder, is there a more efficient, less costly, and more effective way to moisturize?

And finally, I found the effective moisturizing method.

All you need is this one product for the ultimate moisturizing effect

The effective moisturizing method is to replenish water and oil to your skin at the same time.

Your skin needs both water and oil to achieve the ultimate moisturizing effect. Only when these two steps are combined can you effectively moisturize your skin.

“But what can I use for effective moisturizing?”

Aquatect Gel is the product you’ve been missing.

It is an effective moisturizer that is made with an excellent, golden water-to-oil ratio of 8:2. With a well-balanced formula of water for ample hydration and oil for hydration retention, it is a high-moisturizing, low-stimulus product that keeps your skin moisturized for a long time.

Having passed 4 skincare safety tests, it can be used on all skin types so anyone can do effective moisturizing and achieve the ultimate moisturizing effect.

1. Patch test: it will not cause irritation to your skin
2. Allergy test: it is hypoallergenic
3. Stinging test: it can be used on even the most sensitive skin
4. Non-comedogenic test: it will not clog pores and can be used on acne-prone skin

In fact, it comprehensively performs the functions of 7 different skincare products:

1. Lotions
2. Milky products
3. Creams
4. Serums
5. Body creams
6. Face masks
7. Makeup base

Your skincare can be complete with just one bottle.

Say goodbye to spending money on separate lotions, milky products, and creams. Say goodbye to doing ineffective skincare that only replenishes either water or oil to your skin. 

If you are looking for skincare that includes effective moisturizing, please give it a try.

Ready to revolutionize your skincare with Aquatect Gel, the ultimate effective moisturizer?

Click ☞HERE☜ to say goodbye to your skin troubles!