PRODUCT REVIEW: GOOD SCIENCE BEAUTY 003-HY HYDRATING FACIAL - BEST HYDRATING MASK, BEST FACE CREAM WITH HYALURONIC ACID, WHAT IS HYALURONIC ACID AND WHAT DOES HYALURONIC ACID DO FOR THE SKIN?
GOOD SCIENCE BEAUTY | 003-HY HYDRATING FACIAL
As summer has faded here in NYC, the days have grown shorter, darker – and there’s a characteristically crisp fall chill in the air.
Fall has always been my favorite season. Growing up in Connecticut, where the seasons are each defined by very distinct four-month segments, fall meant fresh ripe apples, outrageous Halloween costumes, and endless piles of wet, burnt-orange leaves. I can still smell them as I write this.
But what I always loved most about that span between September and November was the clean, crisp, cool air. I loathe the bone-chilling cold of winter and am not a big fan of a hot, humid summer day. Fall lays somewhere comfortably in between.
But my cherished “hoodie weather” has a bit of a downside when it comes to skin health. The dry, low-humidity air of the colder months means skin can easily and quickly become dehydrated. And dehydration is a key cause of skin aging; the top cause being unprotected sun exposure. Yes, sunscreen is a must every day of the year – whether the sun is blazing or cast behind the clouds.
And two of my favorite summer sunscreens this year are perfectly suitable for the early days of fall as well: Cocokind’s Silk SPF Facial Sunscreen Fluid, and the First Aid Beauty Mineral Sunscreen Zinc Oxide Broad Spectrum SPF 30. You can catch my review of them here in my blog article titled, New Sunscreens I Can’t Put Down! Cocokind Silk Spf And First Aid Beauty Mineral Sunscreen.
NEW SUNSCREENS I CAN’T PUT DOWN! COCOKIND SILK SPF AND FIRST AID BEAUTY MINERAL SUNSCREEN
Seriously, if you’re concerned about slowing the progression of the signs of aging on your face – including fine lines, wrinkles, dark spots, hyperpigmentation and later on, sagging skin – then you have to take steps to prevent UV damage and dehydration.
While dehydration isn’t as widely talked about as the effects of UV damage, it’s important to take steps to prevent its impact on your skin and, as a consequence, your skin health. Often, dehydration is confused with dryness. And while the two go hand-in-hand, they are quite different and require different solutions.
Many people confuse the two. Permit me to simplify and clarify the differences:
Dry skin is a skin type – as are oily skin, combination skin and acne-prone skin.
Dehydrated skin, on the other hand, is a skin condition. Just as being thirsty is a sign your body needs water, dehydrated skin lacks water and any skin type, no matter its level of dryness or oiliness, can be dehydrated.
In particular, dehydration is something that’s common to all of us in the cold. The low-humidity air around you literally draws water through your skin barrier and out of your skin. Poof! This process is referred to as trans-epidermal water loss, or TEWL.
The most effective means of defending against skin dehydration is, of course, to drink enough water each day to keep your body and your skin hydrated. To keep my own body hydrated, I follow the simple rule of drinking one ounce of water for every pound of body weight. For me, that’s just over 150 ounces of water a day — about three 1.5 liter bottles.
And, of course, I apply lots of humectants in the form of hydrating serums, toners and face creams with Hyaluronic Acid, Beta-Glucan, Glycerin and Centella Asiatica – potent humectants that lock moisture in the skin.
For a run-down of some of my favorite humectant serums, check out my most recent article on the best Hyaluronic Acid serums: Hyaluronic Acid Serums I Love From Farmacy Beauty, Herbivore, Glossier and More. It’s available to read here.
HYALURONIC ACID SERUMS I LOVE FROM FARMACY, HERBIVORE & GLOSSIER - BEST HYDRATING SERUMS FOR FACE
What’s the Difference between Dry Skin and Dehydrated Skin?
I think it’s helpful to understand the difference between dry skin and dehydrated skin in order to protect your skin health any day of the year — but especially during the fall and winter months. For insights, I turned to the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team. There’s a superb piece on the Paula’s Choice site titled, What is Dehydrated Skin & How to Choose the Best Products.
Here is an excerpt:
Dehydrated skin often looks and feels like dry skin all over your face, but there's a major difference between the two: dehydrated skin is usually a temporary concern (with various surprising causes) and dry skin typically doesn't change over time. If you have dehydrated skin, your skin may also produce a normal or even excessive amount of oil on its surface.
