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What makes moisturizing lotion work?

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evelyncanarvon
 
Reply Thu 31 Mar, 2005 11:48 pm
My friends and I were wondering this and we came up with a few ideas. Does anyone actually know the answer? Thanks!
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 2,947 • Replies: 18
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roger
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2005 10:38 am
I'm told they just seal in the body's own moisture. Sounds good, but I won't say I KNOW it for a fact.
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Bella Dea
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Apr, 2005 10:45 am
They put oils in it.
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JamesMorrison
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Apr, 2005 11:10 pm
roger is correct in his explaination while Bella Dea gives us the ingredients that allow this to be accomplished. Oleaginous substances (oils, fats, and, in the case of chapstick, paraffins and waxes) repel water. So, by applying these to the skin the "moisture" or water is sealed in the skin and not allowed to evaporate. Short term effects allow the trapped water to soak into the outer dead layer of skin thereby allowing it to plump or swell causing an increase in "softness" and a small decrease in smal wrinkles. Further, the oily nature of the active ingredients smooths out or, more accurately, flattens the loose scaly most outer layer of dead skin cells which would other wise stick up causing that rough or scaly appearance of dry skin.

JM
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Montana
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Apr, 2005 11:25 pm
Interesting explaination JM.
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rosborne979
 
  1  
Reply Sat 23 Apr, 2005 07:49 am
Re: What makes moisturizing lotion work?
evelyncanarvon wrote:
What makes moisturizing lotion work?


It's oily and moist, so it makes your skin oily and moist.

Sorry to be flip, but I'm a bit annoyed with advertisers and product producers who try to weave a fancy and sometimes questionable mythology around their product to get people to buy it.

Shampoo is another one. A vast majority of all the fancy "stuff" they put into shampoo just washes away in the rinse, making the product barely worth the vastly inflated price they charge for it (although, they have to charge a lot for it to pay those beautiful models with all that silky hair, who probably don't use their product).

Sorry, I'm a cynic when it comes to a lot of the snake oil they sell these days.
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Bekaboo
 
  1  
Reply Sat 23 Apr, 2005 09:03 am
If you're gonna go nuts about shampoo all the vitamins and minerals are simply in there because they are very small ions / molecules so they fit in the cracks in your hair
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rosborne979
 
  1  
Reply Sat 23 Apr, 2005 10:18 am
Bekaboo wrote:
If you're gonna go nuts about shampoo all the vitamins and minerals are simply in there because they are very small ions / molecules so they fit in the cracks in your hair


Really?

Are the vitimins and minerals any more likely to fit into the cracks in your hair than any of the other small ions and molecules in the shampoo?

Why don't they get washed out with the rinse, do they actually "bond" with the hair? And if so, is there any other chemical which is better to bond with the cracks than "vitimins and minerals"?
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JamesMorrison
 
  1  
Reply Tue 26 Apr, 2005 03:25 pm
Vitamins are only good if systemically absorbed into the body. Oral admin is good, parentally admin better (Needles involved). Applying them to the skin results in very poor absorption. Applying them to things long dead like hair is totally useless. rosborne979's lament is right on. Advertising is always suspect when the source springs from those who will benefit financially. Tricky people those! Example:

"Buy our tablet! You won't find a stronger pain reliever on the market!"

Perhaps, but this only implies that all other, or at least one other, marketed pain reliever is just as good. For the smart consumer the next comparison should be the price of equally effective meds and not the slickness of any given manufacturer's commercials.

JM
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Eorl
 
  1  
Reply Mon 16 May, 2005 03:05 am
Rosbourne, I see you haven't studied at the "Ponds Institute"

...(or is this something only Aussies would get?)
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rosborne979
 
  1  
Reply Mon 16 May, 2005 08:15 am
Eorl wrote:
Rosbourne, I see you haven't studied at the "Ponds Institute"


I studied at the school of street skepticism. I did my time watching years and years of TV commercials which stretch the truth in every conceivable direction, and rely on pseudo-science, statistics and bad logic to back their claims ("clinically proven", "four out of five dentists surveyed...").
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Eorl
 
  1  
Reply Mon 16 May, 2005 08:18 am
Yes, we have a moisturiser brand "Ponds" using commercials featuring "scientists" from the "Ponds Institute"...white lab coats and everything. Rolling Eyes
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rosborne979
 
  1  
Reply Mon 16 May, 2005 08:31 am
Eorl wrote:
Yes, we have a moisturiser brand "Ponds" using commercials featuring "scientists" from the "Ponds Institute"...white lab coats and everything. Rolling Eyes


Yeh, we see White Lab coats selling everything from magnetic insoles to ionic bracelets.

