Many people would do anything to try to delay the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines for as long as possible. Some sip on green tea or collagen juice every day, while others invest in skincare targeted specifically to address the look of wrinkles and the loss of firmness in their skin.

But sometimes, all you need is a good old moisturizer to keep your complexion looking younger and more radiant. They hydrate the skin, bring out its natural glow, and minimize the appearance of the blemishes that make you feel old and worn.

While the fountain of youth doesn’t exist, thoughtfully formulated moisturizers filled with skin-loving ingredients sure are nice substitutes for it. Today, Lavelier will be showing you how a simple moisturizer can do so much for making your complexion look young, fresh, and healthy.

Here’s What Happens to Your Skin as You Get Older

To fully appreciate what moisturizers can do to make your skin look younger, it’s important to understand how wrinkles and fine lines come about as you age in the first place.

Young people have super soft, and bouncy skin. This is because, during your early life up to your twenties (or early thirties, for a lucky handful), your skin produces a steady amount of collagen and elastin. These are the proteins that keep your skin plump and volumized.

But the older you get, the less collagen and elastin your body produces. It also produces less healthy fats that make the skin fuller. So, mature skin isn’t as taut and supple. Instead, it becomes a bit saggier and develops wrinkles and folds. It’s all a part of the wear and tear that comes with getting older, really.

Another reason why you get wrinkles and fine lines is that aging skin produces less sebum, leaving you to deal with dry skin. And the drier the skin, the more prone you might be to pronounced wrinkles. Shoutout to oily-skinned gals who will likely look younger than their peers when the time comes!

Smoking and drinking alcohol — things that are common in your twenties — also contribute to the onset of wrinkles. They can dry out the skin, make your complexion look dull, and even leave you with eyes that look extra tired because of dark circles.

Enter Your Saving Grace: Moisturizers!

Moisturizers are the lifeline of any skincare routine. Some people say that you can literally give up any other step in your regimen, just not your holy grail moisturizer.

And this principle is very much warranted, especially for maturing skin! Moisturizers help your skin stay looking young and plump for longer in many ways — we’ll get into each one in a bit.

But that’s not to say that moisturizers are only for women in their thirties and above. If you’re in your twenties, you’re probably still enjoying the gift of flawless, luscious skin. But if you take moisturizers for granted, trust us when we say you’ll be regretting it in a few years.

Curious as to how moisturizers can help make your skin feel soft and smooth, and look youthful, for a long time? Here are five ways they do that — plus, a close-up on some of our favorite Lavelier moisturizers!

1. Moisturizers are the Best Way to Combat Dry, Flaky Skin

As mentioned earlier, the older you get, the drier your skin becomes. So, extremely dry and flaky skin has become a common description for mature skin. Meanwhile, younger-looking skin is luminous, dewy, and looks like glass.

Your thin, fragile skin would love moisturizer. Not only will it hydrate your skin enough to combat dryness, but it also smooths out the look of those pesky flakes and rough patches on your thin complexion.

Moisturizers are usually made up of three types of ingredients:

• Humectants: These hydrating ingredients draw in moisture from the air into your skin, plumping and adding the actual moisture to it. Examples of these are aloe vera, hyaluronic acid, and glycerin.
• Emollients: Next up are emollients, the ingredients in the moisturizer that are a bit thicker than humectants, but also do the job of adding softness and smoothness to the complexion. Some of these are shea butter and ceramides.
• Occlusives: Lastly, we have occlusives. These thick, rich oils don’t add any more moisture to the skin. Their main job is to lock in all the hydration that’s already in your skin to prevent trans-epidermal water loss. Coconut oil, jojoba oil, and lanolin are popular occlusives.

Together, these ingredients work to add hydration to dry skin while locking in that moisture to keep your complexion full, smooth, and dewy-looking all day long.

The Lavelier HydroTherm Completion Crème

One of our favorite moisturizers for hydrating dry, flaky skin is the Lavelier HydroTherm Completion Crème. It contains moisturizing botanicals from coconuts, cucumber, chamomile, green tea, and more. It even has sodium hyaluronate to add extra moisture to super parched skin.

But it’s pertinent to remember that the skin on the rest of your body gets dry as you age too, so you need to moisturize your body as well. For that, we recommend the Lavelier Seascape Body Butter. It’s infused with shea butter and coral seaweed extracts to condition your dry skin from head to toe. This leaves it with a youthful radiance and touchable softness.

2. Moisturizers Help Minimize the Appearance of Wrinkles and Fine Lines

Apart from making the skin dull and rough, dryness also contributes to the onset of wrinkles on the skin. So, if you want to delay the look of skin aging, keeping your skin nice and hydrated with a moisturizer will help.

Moisture is more than enough to keep the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles at a minimum. But if you use a moisturizer filled to the brim with ingredients that can do the same, that would be awesome.

The Lavelier Marine Deep Moisturizer

The Lavelier Marine Deep Moisturizer is one such cream. It contains so many superstar ingredients, like safflower seed oil, shea butter, vitamin E, and a lot more. It also has vitamin A, which is known in the skincare world as a cult-fave ingredient for improving the look of fine lines and wrinkles.

Be religious in using this decadent moisturizer on a daily basis, and you’ll be rewarded with skin that looks firmer and tauter again.

