Dear Lauren Science Series · Vol. 03
The uncomfortable truth about Ceramide
The real reason ceramide creams don't change your skin — and what does.
From a customer
I bought an expensive ceramide cream because everyone said it was good,
but it only feels hydrated while I'm applying it —
then it's back to how it was.
Ceramide isn't the problem. The “apply it on top” approach itself has a limit.
Why ceramide matters
More than half of the lipids that make up the skin's protective barrier are ceramides. That ceramide plays a decisive role in barrier formation is well established in skin science. When it runs low, moisture escapes and skin gives way to irritation more easily.
Share of ceramide among the barrier's lipids
It is not one ingredient among many — it is most of the wall.
Kinds of ceramide present in skin
Different subclasses do different jobs; skin makes the mix it needs.
The idea — “let's replenish ceramide” — is completely right. The question is how you replenish it.
Ceramide creams you layer on: two fundamental limits
They stay only on the surface
Ceramide is a large molecule, so applying it cannot carry it deep into the barrier. It forms a thin film and washes off at your next cleanse — like painting over a cracked wall.
The ceramide types don't match
Skin needs more than twelve kinds of ceramide. Ordinary creams contain one or two synthetic types, in small amounts.
Ceramide subclasses: van Smeden & Bouwstra, 2014
So we stopped trying to add it from the outside.
Dear Lauren's answer
Not ceramide you layer on — ceramide skin makes.
Instead of adding it from the outside, we help skin produce the ceramide it needs on its own, using Aquatide carried by SNV®.
Skin makes its own
Rather than adding it in, we support skin's own cells in synthesising ceramide. It doesn't wash away.
The missing types get filled in
Instead of one or two types, skin synthesises the variety it needs — tuned by skin itself.
It supports skin's own renewal
Aquatide is associated with SIRT-1 activity, supporting skin's natural renewal for a healthier-looking barrier.
Franz diffusion cell · human skin · 37 °C. HYMA poster, 2019.
Measured on human skin
The platform is what we test — on people.
Ingredient science explains why a formula should work. These are the numbers it produced on human skin, in IRB-reviewed trials of the finished products this ingredient runs in.
Efficacy testing under IRB approval ASC-IRB-25-707. Cosmetic measurements of skin appearance, moisture and comfort. Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Individual results vary.
Not a coating on the surface, but a barrier rebuilt from within.
Dear Lauren Science Series — three lies your skincare tells you Behind the formulas →
[1] van Smeden J, Bouwstra JA. Biochim Biophys Acta, 2014. [2] Coderch L et al. Eur J Pharm Biopharm, 2003. [3] Aquatide technical sheet (Incospharm, 2016): filaggrin, ABCA12, ceramide biosynthesis, SIRT-1 activation. [4] Aquatide technical sheet (Incospharm, 2016): TEWL recovery, ceramide HPLC, intracellular ROS scavenging.
This content is provided for skin-science education and does not describe drug effects. Individual results vary.