Moisturizer Questions

Hi everyone,
Thanks for everyone who helped with the last questions. I was wondering if
someone can help me with the following.
1– Why do I need a moisturizer?
2– Can moisturizers be bad for your skin in any way?
3– When should I use a moisturizer?
4– What is the best kind of moisturizer for oily skin?
5– Is expensive moisturizer better than cheap moisturizer?
6– Why do you need to clean your face from makeup but not moisturizer?
7– I use cocoa butter and it seems to work fine. I also sometimes use
Vaseline and it will take care of dry skin within an hour. Can I use those
instead of a moisturizer?
Thanks,
Sarah

"Sarah" <lina1...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:OKrId.328$al1....@lakeread07...
I think you've answered your own questions, by and large. Use moisturizer
when your skin feels like it needs it. If cocoa butter and Vaseline work
for you, use them. The point of moisturizers is to keep your skin looking
and feeling supple and hydrated.
Smokey

Sarah wrote:
The question is not why, but when. Moisturizers provide
a therapeutic effect when the skin is dry, flaky, itchy, or
irritated, when the skin's water content drops to below
10–20%%, and when the skin's barrier effect is damaged. Harsh
surfactants, wind, cold weather, conditions of low humidity,
age, and use of irritants can all impair the skin's barrier
and lead to loss of water, water–binding substances, and lipids
in the skin.
Yes, some emulsifiers can impair the barrier effect and can
allow for irritants to more easily penetrate the skin.
When your skin feels tight, dry, chapped, flaky, etc.
It depends on what you mean by best. If you mean most effective,
the most effective moisturizer in most studies is plain petrolatum.
But, petrolatum can be comedogenic for some skins. Some acne–prones
do better with a lower lipid content, but in general, the lower the
lipid content, the less the therapeutic effect.
Usually no.
moisturizer?
It's probably best to clean both, although some moisturizers
contain skin–identical lipids that benefit the stratum corneum,
and do not need to be washed off.
Cocoa butter performs poorly when compared to an inert lipid
mix like petrolatum.
There is a picture here:
http://www.scf–online.com/english/31_e/Images31_e/b_gabard31_fig4_big_e.gif
Petrolatum is usually the best choice, but natural oils that
are dominant in unoxidized linoleic acid are also good because
linoleic acid is the primary fatty acid in the stratum corneum
and is a component of or precursor to some skin lipids, including
ceramides.
But, applying an incomplete mix of skin lipids can actually impede
the barrier repair process, according to some sources. The skin
lipids include ceramides, cholesterol, and free fatty acids. Some
of the newer "barrier repair" creams include all of these, but they
have not yet been shown to be superior to plain petrolatum in most
studies.
–
evidence–based skincare forum:
http://biochemistryofbeauty.com/phpBB/index.php

I felt pangs of guilt today after sorting out my own lipsticks –– a few had
to be tossed due to going sour –– and none of them have been used more than
about 1/3...

x–no–archive:yes
Forgive me for top–posting but this was a superb contribution to the NG.
Thanks.>The question is not why, but when. Moisturizers provide