There is a "Ponds" here also. They make Ponds moisturizing lotion and a myriad of other things. And I'm sure their lotion is just fine, but there's nothing especially unique about it either.

The viitamin industry is the other big ripoff; convincing people that it's better to take a pill once a day, rather than to eat a good balanced diet of fruits and veggies. And if that doesn't work they fall back on the "well it can't hurt" argument, while raking billions of dollars from consumer pockets.
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Eorl
 
  1  
Reply Mon 16 May, 2005 08:34 am
Heh - Vitamins - your Pascals Wager of nutrition.
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Valpower
 
  1  
Reply Wed 1 Jun, 2005 07:18 pm
It puts the lotion in the basket. It puts the lotion on the skin.
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RexRed
 
  1  
Reply Wed 8 Jun, 2005 08:06 am
Well I think rosbourne is wrong on several points...


These vitamins and minerals DO absorb into the cells and provide nourishment...

The cells have receptors that absorb chemicals of various types and skin cells absorb moisture and nutrients through osmosis. Also, all you have to do is bleach your hair to know that moisture can be depleted from the "dead" cells. Hair can absorb chemicals and nutrients too...

You can put a piece of garlic in your shoe and smell it on your breath a day later...
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rosborne979
 
  1  
Reply Wed 8 Jun, 2005 10:55 am
RexRed wrote:
Well I think rosbourne is wrong on several points...

These vitamins and minerals DO absorb into the cells and provide nourishment...


Hair is not alive so it cannot be "nourished". However it can be affected chemically, after all, you can drop it in acid and it will dissolve.

I don't have a problem with someone saying that putting some type of chemical glop on your hair will have a particular affect on it (hair coloring is an obvious example), but I do have a problem with them implying that vitimins and minerals (and all the other hoohaa they invent) can in any way "nourish" your hair and make it more "healthy".
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RexRed
 
  1  
Reply Wed 8 Jun, 2005 12:42 pm
rosborne979 wrote:
RexRed wrote:
Well I think rosbourne is wrong on several points...

These vitamins and minerals DO absorb into the cells and provide nourishment...


Hair is not alive so it cannot be "nourished". However it can be affected chemically, after all, you can drop it in acid and it will dissolve.

I don't have a problem with someone saying that putting some type of chemical glop on your hair will have a particular affect on it (hair coloring is an obvious example), but I do have a problem with them implying that vitamins and minerals (and all the other hoohaa they invent) can in any way "nourish" your hair and make it more "healthy".


I dye my hair often and after if I just left the bleach on and did not then put on a conditioner then the hair would become like straw and brittle. But if I add the conditioner after it is like the hair has been treated with one chemical to make it porous to absorb the conditioner... In just the last few years they have come out with "micro mineral" conditioners and fruit extracts.

I also know about a certain frog that lives in some obscure country. The frog gets up every morning and barfs up some mixture from it's stomach and proceeds to coat their whole body from head to toe with it. This is because moisturizers can have effect. Scientists say our skin is highly related to the type of skin on this frog. Smile
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rosborne979
 
  1  
Reply Wed 8 Jun, 2005 03:37 pm
RexRed wrote:
I dye my hair often and after if I just left the bleach on and did not then put on a conditioner then the hair would become like straw and brittle. But if I add the conditioner after it is like the hair has been treated with one chemical to make it porous to absorb the conditioner... In just the last few years they have come out with "micro mineral" conditioners and fruit extracts.


Just don't buy everything someone tries to sell ya Rex, you'll be ok. The "micro minerals" and "Fruit extracts" will only hurt your wallet, not your hair.
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