COCOKIND | OIL TO MILK CLEANSER

This product review was originally part of my blog article titled, Seasonal Skincare Transitioning: My Fave Fw21 Cleansing Balms. You can catch the full piece here.

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Over the last several weeks, I’ve been featuring my cold weather insights in a series of blog articles that I’ve themed around the concept of “seasonal skincare transitioning” — that is, switching up your skincare routine to focus on counteracting the effects of the dry, cold air.

I kicked off the season in October with my two-part series on richer face creams for cold weather in a series titled, Seasonal Skincare Transitioning: Moisturizers I Love That Make Me Excited For Cold Weather. You can catch Part One here and Part Two here.

Each article featured four of the best face creams for dry, dehydrated skin in the cold — one for each skin type: oily skin, dry skin, sensitive skin and all skin types. Just as we all need to drink enough water each day, every skin type experiences some degree of dryness and dehydration in low-humidity climates, even very oily skins.

The first in the series featured two of my favorite lipid-replenishing products for cold weather from one of my favorite clinical skincare brands, Skinfix. In my experience, the Skinfix Barrier+ Triple Lipid-Peptide Face Cream is among the best face creams for dry skin, especially in winter. And the Skinfix Barrier+ Triple Lipid-Boost 360° Eye Cream is perhaps the best eye cream for wrinkles, crow’s feet and dehydration in the eye area.

You can explore both of these fantastic winter skin saviors on the blog here.

PRODUCT REVIEW: SKINFIX BARRIER+ TRIPLE LIPID-PEPTIDE FACE CREAM AND TRIPLE LIPID-BOOST 360° EYE CREAM

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I followed that pair on face cream articles with another two-part series, this time on the best facial oils for dry skin. Facial oils are wonderful in winter, with an unrivaled occlusive quality that helps skin hold onto moisture longer to slow and prevent trans-epidermal water loss, or TEWL. The articles were titled, Seasonal Skincare Transitioning: Facial Oils I Love That Make Me Excited For Cold Weather. Again, if you’re interested, Part One is here and Part Two is here.

In my latest exploration of seasonal skincare, I published a piece on lipids and the importance of lipid replenishment during fall and winter in an 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. The piece answered the central question: What Are Skin Lipids and Are Lipids Good for Skin?

SEASONAL SKINCARE TRANSITIONING: DRY SKIN? YOU MAY BE LOW ON LIPIDS!
BEST FACE CREAMS FOR DRY SKIN

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Seriously, what are lipids?

Well, they’re fat substances in the skin’s layers that are 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.

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 Lipids
Healthy, 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.

WATCH MY VIDEO REVIEW OF

SKINCARMA LOCK & BLOCK: THE BEST WAY TO KEEP SKIN HEALTHY & HYDRATED IN DRY, COLD AIR!

ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE

As I alluded to, 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 of the leading causes of skin aging.

I know it sounds crazy, but what is trans-epidermal water loss? Well, simply, it’s the loss of moisture through the epidermis, or 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.

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).”

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.

SEASONAL SKINCARE TRANSITIONING: THE BEST PRODUCTS FROM THE ORDINARY AND NIOD THAT GET ME EXCITED FOR THE COLD!

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With my series on cold weather face creams, facial oils and lipid replenishers, I thought it would be interesting to talk about cleansers next — and specifically, the importance of an emollient-rich, non-stripping cleanser on a dry, cold day.

What that means is a cleansing balm!

I love, love, love a soothing, pampering cleansing balm on a chilly evening. Personally, I make the transition to a cleansing balm around this time each year, when my skin can become irritated and sensitized by the dry air around me. There’s nothing worse than aggravating sensitized skin more with a stripping cleanser. And with a cleansing balm or cleansing oil, there’s no need to.

Last year around this time, I published my first piece on cleansing balms titled, The Best Cleansing Balms for Dry Skin, Oily Skin and Sensitive Skin. You can still catch the full article here. I featured three of the best cleansing balms for sensitive skin, dry skin and all skins in winter.

