PRODUCT REVIEW: FIG. 1 BEAUTY CERAMIDE MOISTURIZER – BEST FACE CREAM FOR DRY SKIN, BEST ANTI-AGING MOISTURIZER WITH CERAMIDES
FIG. 1 BEAUTY | CERAMIDE MOISTURIZER
This product review was originally part of my blog article titled, Seasonal Skincare Transitioning: Dry Skin? You May Be Low On Lipids! Skinfix Triple Lipid-Peptide Face Cream And Fig. 1 Beauty Ceramide Moisturizer. You can catch the full piece here.
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Over the last several weeks, I’ve been featuring products that are ideal for colder weather in a series of blog articles themed around the concept of “season skincare transitioning.”
During the chilly fall and winter months, it is essential to switch up your skincare with products formulated for preventing dehydration and trans-epidermal water loss, or TEWL.
Notably, I’ve been hearing a lot about TEWL this season, more than in seasons past. And that’s a really, really good thing. It means that skincare marketers are increasingly focusing on skin health and the compromising effects that dehydration can have on the health of your skin. Dehydration and sun damage are two leading causes of skin aging.
Reflecting back on my eight years working at Kiehl’s, I can’t recall a single conversation about dehydration and, certainly, never once heard the term TEWL. A tool was something you used to take your mouse apart.
SEASONAL SKINCARE TRANSITIONING: FACIAL OILS I LOVE THAT MAKE ME EXCITED FOR COLD WEATHER - BEST FACE OILS
What is trans-epidermal water loss? Well, simply, it’s the loss of moisture through the skin barrier — and the leading cause of dehydration. When the air around us gets colder, it dries out. In a freak of nature that doesn’t favor humans, this low-humidity air literally draws water out of our skin to compensate and replenish itself. There are several things we can do to combat these drying forces.
What Is Trans-Epidermal Water Loss and What Causes Trans Epidermal Water Loss?
For a deeper dive (no pun intended!) into trans-epidermal water loss, or TEWL, there’s an excellent article on the health website Skin Better titled, What Is Transepidermal Water Loss and Why Is it Important? It’s available to read here.
In the piece, the author explains TEWL as follows:
“The skin is comprised of three primary layers: the epidermis, the outermost layer; the dermis or middle layer; and the hypodermis, the undermost layer. When water passes from the dermis through the epidermis and evaporates from the skin’s surface, this is known as transepidermal water loss (International Journal of Pharmaceutics).
While TEWL is a process that your skin naturally regulates, certain factors that can damage the skin’s barrier function can also affect TEWL levels. Circumstances such as injury, low-humidity weather conditions and topically applied products that dry out the skin can impact TEWL.
To achieve this, combine humectant and occlusive skincare ingredients.
Transepidermal water loss can contribute to a variety of dry skin conditions, and although it is a natural process, there are ways that you can help your skin stay moisturized and hydrated. Hydration refers to the water content of the skin, whereas moisturization is the skin’s ability to retain those water molecules. Therefore, your skin needs both elements to maintain desirable levels of TEWL.
To achieve this, combine humectant and occlusive skincare ingredients. Humectants help to draw moisture to the epidermis, either from the air if it is humid enough, or from the underlying dermis in low-humidity conditions. Because water content that is drawn from the dermis can be lost through TEWL, it’s important to combine the use of humectants with occlusives. Together, these ingredients create a reservoir of moisture in the epidermis and act as a barrier on the skin to help prevent TEWL by sealing in that moisture. The occlusive agents simultaneously keep pollutants, toxins and harmful bacteria out (Skin Therapy Letter).”
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SKINCARMA LOCK & BLOCK: THE BEST WAY TO KEEP SKIN HEALTHY & HYDRATED IN DRY, COLD AIR!
ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE
Throughout my series on seasonal skincare transitioning, I’ve talked about what I refer to as the Skincarma Lock & Block strategy. What I’m referring to are the two measures necessary for preventing trans-epidermal water loss and subsequent dehydration. They are locking water in the skin with humectants and blocking the escape of moisture through the skin barrier with occlusive products like heavier facial oils and creams.
The Skincarma “Lock and Block” Prevents Dehydration
To start, preventing dehydration in the first place requires drinking enough water. That differs for each of us based on our weight, the foods we eat, and the climate we live in. It’s even more important during colder periods.
