Ditch your toners, lotions, and creams immediately. They won’t help your skin.

It’s common knowledge that moisturizing can improve dry and sensitive skin, blemishes, wrinkles, acne, and countless other skin problems. However, it’s not common knowledge that there are 2 types of moisturizing: effective moisturizing and ineffective moisturizing. Because many people - perhaps including yourself - don’t know this difference, their skin problems haven’t gotten better at all.

Aires’ tweet I suffer from dry skin in the winter (>_<) Moisturizing… What’s the best way? I always prep my skin with a dewy base. But after a short while, it becomes dry and crusty. I want to get rid of this. I’ve had dry skin since I was little.

 

May’s tweet I wonder if there’s anything I can do to get rid of fine lines around my eyes caused by dry skin. I’m applying a lot of toners, but I wonder if I should add a facemask or something… I never had this problem before. I wonder if this winter is especially dry (I think I’m just getting old but don’t want to admit it).

 

If you do skincare every day like these 2 people but still suffer from skin problems, it’s because you are doing ineffective moisturizing. By using ineffective moisturizers, no matter how much effort you put into your skincare routine, you’ll continue to have sensitive skin, blemishes, wrinkles, acne, and other skin issues caused by dryness. 

And this could affect your daily life. As a result of this, you will…:

• Look older than your actual age
• Have to put on more makeup everyday
• Not want to go out 

It’s time to stop these ineffective routines and start moisturizing your skin the right way! In fact, effective moisturizing is very, very simple. Not only does it clear your skin, but it also…:

• Makes your skin easier to take care of
• Reduces time and money spent on skincare
• Saves money

In other words, knowing effective moisturizing can save you from wasting your valuable time and money. Spending a lot of time and money is not the key to good skincare. If you want to clear your dry skin and want to save time and money, keep reading!

Table of Contents 1. How to moisturize effectively: 3 easy steps 2. What is 'moisturizing'? 3. What is the 'moisturizing effect'? 4. The price of moisturizers varies a lot 5. What is an effective moisturizer? 5-1. What are the benefits of effective moisturizing? 6. Why are toners not good moisturizers? 6-1. Moisturizing toners: The dark side of the cosmetics industry 7. Why are lotions and creams not good moisturizers? 8. Surfactants are an essential ingredient for many cosmetic products 9. Why separate moisturizing cosmetics into different products? 9-1. How effective are toners? 9-2. How effective are lotions and creams? 10. Behind the scenes of the cosmetics industry 11. Cons of using many cosmetic products 12. Summary

 

1. How to moisturize effectively: 3 easy steps

2. What is 'moisturizing'?

Many people mistakenly believe that moisturizing = hydrating your skin. Unfortunately, this is not true. Moisture in our skin evaporates with temperature and body heat, meaning our skin cannot stay moist. Temporary hydration is not moisturization - it is just wet skin.

Moisturizing is the process of keeping moisture in your skin for a long period of time.

3. What is the 'moisturizing effect'?

The moisturizing effect is the artificial creation of a moist state of your skin. In many cases, the moisturizing effect can be created by basic cosmetics. Depending on the cosmetic product that you use, however, this does not mean that your skin is actually hydrated.

4. The price of moisturizers varies a lot

Oil is needed to prevent the evaporation of moisture, as well as to retain your skin’s moisture. Perhaps you’ve heard of ‘sebum’ before. Sebum is frowned upon because its excessive production causes oily skin, but it’s actually quite essential for retaining moisture.

To expand on the definition from earlier, moisturizing is a state in which water evaporation from the skin is prevented with good quality oils and appropriate moisture is retained in the skin. In other words, effective moisturizing requires both moisture and oil. 

Indeed, cosmetics are made up of water and oil - that’s why you can achieve the moisturizing effect with them. But the moisturizing effect of cosmetics varies greatly. Some cosmetics are highly effective moisturizers, while others are not. If all cosmetic products had a high moisturizing effect, you wouldn’t even be reading this right now. If all cosmetic products had a high moisturizing effect, you would have beautifully clear, firm, and youthful skin without any wrinkles or blemishes.

So here’s my question to you.

What basic cosmetic products come to mind that you expect the moisturizing effect from?

The first thing that probably comes to mind is toners. Nowadays, it’s very common to include toners in your daily skincare routine. Many people feel their skin being “moisturized” after using toners. But this is a misconception. The truth is this: toners have NO moisturizing effect.

5. What is an effective moisturizer?

In mainstream skincare, toners replenish moisture while lotions and creams replenish oil. But using many products to moisturize is inefficient. The more products you use, the more uneven your application of these products will be. Uneven application results in an imbalance between moisture and oil in your skin, and therefore the moisturizing effect cannot be achieved. 

Rather, it’s much better and easier to use one skincare product and apply that evenly on your skin. Compared to using separate toners, lotions, and creams, you can expect a higher moisturizing effect. If you want to improve your skin problems, switch to products that replenish hydration and oil simultaneously.

