Key Takeaways
Hyaluronic acid serum is a substance naturally produced by the body to maintain moisture levels in the skin, connective tissue, joints, and other areas.
50% of your body’s hyaluronic acid content exists in the skin, but this content reduces with age.
Hyaluronic acid can be taken as an oral supplement, used topically, or administered as a hyaluronic acid injection.
Both topical and oral hyaluronic acid can offer serious benefits to your skin, including improving skin moisture and elasticity, reducing inflammation, preventing sun damage, and giving a boost to your overall skincare routine.
When used as instructed, hyaluronic acid serum has minimal potential for adverse effects. Hyaluronic acid supplements are known to be one of the most effective and safe ways of achieving healthier-looking skin and promote skin hydration.
5 Hyaluronic Acid Benefits for Your Skin
One of the first pieces of advice you'll hear from skincare product professionals for how to get healthier, glowing skin is “Drink more water.” But for your skin to actually hold on to that water, it needs a partner in crime: hyaluronic acid. Wondering how to prevent acne scars? HA could help to prevent the formation of acne scars by promoting healthy, hydrated skin.
Hyaluronic Acid: the name sounds harsh but the ingredient couldn’t be safer and more nourishing for your skin—and, it’s natural. This molecule is a fluid found in the eyes, skin, and joints. It’s often used to treat cataracts, osteoarthritis, acid reflux, and dry eyes.
It’s also one of skin care’s favorites. Why? It’s nourishing, hydrating properties provide moisture, fight aging, and can even help heal wounds. But when it comes to using Hyaluronic Acid on your skin, here are a few things you should know.
What is Hyaluronic Acid?
Hyaluronic acid, or HA, is quite literally a heavyweight hydration agent.
HA is an organic substance that is a part of our bodies’ natural chemistry. Hyaluronic acid absorbs and retains water, locking in as much as 1,000 times its own weight in moisture. It has a high molecular weight that forms a water-dense network underpinning the body’s connective tissues.
HA is primarily found in:
Joints (particularly, synovial fluid, the fluid in your joints that keeps them healthy)
HA is densely packed into these areas of the body—in fact, almost every one of your cells is primed to process HA within its life cycle. This indicates that HA is integral for a host of physiological processes, including:
Suffice to say, HA is a dynamic substance for every system of the body. However, the molecular size and overall content of our HA decreases as we get older.
Fortunately, with a little help from the skincare world, you can integrate this powerhouse substance into your skincare product regimen for the good of your skin.
What Does Hyaluronic Acid Do for Skin? 5 Benefits
Our skin loves hyaluronic acid and for good reason. With our bodies natural production of hyaluronic acid, about half of our bodies’ entire HA content resides in the skin, in the dermis and epidermis.
Treating your skin with an extra dose of hyaluronic acid isn’t just about boosting your glow. HA has been used as a key therapeutic ingredient for a host of concerns, from alleviating eye and vaginal dryness to joint pain.
Dermatologists have enlisted HA as a powerful treatment for promoting healthier skin in both function and appearance. There are 5 promising benefits you can expect from this skincare ingredient:
1. Hydration station
Keeping your skin nourished and hydrated is a top-shelf solution for a host of skin concerns, from premature aging to the acne flare-ups that can arise around your period. It also provides health benefits for oily skin or dry skin.
Hyaluronic Acid can hold 1000 times its weight in water. Now that’s hydrating. This is why so many skin care products use it in their formulas. But it’s also a powerful hydrater all on its own. You can use this molecule by itself as a serum, or in a combination product to give your skin the moisture it needs.
By turbo-boosting your skin’s moisture levels, oral or injectable hyaluronic acid products may help to minimize wrinkles, smooth out skin texture, and nourish your dehydrated skin with the moisture it needs to function as a barrier (and look radiant doing it).
2. Tighten up
Youthful-looking skin has less to do with age, and more to do with our skin’s water content. As the natural hyaluronic acid molecule levels of our skin deplete with time, the elasticity of our skin decreases, leading to fine lines and wrinkles. Serums, creams, and lotions containing HA boost skin’s moisture levels, which may help to improve skin elasticity and make wrinkles appear less noticeable.
As you apply hyaluronic acid, your skin drinks up all that moisture and tightens as it becomes moisturized, giving your skin a bouncier, taught appearance. It’s important to note Hyaluronic Acid won’t repair skin’s elasticity, but it will help enhance it, giving your skin a youthful, tight look.
3. L8er, aging skin
HA is a team player. It can be used on its own to boost hydration, or as a carrier that allows other active ingredients to seep below the superficial layers of your skin. Whether you’re treating your skin for hormonal acne or other skin concerns like eczema, using topical HA may have a calming effect that can quell inflammation on a deeper level.
As we get older, our skin begins to lose its firmness and wrinkles begin to form. Using Hyaluronic Acid helps the skin regain durability, making the depth of wrinkles less pronounced so the skin appears smoother and less sagging.
While you’re not going to see wrinkles disappear, you will see them become less deep. Hyaluronic Acid is especially helpful in reducing fine lines and wrinkles as it creates a plumping effect while naturally adding moisture to the skin.
4. Pigmentation, be gone
UV radiation is one of the primary culprits for premature aging, causing molecules known as free radicals to damage our bodies’ cells. HA can have antioxidative properties, which means it hunts down free radicals caused by sun damage and buffers the damage they cause to our bodies’ skin cells. In doing so, HA may improve skin firmness and texture.
