What is hyaluronic acid? Here’s all you need know about the wonder ingredient

Wouldn’t it be amazing if the fountain of youth existed? Can you imagine how much a drop of liquid from that fountain would cost, though?

While the magical fountain doesn’t exist, beauty brands are promising youth in a bottle with an array of products to keep pesky wrinkles at bay and maintain healthy, glowing skin.

The one ingredient on everyone’s lips right now is hyaluronic acid.

These days if an anti-ageing beauty product doesn’t contain hyaluronic acid (HA) most people won’t even consider buying it.

It does sound rather scary though. Why would you want to apply anything to your face that contains acid? The word “acid” conjures up images of chemistry experiments gone wrong.

Well, you can seek comfort in the fact that our skin produces HA naturally. Its main function is to retain water to maintain moisture levels, as well as elasticity, to keep skin tissue well lubricated.

Unfortunately, due to the natural ageing process and years of exposure to daily environmental aggressors, such as air pollution, UV rays and air conditioning, those healthy levels of production decrease, leaving the skin prone to dehydration.

This results in visible signs of ageing, including fine lines, wrinkles and sagging skin.

Since the body is no longer able to produce enough HA, it makes sense to reintroduce it to the skin through products.

Using hyaluronic acid helps hydrate the skin. Picture: Pexels

It’s important to note that HA is used to hydrate the skin and not moisturise it.

If your skin is dehydrated, it is lacking water. This is where HA comes in.

And if your skin is dry, it is lacking oil. This is where moisturisers and oils step in.

So how do you use HA and incorporate it into your beauty routine?

“HA can be used correctively or preventively. If you start seeing signs of your skin losing ‘plumpness’, incorporating HA is going to start working its benefits on an ageing complexion to restore a youthful complexion. You can start from your late twenties prophylactically incorporating HA into your skin regime as an age preventive measure,” explained Dr Bradley Wagemaker, medical director at Lamelle Research Laboratories.

Hyaluronic acid can now be found in a wide variety of skincare products, but the most effective format would be leave-on products, serums being the most popular.

When using a serum, it must become part of your routine and cannot be used on its own. After using a cleanser and toner, you can apply the serum followed by your moisturiser and most importantly, sunscreen.

Here’s a list of hyaluronic acid rich products to try.