Your skin retains water within its natural proteins to keep them flexible. Each stratum corneum cell is a flexible sack of proteins. Without water, the proteins lose their flexibility and become rigid. The skin becomes rough to the touch, even cracking in severe cases. Water helps increase the flexibility of the proteins so the cells can relax to a smooth surface that begs to be touched.
Normally, skin creates natural moisturizing factors (NMFs) to hold moisture in the stratum corneum and increase the water content of the skin. In dry winter conditions, the skin cannot make NMFs because the water content of the skin is too low. Also, NMFs are stripped away by the use of hotter bathing water and strong detergents.
A good moisturizer will add moisturizing factors back to the skin where they can lock moisture into the skin. Sodium PCA, or sodium pyrollidone carboxylic acid, is one of the most efficient NMFs because it binds lots of water.
Moisturizing lotions also may contain moisturizing factors that are not natural, but moisturize much the same way. Some examples are sodium isethionate, glycerin and panthenol.
-CLICK HERE- to buy indoor tanning lotion 50% under retail.
