The Secret to Long-Lasting Moisture in Cosmetic Products: Don’t Underestimate the Power of Glycerin! The use of glycerin in moisturizers has proven to be highly effective, making it a widely used ingredient in various creams and lotions. This colorless, odorless, and non-toxic substance plays a crucial role in skincare due to its exceptional ability to attract and retain moisture. Glycerin is recognized as a powerful humectant that draws water from the surrounding environment and deeper layers of the skin, resulting in hydrated, soft, and supple skin. Its outstanding performance makes it the top choice for caring for dry, sensitive, and damaged skin. In this article, we will delve into the role of glycerin in moisturizers, including its cellular-level function, benefits, methods of combining it with other active ingredients, and key considerations when choosing products containing glycerin. First, it is essential to define moisturizing products and examine their core components.
What Are Moisturizers?
Moisturizers are a type of cosmetic and personal care product that helps to protect, hydrate, and soften the skin. They are particularly beneficial for individuals with dry skin. These products work by increasing the skin’s water content and reducing water loss through evaporation, preventing dryness and roughness. The surface of human skin is covered by a thin biological layer called the stratum corneum. This layer, which is in direct contact with the external environment, acts as a protective barrier and allows us to live in dry environments without losing body water easily. This thin and flexible layer prevents water from evaporating and plays a critical role in maintaining skin moisture and overall skin health. Generally, healthy skin contains between 10% and 20% moisture. For consumers, the term “moisturizer” is a familiar and appealing term, often associated with improved skin condition and evoking an image of healthy, radiant skin. Overall, moisturization (or skin softening) is a key element in topical skincare treatments.
Ingredients of Moisturizers
Since the dry and combination skin types typically require repair of the protective barrier, achieving effective moisturization that satisfies the consumer depends on using four essential groups of functional ingredients in the formulation of these products.
These four groups are as follows:
- Humectants help to modulate water content by enhancing surface water availability.
- Occlusivity agents, typically denoted as moisturizers, modulate water content by slowing down TEWL.
- Keratolytic agents stimulate cell renewal by cleaning dead cells from the skin’s surface and exciting new cells to form at the surface for a better and healthier barrier.
- Emollients provide topical aesthetics and lubrication that enhance the perception of soft, smooth skin; they can provide some level of moderate TEWL improvement topically.
A well-balanced combination of these ingredients plays a key role in the effectiveness and user satisfaction of moisturizing products. Glycerin is one of the most important components, acting as a powerful humectant.
Glycerin as a Humectant in Moisturizing Products:
Glycerin used in the cosmetic industry (cosmetic-grade glycerin), also known as Glygiene, is one of the most widely used compounds in cosmetics and personal care industry. Its popularity stems from its high effectiveness and diverse applications. This compound is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, and hypoallergenic liquid that is highly compatible with cosmetic formulations.
Glygiene acts as a humectant, meaning it attracts moisture from the surrounding air and deeper layers of the skin and transfers it to the skin’s surface. For this reason, glycerin is considered a strong and effective moisturizer. According to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), glycerin’s exceptional moisturizing properties provide numerous benefits for skin health. It helps hydrate the outer layer of the skin (stratum corneum), resulting in softness, smoothness, and improved skin elasticity.
As a key raw material in the chemical industry for cosmetics, glycerin plays an important role in strengthening the skin’s protective barrier; a factor that helps retain moisture and protect against irritants and harmful external agents. Additionally, glycerin protects the skin from adverse environmental conditions, accelerates wound healing, and effectively reduces skin dryness. Recent scientific evidence also shows that glycerin is effective in managing certain skin conditions, such as psoriasis, by improving hydration and reducing skin irritation, thereby helping to alleviate symptoms of the disease.
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The Role of Glycerin (Glygiene) in Moisturizing Product Formulations:
The concentration of glycerin in moisturizing creams varies depending on the type and the desired effect. It is important to note that higher glycerin concentrations can cause a sticky sensation on the skin, which may be unpleasant in some formulations.
