Are water based products necessary?
Human skin is about 64% water. Each individual skin cell is around 70% water and the outermost layer of skin cells, the Stratum Corneum, contain around 10-20% water. The cells in this outermost layer are in effect already dead and only a very small change in water content will make a massive difference. Dry tight eczema prone skin occurs when this outermost layer of skin loses too much moisture. The purpose of this layer is to protect the living cells beneath and its premature loss exposes the more delicate sensitive cells beneath. This allows bacteria’s and other irritants to access the cells beneath creating the redness, soreness, itching and general irritation associated with all of these conditions. The key to fighting this is water, if you can crack the code and help this delicate layer maintain its moisture balance everything else soothes. If you can provide the moisture and lock it in you will feel happier, less irritated and healthier as a result.
Recently there has been discussion about water or ‘aqua’ being a red flag for artificial ingredients and chemical based preservatives. Some people have gone on to claim that any product to list aqua is automatically a bad or even misleading product and should be avoided.
As you will be aware at natural little bee we research ingredients meticulously, don’t cut corners and take a no expense spared approach to our products. I would even say that gram for gram our products are some of the most expensive to manufacture in the world due to this approach. So you know that if we decide to produce a water-based product (yes one that contains aqua) there is a good reason for this.
Different types of skin and skin at different points of breakdown require different treatment. For anyone whose stratum corneum is fractured, tightened and already riddled with; bacteria, microbes and irritants you need something that is going to kill and eradicate the sources of discomfort whilst providing an impenetrable barrier to allow the skin to heal, this is where the natural bee balm or baby balm does its work.
Any skin that is starting to tighten and lose its moisture, any skin that starting to feel a little dry any skin that feels like it needs a product applying to it is craving moisture. At this stage an oil or wax based product, no matter how good, is going to feel greasy and ultimately fail to help. Skin at this stage needs moisture as quickly as possible and a water based product is always going to be the best option.
Yes you can use a strong Humectant, a compound that pulls water from the air and locks it into the cells but it will never be as effective as something that physically provides the moisture to be locked in.
Now for the caveat- a product that contains a lot of water to suspend exceptionally heavy (usually cheap and artificial) highly comedogenic ingredients will not work instead the heavy ingredients will quickly get to work providing a barrier, or occlusive, and will block the water from entering the cells (starving them) this water will then sit on the skin feeling greasy and sticky until it starts to evaporate. Leaving your skin feeling cold, this is a telltale for badly made cheap skincare.
These cheap lotions and creams are formed predominantly of water containing minimal highly comedogenic ingredients. As a result of the high water content equally high levels of preservative are required and all of the most potent preservatives required for this kind of product are harsh and artificial.
Cranberries - natural source of sorbic acid and willow bark - salicylic acid
Now for what we do. In the lotions we absolutely use water but a smaller amount, we don’t use the water to dilute or cheapen we use it to enhance. A well designed, natural and high quality water based product typically uses a much smaller amount of water serving to enhance the hydration provided rather than acting as a vehicle to cheapen the ingredient cost of a product. By making the water directly available to the skin we have created a product that is the most effective in hydrating drying skin. You absolutely need preservatives in a water based product but there are plenty of high quality natural preservatives out there which are gentle for your skin. Preservatives serve to prevent the growth of mold and bacteria’s and you need a spectrum of different preservatives to prevent the growth of different ones. We use Potassium Sorbate (a naturally occurring salt) Benzyl Alcohol (occurs naturally in some plants, Salicylic Acid found in willow bark, Glycerine found in vegetable oils and Sorbic acid found in Berries. These are all found in small quantities in our water based products and are the most natural, best preserving and gentlest preservatives on the market. In short you can find all of these naturally in the food and drinks you have every day and you could eat the lotions without issue.
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