A good rule is to drink one ounce of water each day for every pound of body weight. So, if you weigh 150 lbs., you’ll need to drink 150 ounces of water each and every day to keep your body and your skin optimally hydrated.
Then, employing skincare to treat and prevent dehydration requires what I refer to as a “lock and block” strategy.
It begins with a dedicated humectant serum applied to the skin in both your AM and PM routines that helps to lock water in. Follow with a moisturizer composed of a healthy balance of both humectants and oils to block and prevent the trans-epidermal water loss that can lead to dehydration.
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So it’s heartening that marketers seem to be moving away from new shiny objects like made-up ingredient complexes and are targeting real concerns like dehydration with real solutions, including humectants and occlusive ingredients like plant oils and lipids.
And, we’ve also been hearing a lot about lipids! In fact, one of the top selling moisturizers at Sephora is the Skinfix Barrier+ Triple Lipid-Peptide Face Cream – one of the best face creams for dry skin and one of my all-time favorite moisturizers in winter. More on this winter skin savior below.
What are lipids? Well, they’re fat substances in the skin’s layers responsible for keeping the skin moisturized, maintaining skin barrier strength — and they even play a role in the skin’s reparative processes. Lipids are found in plants, animals, and human skin. Human skin lipids include substances likely familiar to you: ceramides, cholesterol and fatty acids.
Our skin’s lipid composition contains a healthy balance of each of these. In general, the skin’s lipid content includes 50% ceramides, 25% cholesterol, and between 10–20% fatty acids.
SEASONAL SKINCARE TRANSITIONING: MOISTURIZERS I LOVE THAT MAKE ME EXCITED FOR THE COLD – PART TWO
What Are Skin Lipids and Are Lipids Good for Skin?
There’s an insightful article on the Dermstore website titled, The Role of Lipids—Cholesterol, Ceramides and Fatty Acids—in the Aging Process which you can read here.
Lipids in Your Skin
In a nutshell, lipids are skin’s natural fats. They are essential components of skin and play a crucial role in maintaining the strength of the skin’s protective barrier, which holds moisture, protects the skin from damage and keeps dirt and impurities out. They also aid the skin’s natural repair process. While there are many types of lipids, these three are the most prevalent—and important—for the skin.
Cholesterol: This lipid helps accelerate the skin barrier’s recovery and improve the appearance of skin elasticity. Visible skin aging is often caused by cholesterol deficiency on the skin. It’s important to note that cholesterol on your skin is different from the cholesterol found in the blood, and having more of it on your skin won’t cause your blood pressure to spike.
Ceramides: This type of lipid is proven to increase the skin’s hydration and barrier function. Ceramide deficiency is the main cause of dry skin.
Fatty acids: Abundant in young, healthy skin, fatty acids help maintain the skin’s lipid balance.
The Role of Topical LipidsHealthy, youthful skin has an abundance of these naturally occurring lipids. As we age, lipid production declines, and this can result in rough surface texture, uncomfortable tightness, dullness and loss of facial fullness. A compromised skin barrier is also more prone to irritation and water loss. This is why it’s important to counter the effects of lipid loss with a topical treatment—but not just any topical treatment.
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Replenishing lost lipids is essential to maintaining healthy functioning skin as we age and during the colder months of the year. A lipid replenishing moisturizer is key. A good moisturizer can replenish a lot of what skin needs, but a great moisturizer replenishes lost lipids!
On many recent nights, I’ve reached for one of my two favorite lipid replenishing moisturizers: the Skinfix Barrier+ Triple Lipid-Peptide Face Cream and Fig. 1 Beauty’s Ceramide Moisturizer.
Both of these well-formulated face creams replenish lipids like ceramides and fatty acids in the skin. Both have solid clinical results, are vegan and free of fragrance and other sensitizing ingredients. They’re two of the best face creams for dry skin any time of year but particularly during the colder months of fall and winter.
Let’s have a look at one of my favorite lipid-replenishing face creams — the Fig. 1 Beauty Ceramide Moisturizer…
Fig. 1 Beauty | Ceramide Moisturizer
I first featured Figure 1 Beauty (Fig.1) on the Skincarma Blog in a product review of the clean, sustainable brand’s N4 Niacinamide Nourishing Treatment. I was so impressed with the product that I’ve been exploring just about everything Fig.1 has to offer since.
With a genuine sustainable mission that features fully refillable glass packaging, Fig.1 Beauty offers a range of serious, pro-skin health skincare. Among my faves from the brand are the Glycolic Glow Treatment and Fig.1 Pro-Retinol Eye Cream.