A study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) examined the moisture retention capacity of glycerin solutions at various concentrations. The results showed that increasing the glycerin concentration up to 60% enhances moisture retention ability; however, beyond this point, the effect reaches saturation and no further improvement is observed.
Glycerin is compatible with a wide range of cosmetic and personal care ingredients, making it one of the most versatile and widely used compounds in various formulations. It acts synergistically with occlusive agents such as petrolatum (Vaseline) and dimethicone to retain moisture in the skin and enhance the effectiveness of moisturizing creams. Alkanolamines like MEA lactamide, also show synergistic effects with glycerin, further strengthening the skin’s protective barrier.
Formulators typically combine glycerin with emollients to retain moisture, enhance skin feel, and reducing any potential stickiness.
Mechanism of Action of Cosmetic Glycerin as a Humectant:
Glycerin functions as a humectant. Its small, polar molecules form hydrogen bonds with water molecules, drawing moisture from the air and deeper skin layers to the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of the skin.
Effect of Glygiene on Strengthening the Skin Barrier and Reducing Transepidermal Water Loss (TEWL) in Moisturizing Products
One of the key benefits of cosmetic-grade glycerin is its ability to enhance skin barrier function and reduce transepidermal water loss (TEWL). By increasing hydration in the stratum corneum, glycerin indirectly helps prevent skin dryness. Studies have demonstrated a significant negative correlation between skin hydration and TEWL. For instance, Cabreroto et al. (2019) found that increasing glycerin concentration in formulations from 7% to 40% significantly increased skin moisture and decreased TEWL.
Clinical studies have demonstrated that combining glycerin with occlusive agents produces a synergistic effect in enhancing the skin barrier. For example, a formulation containing both glycerin and petrolatum significantly increased skin hydration while substantially reducing transepidermal water loss (TEWL). In this study, petrolatum primarily prevented evaporation, while glycerin enhanced moisture absorption and retention.
Advantages and Limitations of Using Glycerin in Moisturizers
Glycerin provides numerous benefits as a skin hydrator. It rapidly attracts moisture and softens the skin, and it is generally non-irritating at standard concentrations. In fact, glycerin is one of the most common ingredients in moisturizers and skin lotions, second only to water and fragrance. Additionally, glycerin is very safe and shows no known incompatibility with any skin type at typical concentrations. However, high levels of glycerin can cause a sticky sensation on the skin’s surface and may increase the excessive permeability of the formulation.
Synergistic Effects of Glycerin with Other Formulation Ingredients
In formulations of creams and moisturizing lotions, glycerin is typically used alongside emollients (skin softeners) and occlusive agents. Occlusives such as petrolatum, waxes, or silicones form a protective barrier on the skin that prevents moisture evaporation, while glycerin attracts water and helps retain it in the stratum corneum. The combined presence of these two groups of ingredients maximizes the moisturizing effect. For example, Wailan et al. (2019) demonstrated that an emollient cream containing both petrolatum and glycerin significantly reduced transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and increased corneometry (skin moisture level) compared to a cream lacking these components.
Scientific and Experimental Data on the Effectiveness of Glycerin in Moisturizers
Multiple laboratory and clinical studies have confirmed glycerin’s effectiveness in skin moisturization. Gravimetric tests and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) measurements on glycerin solutions have demonstrated that as the weight percentage of glycerin increases, the rate of water evaporation decreases and moisture retention improves. At concentrations around 60–70%, net evaporation approaches zero.
The results of these studies emphasize that “glycerin is an excellent humectant and hygroscopic substance capable of absorbing water equal to its own weight.” Overall, both laboratory and clinical evidence collectively indicate that glycerin is an effective and reliable ingredient for enhancing skin hydration and strengthening the epidermal barrier.
Key Points for Selecting and Purchasing Cosmetic-Grade Glycerin
- Purity and Grade: Cosmetic and personal care-grade glycerin is purified to a minimum of 99.5% purity and is completely colorless, odorless, and transparent.
- Store the product away from direct sunlight and excessive heat to preserve its quality.
References:
https://www.healthline.com/
https://cosmetics.specialchem.com/
