It can be hard to describe what healthy, radiant skin really is, but when you see someone with that almost magical glow, you will instantly recognize it. When the skin surface is dry, it cannot reflect light so well and will instead look greyish and dull. Whether the skin is hydrated or not is, to a large extent, dependent on its content of hyaluronic acid. Consequently, if you want that envious radiant complexion, you need to boost your skin’s content of hyaluronic acid. So how do you do it?
Hyaluronic acid prevents our skin from becoming dry
Hyaluronic acid is present throughout our bodies. It can bind 1,000 times its own weight in water and thereby keeps our skin and other organs hydrated. With age, the skin gradually loses its content of hyaluronic acid. In addition, repeated exposure to UV radiation can break down the hyaluronic acid in our skin. The skin will become dry and less elastic, and you will start to notice the formation of fine lines and wrinkles. When the skin is dry, the skin surface will become uneven and that is the reason why it cannot reflect light so well and why you will lose your glow.
The hyaluronic acid molecules are far too big to penetrate the skin
To combat dry skin, the market is flooded with skincare products that contain hyaluronic acid. It is however impossible to increase the amount of hyaluronic acid inside the skin by applying it on the surface. Hyaluronic acid molecules form long chains that are far too big to be able to penetrate the skin surface. Still, it is not a bad idea to use it as a topical humectant. Adding moisturizing agents superficially will prevent water loss from the skin and thereby preserve skin hydration.
Sometimes, size does not matter
Lately, some brands have started to market products with fragmented hyaluronic acid, where the long chains have been made into extremely small particles, and these particles are claimed to be able to penetrate deeper into the skin. What is important to know is that just because something is small enough, it does not guarantee that it will be absorbed into the deeper skin layers. The skin can be likened to an exclusive celebrity nightclub – just because you are of the right age and are wearing the right clothes, you will not necessarily be guaranteed entry the club. Most likely, you will be stopped at the door (unless you are a celebrity yourself).
The skin barrier function is extremely efficient
The outermost layer of the skin is called the epidermis. The epidermis is often likened to a brick wall. The cells in the epidermis, the keratinocytes (that constitute 90 percent of all the cells in this layer), are the bricks in this wall metaphor, and different kinds of lipids (fatty substances) make up the mortar. Hyaluronic acid binds water and is thus water-soluble. As anyone who has made vinaigrette knows, oil and water do not mix. No matter how much you shake the vinaigrette, eventually, the oil will float on the top. So when the fragmented, water-soluble hyaluronic acid particle tries to get into the epidermis, an efficient layer of skin lipids and keratinocytes will stop it. If you think the guards outside a celebrity nightclub are tough, you have not met the skin barrier function. It is extremely good at preventing all kinds of substances from entering our bodies through the skin.
Use skinboosters to combat dry skin
Then, what can you do if you have dry skin and want to boost deep skin hydration? Drink more water? Unless you are dehydrated, that will not make much of a difference as you probably lack the hyaluronic acid necessary to bind sufficient amount of water in the skin to produce a healthy radiance. What you could do that actually works is to use skinboosters. Skinboosters is a kind of dermal filler that contains a gel of stabilized hyaluronic acid. The natural hyaluronic acid in our bodies degrades and reforms very quickly. If you would inject that into your skin, it would only last for a couple of days – at the most. Stabilized hyaluronic acid has been slightly modified to last much longer—for several months or even a year or two—depending on the kind of dermal filler. Skinboosters is a so-called minimal-invasive treatment that has no downtime. During a treatment with skinboosters, a thin layer of tiny droplets of gel is injected into the skin below the surface. Once there, the droplets will lock water and keep the skin soft and hydrated for a long time.
Does treatment with Restylane® SKINBOOSTERS™ really help when you have dry skin?
Unlike topical treatments with creams and serums, as it is injected, Restylane® SKINBOOSTERS™ reaches down below the skin surface to the deeper skin layers. Due to the stabilization of the hyaluronic acid molecules, the hydration effect on dry skin will also be long-lasting. According to a clinical study, 100 percent of the patients in the study could see improvements up to 12 months after their first treatment.[1] Studies also show improvements not only in the face, but on the neck, décolletage and hands as well.
To find out more about treatment with skinboosters, please continue reading here.
References:
[1] Gubanova EI et al. Poster presented at IMCAS 2015.; Streker M et al. J Drugs Dermatol 2013;12, 990-994.