"Dehydrated skin" is something we’re asked about frequently. It seems there’s a lot of confusion about what this skin concern is about. A major part of the confusion is that the term "dehydrated skin" is often used interchangeably with "dry skin" or "combination skin" but they are not the same! Dehydrated skin can occur in all skin types and is not exclusive to those with dry skin or combination skin.
The Difference Between Dry Skin and Dehydrated Skin
Having classically dry skin is easy to recognize. Dry skin frequently feels tight and dry, with no oil anywhere to be seen. This situation rarely fluctuates; skin feels dry all year long. The dryness might get worse depending on the climate, season, or activity, but regardless of those things, without great skin care products, the uncomfortable dry, tight feeling will persist.
As mentioned above, dehydrated skin can look and feel similar, but there’s a major difference: Dehydrated skin tends to come and go, it does not persist.
Good Science Beauty | 003-Hy Hydrating Facial
One of the best ways to ameliorate the effects of dehydration on your skin health is to incorporate a hydrating face mask into your routine. And like the best hydrating serums and face creams, the best hydrating masks are infused with water-binding humectants and lipid-restoring fatty acids.
As I’ve said, maintaining proper hydration levels is a form of anti-aging, though it’s not as sexy and appealing to marketers as anti-aging face creams and serums formulated with ingredient complexes made up in a marketing meeting.
Truthfully, a well-formulated hydrating mask doubles as an anti-aging mask that helps to maintain skin’s youthful qualities, including bounce, a soft, smooth texture, and an even tone.
One of my favorite hydrating face masks is from the skincare innovators at Good Science Beauty. I’m a day one fan of the high-science brand and have always been super intrigued by their proprietary Good Silicon+ technology that prolongs product efficacy and enhances penetration of beneficial actives deeper into the skin barrier where they can be most helpful.
The Good Science Beauty 003-Hy Hydrating Facial is so well-formulated I think of it as one part hydrating mask, one part anti-aging mask and one part sleeping mask. It’s that good!
To start, its unique jelly-like texture is simply exquisite! On application, it feels like chocolate pudding on the skin – minus the stickiness of chocolate pudding, of course. It melts when massaged into your face as the product is quickly soaked up. The more dry and dehydrated you are, the quicker it disappears deep in the skin’s layers.
The temps here in Brooklyn vary wildly in the period between summer and fall. Some days it’s in the mid-70s at night, others the mid-50s so I’ve had ample opportunity to put the 003-Hy Hydrating Facial to work!
Again, the brand’s proprietary Good Silicon+ technology is behind the product’s deep absorption. According to Good Science Beauty:
Good Silicon+® is made of skin-friendly natural Silicon, lipids, and amino acids. It wraps around ingredients to protect them from oxidation or degradation and keep them in their active, effective form.
Silicon is NOT the same as Silicone. Silicone (with an ‘e’ at the end) is a synthetic polymer. Good Silicon+ is based on elemental Silicon (without an ‘e’ at the end), which occurs in nature. Silicon is the second most abundant element in the earth’s crust and is an important trace element in the human body.
Good Silicon+® is our patented carrier technology designed to make skincare ingredients more effective. It protects ingredients from degradation to keep them in their active form, boosts their skin absorption, and releases them over time.
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Beyond the Good Silicon+ technology, what makes Good Science Beauty’s deliciously hydrating 003-Hy Hydrating Facial such an effective treatment for dehydration in colder weather?
Well, it’s infused with a powerful pairing of lipid-rich Marine Omega-3 and humectant Hyaluronic Acid in the form of Sodium Hyaluronate — the salt form of HA that’s more compatible with the skin.
Omega fatty acids like Good Science Beauty’s Marine Omega-3 are superstars for optimizing skin health. What are omega fatty acids exactly? Well, they’re fatty substances that are naturally occurring in the skin. Fatty acids are essential for preventing moisture loss and keeping skin functioning in a healthy state.
According to the Healthline website, “Omega-3s are nutrients you get from food (or supplements) that help build and maintain a healthy body. They’re key to the structure of every cell wall you have. They’re also an energy source and help keep your heart, lungs, blood vessels, and immune system working the way they should.”
On the benefits of omega fatty acids for the skin, there’s a great article from the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team titled, How Omega Fatty Acids Help Skin – available to read here.