But nothing gets me more excited about a brand than a really well-formulated Niacinamide serum! The Fig.1 N4 Niacinamide Nourishing Treatment has a rich, velvety texture that makes it ideal for my season skincare transitioning as warmer weather gives way to cold days and nights.
PRODUCT REVIEW: FIG. 1 BEAUTY N4 NIACINAMIDE NOURISHING TREATMENT - BEST NIACINAMIDE SERUM
The Fig.1 Beauty Ceramide Moisturizer is my latest discovery from the brand and a new personal fave for colder weather. Packed with both peptides and ceramides, the Ceramide Moisturizer has a much lighter texture than the Skinfix Barrier+ Triple Lipid-Peptide Face Cream.
Fig.1 Beauty’s Ceramide Moisturizer is a superb face cream for replenishing lost skin lipids like ceramides which, again, comprise 50% of total lipids found in human skin.
What Are Ceramides and What Do Ceramides Do to the Skin?
There’s an outstanding article on the Paula’s Choice website entitled, What Are Ceramides and How Do They Work in Skin Care Products? In it, the team says that “as far as anti-aging ingredients go, ceramides have a proven record, but are often overlooked, and rarely explained.”
The article goes on to define exactly what ceramides are and what they do in the skin:
What are ceramides?
Simply put, ceramides are lipids (fats) that are found naturally in high concentrations in the uppermost layers of skin. They make up over 50% of skin’s composition, so it’s no surprise they play a vital role in determining how your skin looks (and how it responds to environmental threats).
What do ceramides do?
Think of ceramides as the mortar between bricks—if the bricks are your skin cells. Ceramides help hold skin together by forming a protective layer that limits moisture loss and protects against visible damage from pollution and other environmental stressors. In addition, ceramides — even more than retinol, niacinamide, and peptides — are one of the anti-aging “powerhouses” responsible for supporting skin’s dynamic nature. Two particular ceramide precursors—phytosphingosine and sphingolipids—actually help skin make more ceramides.
In addition to ceramides, the clean, vegan and cruelty-free formula also contains numerous occlusive non-fragrant plants oils that help to replenish and restore the skin barrier to prevent trans-epidermal water loss.
Most notable among these are Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil at ingredient number three after useless water and humectant Glycerin. As I’ve said previously, water in a skincare product has zero benefit for the skin itself. It only benefits the formula.
Meadowfoam Seed Oil, on the other hand, has tremendous benefits for the skin, including replenishing the fatty acid content in the skin barrier.
According to the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team, Meadowfoam Seed Oil is one of the best actives used in skincare. What makes it so exceptional exactly?
From the team:
Limnanthes alba (meadowfoam) seed oil is a non-fragrant, edible plant oil originally developed as an agricultural crop in the 1950s. It functions as an emollient and softening agent in skin care and hair care products.
This plant oil is exceedingly stable because it is primarily composed of long chain fatty acids, the type most resistant to rancidity when exposed to oxygen. Among plant oils, meadowfoam has the highest concentration (95%) of these highly stable fatty acids, making it a valuable addition to products that would otherwise be prone to spoiling quickly.
Meadowfoam seed oil can also enhance the penetration of other ingredients into soil and across animal skin; however, to date the same benefit hasn’t been shown to occur on human skin. On the upside, the long-chain fatty acids in this plant oil have chemical similarity to some of the fatty acids found in skin’s own oil, so in theory it’s certainly possible meadowfoam oil would help deliver other oil-based (lipophilic) ingredients to skin.
The Ceramide Moisturizer’s lightweight texture literally melts into the skin — at least it melts instantly into my skin in the cold. It just soaks it up!
As all of the brand’s products the Fig.1 Beauty Ceramide Moisturizer is fully refillable, something that we’re beginning to see more and more of in skincare products.
What I like about it: The Fig. 1 Beauty Ceramide Moisturizer is one of the best face creams for replenishing depleted skin lipids like ceramides and fatty acids. I love that it’s refillable, as well. I’ve refilled my own twice now.
What I don’t like about it: There’s nothing I dislike about the Ceramide Moisturizer.
Who it’s for: All skin types in colder weather, especially normal, dry, sensitive and combination skins. It may even be suitable to slightly oily skin in the cold.
SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Fig.1 Beauty Ceramide Moisturizer for $28 here. The product refill is abatable for $25 here.
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The Ingredient List of the Skinfix Barrier+ Triple Lipid-Peptide Face Cream:
sii|h 0 0, Olus Oil (Vegetable Oil) emo, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter Extract, Cetyl Lactate emo, Propanediol solv|h, Caprylyl Caprylate/Caprate emo, C12-16 Alcohols emo|vc, Jojoba Oil/Macadamia Seed Oil Esters, Glyceryl Stearate Citrate emo|emu, Palmitic Acid sii|emo|emu 0 2, Hydrogenated Lecithin 
emo|emu, Ophiopogon Japonicus Root Extract, Tocopherol aox 0-3 0-3, Sodium Hyaluronate sii|h 0 0, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract aox|so|amic, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Extract so|emo, Phytosteryl Macadamiate, Phytosterols, Squalene sii|aox|emo, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice so|h, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Extract, Phytosteryl Canola Glycerides, Glycine Soja (Soybean) Seed Extract aox|sb|so|emo, Pentylene Glycol solv|h, Hydrolyzed Rice Protein, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil emo 0 3, Chondrus Crispus Extract h|vc, Dilinoleic Acid/Propanediol Copolymer emo|vc, Ethylhexylglycerin pres, Phenoxyethanol pres, Potassium Sorbate pres, Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate chel, Citric Acid buff, Gluconolactone exf|chel, Sodium Benzoate pres, Xanthan Gum vcThe Ingredient List of the Fig. 1 Beauty Ceramide Moisturizer:
Water, Glycerin, Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Hydrogenated Ethylhexyl Olivate, Squalane, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glyceryl Stearate, Sorbitan Stearate, Oenothera Biennis (Evening Primrose) Oil, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil, Borago Officinalis (Borage) Seed Oil, Triolein, Cetearyl Glucoside, Butylene Glycol, Benzyl Alcohol, Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer, Caprylyl Glycol, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cetyl Alcohol, Hydrogenated Olive Oil Saponifiables, Xanthan Gum, Ceramide NP, Glyceryl Dioleate, Benzoic Acid, Tocopherol, Disodium EDTA, Linoleic Acid, Phospholipids, Phytosterols, t-Butyl Alcohol, Sodium Lactate, Carbomer, Sodium Hyaluronate, Polysorbate-20, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7
The Ingredient List of the Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Eye Cream:
aox|emo 0 0-3, Borago Officinalis (Borage) Seed Oil so|emo, Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate emu|surf, Squalane sii|emo 0 1, Niacinamide cci|sb|aacne|h, Salvia Hispanica (Chia) Seed Oil aox|emo|h, Linum Usitatissimum (Linseed) Seed Oil emo|perf, Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil emo, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil aox|emo|perf 0 0-2, Passiflora Edulis (Passion Flower) Seed Oil emo, Ceramide EOP sii, Ceramide NP sii, Ceramide AP sii, Sodium Hyaluronate sii|h 0 0, Cholesterol sii|emo 0 0, Morus Alba (White Mulberry) Root Extract sb, Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi (Bearberry) Leaf Extract aox|sb, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Extract so|sb, Linoleic Acid sii|emo|surf, Linolenic Acid sii|emo|surf|perf, Serine sii, Alanine sii, Proline sii, Arginine sii, Threonine sii, Phytosphingosine sii|cci|aacne|amic, Phytosterols, Sodium PCA sii|h 0 0, Glycine sii, Oleic Acid emo|emu, Glutamic Acid h, Lysine Hcl, Lecithin emo|emu, Adenosine cci, Sodium Lactate buff|h, Hydrogenated Olive Oil vc, Euterpe Oleracea Sterols, Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil Unsaponifiables, Phytic Acid chel, Scutellaria Baicalensis Root Extract so|aox|amic|h, Anastatica Hierochuntica Extract, Glycerin sii|h 0 0, Pca sii|h, Betaine h, Pullulan, Carbomer vc 0 1, Sclerotium Gum vc, Sodium Citrate chel|buff, Citric Acid buff, Ascorbyl Palmitate 
aox 0 2, Tocopheryl Acetate aox 0 0, Silica vc, Sorbitan Oleate emu 0 3, Xanthan Gum vc, Sodium Lauroyl Lactylate emu, Phenoxyethanol pres, Ethylhexylglycerin pres, Chlorphenesin pres|amic
