Hyaluronic acid is a skincare ingredient favorite. It is used in everything from in-office treatments to topical serums and creams. The powerful humectant holds up to 1,000 times its weight in water, making it a magical solution for dry skin. Even though hyaluronic acid is naturally found within the skin and helps support the skin barrier, using it in skincare products allows the skin to attract and hold water for a hydrating agent and plumper-looking skin. Best of all, hyaluronic acid is compatible with all skin types, so everyone can benefit from the dewy factor.
Table of Contents:
- What is Hyaluronic Acid?
- What Does Hyaluronic Acid Do for Your Face?
- Benefits of Hyaluronic Acid for Skin
- Hyaluronic Acid Serum Benefits
- How to Use Hyaluronic Acid
- Hyaluronic Acid Side Effects
- The Bottom Line
What is Hyaluronic Acid?
Hyaluronic acid is a natural lubricating and moisturizing water-binding substance found in joints, connective tissues, and skin. Hyaluronic acid hydrates by attracting water to the area. It’s an excellent moisturizer for the skin, but that’s not all it can do. The skin-safe acid can also help minimize the common signs of aging and plump up the skin, making fine lines and wrinkles less noticeable. Using hyaluronic acid for skin hydration helps draw water into the skin to plump and hydrate it, mitigating the effects of natural hyaluronic degradation with age. However, maintaining healthy levels of hyaluronic acid can improve skin health for added plumpness, volume, and hydration.
As the skin ages, the amount of natural hyaluronic acid in it (and the body) starts to decrease. Introducing skincare products with hyaluronic acid can restore lost moisture in the skin, helping to reduce dryness and dullness and giving a soothing effect to fine lines and wrinkles.
While hyaluronic acid benefits for skin are most noticeable on dry skin, it can also be used on oily, sensitive, and acne-prone skin types. Because hyaluronic acid is a humectant, it gives the skin resilience and a firming effect when used in creams, lotions, and serums. And unlike other types of hydrators, hyaluronic acid is non-comedogenic, so that it won’t clog the pores. That’s why people with acne love the non-irritating ingredient. Every skin type can benefit from hyaluronic acid.
What Does Hyaluronic Acid Do for Your Face?
Products that contain hyaluronic acid for face can provide multiple benefits to the skin, including:
- Increasing surface hydration
- Protecting the skin barrier to reduce dryness, flakiness, and rough-feeling skin
- Plump up wrinkles and fine lines by increasing the skin’s moisture content
- Restore volume to the skin when used in injectable form and administered by a dermatologist
One of the several benefits of hyaluronic acid, when used regularly on the face, is that the ingredient can penetrate well into the skin, allowing the body and skin to make good use of it. The lower the weight of the hyaluronic acid, the better it can penetrate the skin.
Benefits of Hyaluronic Acid for Skin
The main benefit of hyaluronic acid is its ability to retain moisture in the skin. All skin types need moisture to be healthy. Not only is moisture a fundamental component of the skin, but when the skin is well hydrated, wrinkles and fine lines are less obvious, the skin is better equipped to heal itself, and the cells replenish and turn over faster and more efficacious.
Naturally, hydrated skin, which is easily achieved using hyaluronic acid, also helps to improve the skin’s elastic and youthful glow. That’s because hyaluronic acid is known to bind 1,00 times its weight in water. It can hold onto water molecules better to keep the skin moisturized and fresh, dewy, and youthful. Hyaluronic acid skin benefits include the ability to hold onto extra moisture, making dryness a thing of the past.
Hyaluronic Acid Serum Benefits
Applying any product with hyaluronic acid to the skin is better than skimping on the ingredient altogether. Still, there’s reason to believe that the benefits of hyaluronic acid serums are greater than those of creams or lotions. That’s because the molecular size of the acid can be smaller and lighter in these formulations, allowing hyaluronic acid to penetrate the skin better. Some of the more notable hyaluronic acid serum benefits include hydration, anti-aging effects, increased skin elasticity, wound healing, and limiting the appearance of wrinkles and lines.