Insights from the team:
How do omega fatty acids benefit skin?
Omega fatty acids are truly remarkable ingredients for skin. They serve as the essential building blocks of skin’s surface layers, creating a smoother, more even, younger-looking, and healthier complexion, no matter your age or skin type.
Here are some of the beneficial ways topical application of omega fatty acids can help skin:
Reinforce and smooth skin’s surface
Increase hydration without feeling heavy and help keep skin hydrated
Calm signs of external stressors, including redness and sensitivity
Eliminate signs of flaky, dehydrated-looking skin
Visibly strengthen skin against signs of environmental damage
Deliver antioxidants to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles
And this is where an even deeper understanding of the differences between dryness and dehydration is helpful. Dryness is a consequence of a lack of oils in the skin – oils in the form of lipids like fatty acids and ceramides. By replenishing depleted fatty acids, the 003-Hy Hydrating Facial helps to defend against dryness.
The Good Science Beauty 003-Hy Hydrating Facial is like a one-two punch in the cold, fighting both dryness and dehydration.
One of the things I love most about the 003-Hy Hydrating Facial is its versatility. You can use it as a flash mask to treat dryness and dehydration, you can use it as a sleeping mask, or you can use it as a daily moisturizer before sunscreen. It’s good stuff!
What Is Hyaluronic Acid and What Does Hyaluronic Acid Do for the Skin?
I love this article on Hyaluronic Acid on the Healthline website titled, Why Science Says Hyaluronic Acid Is the Holy Grail to Wrinkle-Free, Youthful Hydration. It’s wonky and full of insights. Check this part out:
“The benefits of hyaluronic acid on the skin has to do with its molecular weight and concentration. In this case, size matters! The molecular weight refers to its mass, or how big the HA molecule is. This is measured in something called unified atomic mass units — daltons, or kDa for short.
HA between 50 to 1,000 kDa is the most beneficial for skin, with about 130 kDa being the best, according to the most recent human studies. Anything higher won't make too much of a difference. Anything lower might cause inflammation. How did we get this number? When you look at studies, you'll see a pattern, but one of the most thorough studies looked at HA with different molecular weights, including 50, 130, 300, 800, and 2,000 kDa.
After one month, they found that treatment with 130 kDa HA was the most effective, increasing skin elasticity by 20 percent. Both the 50 and 130 kDa groups had significant improvement in wrinkle-depth and skin roughness after 60 days. All the other molecular weights still improved elasticity and skin hydration, just less so. You can read more about this molecular weight analysis from the original breakdown here.”
What I like about it: The Good Science Beauty 003-Hy Hydrating Facial is one of the most effective treatments for both dryness and dehydration. Its Good Silicon+ technology assures a deeper penetration of its beneficial actives. I also love the supreme versatility of the product – it’s a daily moisturizer, a flash mask or a sleeping mask. Use it how you like to help restore skin to its healthiest state. And, uncommon to most skincare made with omega fatty acids derived from fish oil, 003-Hy Hydrating Facial has no fishy smell!
What I don’t like about it: It’s pretty much perfect.
Who it’s for: All skin types.
SHOP THE BLOG: For a limited time enjoy an exclusive 30% discount on all Good Science Beauty skincare. Purchase the Good Science Beauty 003-Hy Hydrating Facial for just $40.60 (reg. $58). Click here and enter code SKINCARMA30 at checkout.
FOR A LIMITED TIME
ENJOY 30% OFF ALL GOOD SCIENCE BEAUTY SKINCARE
CLICK HERE AND ENTER CODE SKINCARMA30 AT CHECKOUT
The Ingredient List of the Good Science Beauty 003-Hy Hydrating Facial:
Water, Glycerin, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Isosorbide Dicaprylate, Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6, Hydroxyacetophenone, Maltooligosyl Glucoside, Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysate, Carbomer, Coco-Glucoside, Sodium Hyaluronate, Cetyl Hydroxyethylcellulose, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Hydrogenated Phosphatidylcholine, Phytic Acid, Biosaccharide Gum-1, Sodium Levulinate, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Retinyl Palmitate, Sodium Hydroxide, Dipeptide-2, Glyceryl Caprylate, Silica, Docosahexaenoic Acid, Sodium Anisate, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Silicon, Arginine, Glycine.
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