5-1. What are the benefits of effective moisturizing?

The best thing to do for effective moisturizing is to use one product only.

Today, most people use an average of 4 skincare products. By simply reducing this to one effective moisturizer, you can:

• Achieve a greater moisturizing effect
• Reduce the number of steps in your skincare routine by 75%
• Save 75% of your time spent on skincare
• Save 75% of your money spent on skincare

Not to mention, it’s much easier to use only one product than to learn how to use multiple products, what order to apply them in, or how much you should use each one. The simplicity of using just one effective moisturizer allows anyone to achieve 100% of the results.

Effective moisturizing makes the most of the product’s moisturizing effect. You only have to spend less than 2 minutes on your skincare routine, meaning you can keep your skin well moisturized even when you’re short on time or you’re tired after a long day. By taking care of your skin in the correct way, your chances of having clear skin will increase dramatically.

For example, let’s say you spend S$100 on skincare products. If you start using an effective moisturizer, you’ll only have to spend S$25 and save the rest. You’ll be able to de-stress by spending more on things you love to do, like going on trips, eating good food, buying clothes, etc. Stress relief has a significant benefit on the skin; in this way, effective moisturizing helps your skin beyond its moisturizing effect.

6. Why are toners not good moisturizers?

1. Toners have no moisturizing effect

The purpose of toners is ‘hydration.’ Sure, toners provide moisture to your skin - but it’s only temporary. It evaporates rapidly due to environmental temperature and body temperature. Thus, toners cannot moisturize your skin. Once again, the main purpose of a toner is to hydrate the skin, not moisturize. 

2. Toners dry out your skin

The moisture on the surface of your skin takes the moisture inside your skin when it evaporates. This is called ‘overdry.’ If you only use a toner, it will dry out your skin even more.

Compare this to doing chores. When it comes to doing the dishes, laundry, or cooking, people with sensitive skin tend to experience rough skin on their hands or fingers and, in severe cases, cracking. If you work with water frequently, your hands become chapped and the skin becomes hard because of the lack of moisture caused by excessive dryness. Some parts may even crack and bleed. This is a perfect example that proves the statement, ‘water has no moisturizing effect.’

Toners alone evaporate quickly and deprive the skin of its inner moisture. It dries out the skin. Unfortunately, there are many people, especially younger and busy people, who come home late at night and only apply a toner. Men and people with oily skin also end up using only toners, perhaps because they don’t like the stickiness of other products.

But only using a toner will worsen your dry skin. Not to mention, as dry skin worsens, oily skin also worsens, as it makes your skin more vulnerable to irritation and to increased sebum production.

6-1. Moisturizing toners: The dark side of the skincare industry

For several years, many cosmetics manufacturers, including major companies, have been selling ‘moisturizing toner’ products. The names and descriptions of these products make it sound as if a single toner is all you need for effective moisturization. The companies advertise these toners as containing more moisturizing ingredients than existing toners.

However, it’s always unclear how many moisturizing ingredients were in the previous, existing toner. This is a common trick used in the skincare industry.

Another way in which cosmetic industries cause people to think that using only moisturizers is enough is by changing the texture of toners. Normally, toners are liquid, smooth, and silky. If these new ‘moisturizing toners’ have the same texture, customers assume that there’s no difference, so brands change it to have a slippery texture. People somehow feel that the slippery texture is more moisturizing than the silky one. The hard truth is that the moisturizing effect is the exact same, even if the texture is different.

If people with dry or sensitive skin continue to use these types of toners, they’re more at risk for overdry. This can later cause serious skin problems. Therefore, when such products are released, more and more people mistakenly believe that they can moisturize by only using a toner.

7. Why are lotions and creams not good moisturizers?

The purpose of lotions and creams is to replenish oil. Therefore, you cannot achieve proper moisturization with these products. If your skin is dry to begin with, you can’t expect to moisturize your skin with the oils from lotions and creams. It simply doesn’t make sense. You should be supplying your skin with hydration and retaining that hydration with oil.

1. Preventing external stimuli doesn’t mean you’re moisturizing your skin

Oily products reduce the pain caused by external irritation on rough and dry skin because it coats the skin surface. However, this doesn’t do anything for moisturization. The oil will repel any form of hydration, meaning it will only maintain the dryness of your skin.

2. Oil doesn’t soften the skin, and having soft skin doesn’t mean it’s moisturized

Many people believe that lotions and creams have high moisturizing effects because they prevent irritation and soften the skin. Again, the moisturizing effect is a means of creating a state of proper moisture retention in the skin. So, unfortunately, soft skin cannot be considered as a moisturizing effect. To moisturize, both water and oil are needed.