THE BEST CLEANSING BALMS FOR DRY SKIN, OILY SKIN AND SENSITIVE SKIN - DRUNK ELEPHANT SLAAI, BANILA CLEAN IT ZERO

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Among these were the uber-popular Drunk Elephant Slaai Makeup-Melting Butter Cleanser, the best exfoliating cleansing balm and pretty much the only exfoliating cleansing balm I know of.

I also included the iconic Banila Clean It Zero Cleansing Balm — the first cleansing balm I ever tried. It’s a cool, quirky formula for sure. With its thick, waxy formula, it’s effective, but hardly the most luxurious cleansing balm.

Rounding out the collection was Ayond’s Metamorph Cleansing Balm, perhaps the most luxurious cleansing balm I’ve ever come across. The stuff is pure gold!

This year, I’m featuring three new cleansing balms — new to the market and new to me. To start is the Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Cleansing Balm, the latest addition to the brand’s Omega+ collection. It’s rich, but not so rich that it needs to be scooped out of a jar with a spatula. It comes in a convenient tube, similar to The Ordinary’s Squalane Cleanser — itself a cleansing balm, despite the oversimplified name.

PRODUCT REVIEW: PAULA'S CHOICE OMEGA+ EYE CREAM - BEST EYE CREAM FOR WRINKLES

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Next, and also in a tube, is the Cocokind Oil to Milk Cleanser. I’ve just begun to explore skincare from the clean, California-based brand. The brand’s Revitalizing Eye Cream is superb and the Cocokind Daily SPF mineral sunscreen has been a favorite for several weeks now.

Last is Youth To The People’s super rich and super new Superberry Dream Cleansing Balm. I love Youth To The People’s clean, natural, superfood-powered skincare and knew I would love their new cleansing balm. I’m excited to share it with you!

Let’s have a look at one of my FW21 cleansing balm picks in more detail below…

Cocokind | Oil to Milk Cleanser

I’ve just begun exploring Cocokind and am intrigued by the clean, California-based brand. Cocokind has a firm commitment to sustainability with the most in-depth, product-specific information on a web page that I’ve seen.

In the early fall, I was super into the brand’s $19 Revitalizing Eye Cream. It’s a great formula with a dense, silky texture that makes it ideal for the seasonal drop in temperatures. It’s just thin enough to dispense from a tube. I love well-formulated eye creams that aren’t in jars! And it has one of those cooling metal applicator tips. It’s a real pleasure to use.

The Cocokind Oil to Milk Cleanser is a similarly pleasurable formula. If you’re not a fan of cleansing balms because they’re so rich and heavy on the skin, this one is super lightweight — the lightest of my three FW21 picks. And perhaps most ideal for oily skin.

I love the intriguing texture of Cocokind’s Oil to Milk Cleanser. But what intrigues me most about it is the sustainability info on the product page of cocokind.com.

The tube is 80% sugar cane-derived and 100% recyclable. The cap is made of virgin plastic (not recyclable). The box is 100% recyclable, consisting of “FSC paper with soy ink and water-based coating.”

I’ve never seen this level of transparency and detail from other skincare brands and hope they follow Cocokind’s lead. Have an look at this detail:

Cocokind’s Oil to Milk Cleanser formula is relatively simple, consisting of just 15 ingredients in all, nearly half of which are non-fragrant plant oils. These include Sunflower Seed Oil, Grape Seed Oil and Oat Kernel Oil — a golden lipid extracted from oats and considered by the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team to be among the best ingredients for use in skincare.

When emulsified with warm water on the skin, the Oil to Milk Cleanser does indeed transform into a lightweight milk, much lighter than most cleansing balms. That’s why I find it likely to be ideal for those with an oilier skin type.

What I like about it: The Cocokind Oil to Milk Cleanser is super lightweight and has a very light texture when emulsified with warm water, making it surprisingly easy to wash off. I also love that it comes in a tube.

What I don’t like about it: I like everything about it but really prefer a much thicker, emollient cleansing balm at this time of year.

Who it’s for: All skin types, even oily and very oily skins.

SHOP THE BLOG: Purchase the Cocokind Oil to Milk Cleanser for $18 here.

SHOP COCOKIND FOR OIL TO MILK CLEANSER