3. Moisturizers Make Dull, Lifeless Skin Look Radiant and Glowy Again

Although dullness in the skin isn’t one of the most dreaded signs of aging out there, having radiant, dewy, glass-like skin is something associated with being young.

So, if you want to add a touch of youthfulness to your complexion, it’s important to find a moisturizer that has exquisite oils and botanicals to add that glow to your skin.

The Lavelier Moisture Allure Cream

One that we love for adding that gorgeous luminosity to the skin is the Lavelier Moisture Allure Cream. The moisturizing blend of green tea extract, aloe vera, coral seaweed, and more stimulate the feel of your skin, resulting in a lustrous, radiant-looking finish.

4. With the Right Ingredients, Moisturizers Help Brighten the Appearance

Aside from fine lines and wrinkles, another sign of skin aging people tend to be on the lookout for is age spots. These dark spots can sometimes look similar to acne scars due to hyperpigmentation. So, when people experience breakouts and are left with a stubborn mark on their face, they end up looking older than they actually are.

If this sounds like you, you should go for a moisturizer infused with ingredients that can help brighten the look of dark spots, whether it’s from acne scars or actual age spots, no thanks to the sun. One of these ingredients is vitamin C, which is known to help fade and even prevent the appearance of dark spots.

The Lavelier Coralline Collagen Firming Neck Cream

The Lavelier Coralline Collagen Firming Neck Cream is one moisturizer infused with vitamin C. It also contains sodium hyaluronate and other popular skin vitamins, like vitamins A and E. Together, these three vitamins also help firm up the appearance of wrinkles and saggy skin, leaving your face and neck looking smoother and younger.

5. Moisturizers Infused with SPF Protect Your Skin from the Harsh Sun

Sun damage is a major cause of skin aging. The older you get, the more time you’ve spent under the hot sun. The sun’s UV rays can aggravate and even speed up the aging process of the skin, making wrinkles look more pronounced even when you’re not that old.

We’ll be honest — it’s very difficult to reverse the appearance of sun damage (although it can be done!). Preventive measures are always best. The best method out there for that is protecting your skin from the sun by applying SPF.

The Lavelier Divine Day Defense SPF 30

The easiest way to incorporate sunscreen into your daily skincare routine is to use moisturizers infused with SPF, like the Lavelier Divine Day Defense SPF 30. Not only does this cream hydrate the skin, thanks to aloe and seaweed extracts, but it also protects your skin when you’re outdoors.

Sunscreen is a must every single time you go out. Make sure you have some of this moisturizer stocked up on your skincare shelf so you never have to go out and expose yourself to the sun’s harmful rays!

But Moisturizers Aren’t Perfect…

Sometimes, using super thick moisturizers and not having a proper cleansing routine can lead to skin that feels clogged. To allow your skin to breathe again after it feels like there’s so much build-up of oils and grime on your skin, you need to turn to exfoliating products.

We never stop raving about our Lavelier Intensive Facial Peel, and we highly recommend it to anyone who needs a thorough cleanse.

This gel is made with nut shell powder, bamboo powder, and mandelic acid — all gentle yet effective exfoliants in their own right. One use of this exfoliating peel, and your face will feel like a fresh new canvas. 

Another way moisturizers can wreak havoc when not properly used is by aggravating already oily skin. When you apply very thick creams to naturally oily skin, you might end up with an overly greasy-looking complexion and pores that look more enlarged. Avoid that by sticking to lightweight formulas.

How Often Should You Moisturize Your Skin?

Moisturizers won’t be as effective if you don’t use them consistently. So, you need to be diligent in applying them daily. Yes, you heard that right. You should moisturize every single day — once in the morning, and another time at night before you sleep.

Most people prefer lightweight creams in the daytime so that their skin doesn’t look or feel overly greasy. But during the evening, you would be smart to invest in a night cream that’s thicker and richer. This helps moisturize your skin deeper as you sleep.

One of our bestselling moisturizers for a PM routine is the Lavelier Marine Evening Repair Cream. This velvety cream is infused with shea butter, coral seaweed extract, jojoba oil, and sweet almond oil. These botanicals work to moisturize the skin as you snooze. When you wake up, your complexion will feel luxuriously smooth and look plump and dewy.

The best time to moisturize is right after hydrating your skin with your favorite toner or serum. That way, your moisturizer can lock in the moisture you just packed on, leaving your skin hydrated for longer.

Conclusion

Moisturizers offer a plethora of benefits for aging skin. They hydrate dry skin and minimize the look of those pesky lines and wrinkles. And when your moisturizer has all the right ingredients, it can even target the appearance of other skin concerns that make you look a little older than you actually are, like dark spots and dullness.

But even if you have an arsenal of moisturizers in your vanity, know that moisturizing isn’t the only thing that will stop the appearance of wrinkles in their tracks. You also have to make some lifestyle changes, like staying out of the sun more and cutting back on smoking. 

When you invest in a high-quality moisturizer, you’ll reap all of the benefits it has to offer. So long as you’re disciplined enough to apply it twice a day every day, you’ll be rewarded with a smooth, glowing, and youthful-looking appearance for a long time.

Click here to browse more of Lavelier’s bestselling skincare products.