As we age, the pigments in our skin change, which can lead to dark spots. This occurs from cell turnover and damage to the skin’s barrier. But Hyaluronic Acid can increase cell regeneration through its hydrating properties. However, it can’t fully tackle dark spots on its own.
Pairing Hyaluronic Acid with Vitamin C is the best way to treat dark spots, as Vitamin C helps repair sun damage, age spots, and even scars.
5. Toughen up
As an anti-inflammatory agent, HA may be used to promote wound healing by reducing swelling in the skin, eyes, cartilage, and other areas of the body.
Acne is one of the most common inflammatory skin diseases—the result of skin’s hyperreactivity to oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria clogging the pores. By including hyaluronic acid products in your skincare routine, you may add an extra line of defense for your skin's surface against the inflammatory response that leads to bumps and blemishes (especially around that time of the month!).
Additionally, your skin is made of a lipid layer that acts as a barrier against environmental factors and pollutants. Hyaluronic Acid acts as an extra supportive layer of protection, which allows your skin to stress less. This enables your skin to relax a bit, which reduces wrinkles and creates a brighter complexion.
Adding Hyaluronic Acid to your skin care routine is a great way to maintain healthy, balanced skin. We offer a moisturizing Hyaluronic Acid Cleanser to clean skin without drying it out. Plus, if you’re experiencing hyperpigmentation, you can add our Vitamin C Serum and Moisturizer to your routine to help rid dark spots and keep skin feeling and looking fresh.
Different Forms of Hyaluronic Acid
Because of the myriad clinical and cosmetic applications of hyaluronic acid, there are several ways to use it in practice. In the world of skincare, there are 3 types of products that put HA to work:
Supplements – Because your body’s HA content diminishes with age, taking this substance orally may help to boost your body’s internal supply. In pill form, HA is primarily used to relieve knee joint pain, while a small amount from the supplement may reach the skin. For this reason, hyaluronic acid supplements may be better suited to assist with bone or joint distress rather than relieving exclusively cosmetic skin complaints.
Topically – One of the most comprehensive ways to use HA is by incorporating it into your skincare routine from the outside in. HA may be formulated as a serum, gel, or emulsion (a water-based moisturizer) to be used topically in harmony with your other products.
With filler injections – HA may also be directly injected into the skin to soften, smooth, and promote elasticity below the surface. While this method is more invasive than the topical route, HA injections are the most targeted means of combating common complaints like fine lines, crows feet, and smile lines (nasolabial folds).
How to Use and Apply Hyaluronic Acid?
If you’re sold on integrating HA into your skincare routine by going the topical route, there are a couple of tips for getting the most out of your product of choice:
Choose the right product – Molecular weight dictates what types of actions HA has in the skin. While larger HA molecules are best at retaining water, smaller ones more easily penetrate the skin, rather than stopping short at the skin’s surface. Because of this, you’ll want to look for a product that contains multiple HA molecule sizes to ensure it works as an effective hydration-booster.
Know when to use it – Creating an effective skincare routine means sticking to an order of operations, and products with HA are no exception. If you opt for HA in serum form, be sure to allow it to sink in before layering your final lotions or creams over it. Moisturizers containing HA should be applied as the final step in your skincare routine. By doing so, your skin will be better primed to receive the water contained in your moisturizer, resulting in nourished, dewier-looking skin.
Side Effects of Hyaluronic Acid
Skin researchers agree that HA is one of the safest ingredients you can use in the world of skincare and cosmetics. There are virtually no adverse hyaluronic acid side effects when used as instructed, even when applied during pregnancy or while you’re breastfeeding.
In fact, HA is renowned for:
The simplicity of injection procedures
Low likelihood of immune response (allergies)
Immediately noticeable skin enhancements
Although HA poses virtually no risks to the people who use it, it bears mentioning that this ingredient has a brief half-life. This means that its effects can become less noticeable within a relatively brief period of time. HA filler injections, for instance, typically only last between 4 and 6 months, depending on where they are placed in the skin.
That said, topical treatments may just be the solution to locking in all of the benefits HA has to offer in its brief but glorious life. With consistent, daily application, you may notice an immediate radiance boost in the mirror and a marked improvement in your skin’s quality for the long haul.
Put Hyaluronic Acid to the Test with The Pill Club
From putting the kabosh on acne to helping your skin stay hydrated year round, there are myriad hyaluronic acid benefits for skin. And whether you’re a skincare minimalist or a skincare maven with 14 steps in your routine, The Pill Club delivers affordable health care products from birth control pills to the medicines you use to achieve a glowing complexion.
The Pill Club gives you access to:
Telemedicine reproductive health and dermatology consultations
Prescription fulfillment services (insurance accepted)
Monthly medication deliveries
Care package self-care extras to get you through trying hormonal times
It’s our mission to provide integrative reproductive care programs that provide the total package to everyone who menstruates (no exceptions). To learn more about insurance coverage and our affordable care plans, sign up for The Pill Club today.
National Library of Medicine. Hyaluronic acid, a promising skin rejuvenating biomedicine: A review of recent updates and pre-clinical and clinical investigations on cosmetic and nutricosmetic effects. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30287361/
National Library of Medicine. Applications of Hyaluronic Acid in Ophthalmology and Contact Lenses.
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