Ten Things I Love About Hyaluronic Acid for Skincare

Co-Founder, Celeste Lee

No. 1

HA is shorthand for Hyaluronic Acid, a molecule naturally made by and found all over the human body… in cartilage, tissue and skin. So, if you like, love and appreciate yourself, and at Caire Beauty, we highly encourage that - - you should learn to love HA too as it is part of you and a critical component of what makes your skin feel firm, young, smooth and ‘bouncy’.   

No. 2

HA is a humectant. You might be wondering what that means. Well, in plain English, a humectant is anything that can hold or attract water. A humectant can actually pull water out of the air or up from lower skin layers. Dermatologists say that a single HA molecule can hold 1000x its weight in moisture. We say that’s Olympian.

No. 3

HA is sometimes called the ‘goo’ molecule. This is because Hyaluronic Acid’s polymer chains make up a huge proportion of the extracellular matrix. This is, simply put, the area around and between all your skin cells. If you can imagine your skin cells as bricks, you can then imagine your extracellular matrix as the grout in between, keeping all the cells together in formation. By the way, the extracellular matrix is all over our amazing bodies, including our brains. So yes, hyaluronic acid is a huge part of your brains too!

No. 4

HA is a fundamental building block. There are 6 types of HA molecules in humans, each of different sizes (sometimes referred to as weights).  Each performs different purposes in different parts of the body. A dermatologist will tell you that a good hyaluronic acid serum or moisturizer should include a combination of large weight and low weight hyaluronic acid molecules. Almost all formulas, however, only use the larger size molecules (which, frankly, are inexpensive in cost). These HA molecules hydrate the epidermis, which is a good thing, but the effect can be quite short-lived. The low weight, small HA molecules are valuable and can penetrate the skin barrier, where their ability to pull up moisture from skin’s deeper layers, plumps up skin from the inside out. It is the combination of above and below intensive hydration that creates a supple, youthfully healthy visage.

No. 5

HA (Hyaluronic acid) is also sometimes called hyaluronan. The molecule with a hundred names seems to have almost as many uses. In addition to binding moisture and giving skin a natural glow and smoother texture (meaning smoothed out fine lines) on the outside - - down under, in skin’s extracellular matrix, HA physically helps skin cells to migrate and move and aids in collagen creation (remember the bricks we mentioned earlier? A critical material in our skin’s bricks is collagen). 

No 6.

HA works hard to defend skin against oxidative stress, UV radiation and all manner of other skin stressors. (In case you haven’t noticed, we’re focused on skin here or we’d have to triple the reading if we addressed how HA helps your knees absorb the impact from running, vinyasa flow and Peloton).

No. 7

HA plays a leading role in skin tissue regeneration. This is where the PhDs at the Caire Lab got intrigued. Why? Because as we age, our bodies naturally produce less and less HA year on year.  Specifically at age 30, we start to lose 1% of our Hyaluronic acid production annually. On women’s skin, this becomes visibly noticeable around at age 35 to 45. This is primarily due to naturally occurring hormone shifts (that’s the phrase you read in scientific articles). At Caire, we wonder if this is meant to be a ‘nice’ way of saying hormone decline? Regardless, when estrogen production starts to slow, Hyaluronic acid production slows down too.

No 8.  

HA is on the job for you every day. We have about 15 grams of Hyaluronic acid in our bodies and synthesize (that means ‘use’) about 1/3 of this daily. What can we do about that hormone-driven production loss? Caire’s Theorem Serum Boost is named that because its proprietary (that means no one else has it but us!) formula contains a Hyaluronic Acid growth factor. A growth factor is exactly what it sounds like - it helps something to grow. So yes you can! You can actually encourage your own skin to produce more HA on its own.

No. 9

HA calms skin. The ‘acid’ part of the name is deeply deceiving as Hyaluronic acid is actually exceptionally gentle, naturally anti-inflammatory and is great for all skin types, even the most sensitive, stressed or break out prone. The Caire Lifting Mask takes advantage of HA’s calming, anti-inflammatory qualities and gives women in their 40s, 50s and 60s+ a massive skin hug. As the mask tightens its hug, its infusing the face and neck(and décolletage!) with an HA complex -- three different HA molecular weights feed and hydrate different skin layers. Afterwards, skin is softer, smoother, lifted and rejuvenated - as if you’ve somehow slept for a week.   

No. 10

HA is the fountain of youth. In reality, there is no such thing as one single fountain of youth, but supplying your skin with HA and HA growth factor is a pretty darn good start. Providing your skin with deep hydration above and below the skin barrier and, making skin act, look and feel stronger, smoother, firmer, glowier is now in the realm of real-life possibility.

It's also not about the percentage of Hyaluronic Acid that matters.
Why is the percentage of HA not as important?  A high percentage of "Sodium Hyaluronate", the ingredient for HA will likely cause pilling on the skin which you can easily feel. Bottom line is to hunt for HA based products that include the broadest spectrum of weights of HA & ones that include the tiniest HA ingredient (the most expensive available which is why it works). 

Why Caire & How is Our HA complex different?

Caire's skincare products use Hormone Defying skincare science that empowers your skin to build itself better and healthier by leveraging a deep infusing cocktail of Triple Hyaluronic Acids (HAs) (High, Middle & Low Molecular weight), growth actives and plant inspired delivery systems to activate your own collagen and HA skin cell production.  Traditionally, skincare products primarily use the high molecular weight HA which gives you an instant surface glow, yet is not tiny enough to penetrate as deeply for true hydration infusion, plumping and a longer lasting glow.  If it's a super cheap HA product that means it's mostly the high weight and almost 99% of products you buy toss this ingredient in because they think you want it there as a consumer, but we all know that these cheaper brands are cheating you from the most effective skincare.

Tiny HA is indeed better.  Caire includes all 3 weights of HA & the tiniest HA you can find available in the world meaning it goes in deeper and works more effectively than many other HA skincare products.  We invite you to learn more about Caire Beauty and shop our proprietary HA infused collection here. 

We would love to hear from you.  Please feel free to reach out to us at care@cairebeauty.com and tell us your story. We "caire" about our community and anything you share will be kept confidential but will help us create the most desirable hormone defying skincare going forward.