I wish I could find another word for this step but I haven’t, and it would probably only complicate matters anyway. In reality, not everyone needs a “moisturizer” but everyone needs to add antioxidants, skin-identical ingredients, and cell-communicating ingredients to their skin every day to maintain and achieve as much as possible the skin they want. The standard term for this final skin-care step is moisturizer, but as I explained in Chapter Eight, this step is not about giving skin moisture, and it isn’t about applying a lotion or cream. It’s not about anti-wrinkle products or treatments or serums, or lifting products either. This final step is about giving skin the substances it needs to repair itself, heal, create healthy skin cells, make healthy collagen and elastin, and improve the skin’s immune response. Those ingredients fall into the three categories of antioxidants, skin-identical ingredients, and cell-communicating ingredients. Regardless of the product’s name or its texture, choosing a product loaded with these elements is vital for making any skin function more normally and look as young and healthy as possible.
All skin types require antioxidants, skin-identical ingredients, and cell-communicating ingredients. As long as a product in this general category is well formulated and includes an array of those key ingredients (antioxidants, skin-identical ingredients, and cell-communicating ingredients) the only thing you need to think about is the texture, because aside from that the name on the product’s label is irrelevant and, more often than not, deceptive marketing mumbo jumbo.
Among products that are well-formulated, the only thing that differentiates all “moisturizers” and anti-wrinkle or similar products from one another is the texture. If you have dry to very dry skin you need a product with these state-of-the-art ingredients that come in a cream form, if you have normal to dry skin a lotion will work well. If you have normal to slightly dry skin or combination skin a lightweight lotion or serum is your best choice. If you have oily or blemish-prone skin a gel or liquid toner is an excellent form but you may also want to consider a mattifying serum (not to be confused with foundation primers, which typically do not have impressive formulas in terms of providing the types of ingredients outlined above).