You might be thinking, ‘But oil and water repel each other.’ You’re right - oil and water repel one another, so even if they mix temporarily, they will eventually separate. If you want to get the best moisturizing effect, toners (which are water-based) should have the nature of oil, while lotion and cream (which are oil-based) should have the nature of water. That way, water and oil are simultaneously applied to give a moisturizing effect. This is achieved with the help of surfactants.

8. Surfactants are an essential ingredient for many cosmetic products

Surfactants stick water and oil together. Toners, lotions, and creams are inherently incompatible, as one is water-based and the other is oil-based. But thanks to surfactants, these products can be used together and produce a moisturizing effect. Thus, if you’re going to moisturize your skin with toners, lotions, milky lotions, or creams (although this is more time-consuming and expensive), use the ones that contain surfactants.

9. Why separate moisturizing cosmetics into different products?

How many skincare products do you use?

Why do you use a toner, lotion, and cream separately?

Earthcare Asia’s CEO, Tatsuya Inoue, always wondered how strange it was that nobody was asking these questions. He was once told, “Well, that’s because you can expect higher effectiveness if you use all of them because they each have different purposes.”

Sure, they have a point. Toners, lotions, and creams all have different characteristics and purposes. By separating them, each product can maximize their effects.

But how good are these effects? Is it really worth enhancing?

9-1. How effective are toners?

The purpose of toners is to replenish the skin with water. It’s often the first step in many people’s skincare routines. 

But think carefully. Hydrating the skin with water can be done without a toner - just wet your skin under the sink. When you’re doing the dishes or washing your face, your skin is moist. When you take a bath, your skin is moist. Hydrating the skin is not unique to toners and not something that a skincare product needs to specialize in.

9-2. How effective are lotions and creams?

The purpose of lotions and creams is to replenish the skin with oil. It’s often the second step in many people’s skincare routines.

But you can supply your skin with oil with just a lotion or cream - you don’t need both. There’s no need to separate it into 2 products when the same effect can be achieved with just one.

The skincare industry knows that it’s unnecessary to create multiple, separate skincare products. So then why do they continue to make them?

10. Behind the scenes of the skincare industry

To be honest, we can’t think of any reason why using a lot of products would be more effective for clear skin. If I need to think of one advantage, it would be that cosmetics brands can make more money.

Percentage of water in toner composition

Despite many people spending so much money on cosmetics, the moisturizing effect and the ingredients of each one aren’t any different. By having a multi-step skincare routine and buying more products, you’re falling straight into the trap: the bigger the product line, the more money each person spends, and the more profit the company makes.

11. Cons of using many cosmetic products

To clarify, this is not to say that toners, lotions, creams, and serums don’t have any moisturizing effect at all. Though very minimal, they will produce a moisturizing effect.

But there’s a much better way to moisturize than to follow this conventional skincare routine. You would think that the more cosmetics you use, the better the moisturizing effect should be. Yet, the effect will hardly change. In fact, there are so many more disadvantages.

From the user's point of view, using many products means increased complexity in skincare routine, and more time and money spent.

From a skincare point of view, using many products means minimal moisturizing effects. Because the cosmetics are separated, there is greater risk of overdry during the time between applying one product and the other. The more cosmetics you use, the more unstable the water-to-oil ratio becomes too. For example, your face is dry and you apply a toner to moisturize it. Are you applying it evenly all over your face? No matter how good one's sense of skin and fingers may be, it’s impossible to apply each product evenly to the face. Naturally, a high moisturizing effect cannot be expected from such an imbalance of moisture and oil.

That’s when Earthcare Asia’s CEO started thinking, "How can I simplify our skincare routines without sacrificing any of the moisturizing effects?” After countless trials and errors, he finally created Aquatect Gel, an all-in-1 effective moisturizer that thoroughly hydrates and prevents evaporation.

Aquatect Gel is made with the golden water-to-oil ratio of 8:2. With this formula and carefully-selected ingredients, Aquatect Gel acts as a toner, lotion, and serum all in one bottle, meaning you can significantly reduce the number of products you use and the amount of irritation you cause to your skin by touching it.

Ready to start using effective moisturizers?

Click here to purchase the value trial set - limited for first-time customers only!

12. Summary

To summarize…:

• Moisturizing with toners alone is not possible
• Moisturizing with lotions and creams alone is not possible.
• If you really want to moisturize your skin with a toner, lotion, and cream, use ones that contain surfactants
• The more cosmetics you use, the less moisturizing effects you’ll get
• Using multiple products only benefits cosmetic brands
• For effective moisturizing, use cosmetics that can replenish moisture and oil at the same time
• Save time, effort, and money with effective moisturizers!

Instead of falling victim to the mainstream skincare routine of using toners, lotions, and creams for moisturizing, switch to an effective moisturizer that provides both water and oil replenishment in a single step! Not only will this give you a higher moisturizing effect but it will change the way you take care of your skin for the better.