LAYERS | IMMUNITY MOISTURIZER

This product review was originally part of my blog article titled, Super Lightweight Summer Moisturizers SS21 Part 2 – Best Brightening Moisturizer, Best Face Creams for Oily Skin (and All Skin in the Heat!). You can catch the full piece here.

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As I do each summer, I’m publishing my two-part series of what I consider the best lightweight moisturizers of the season. These are the ten or so face creams that I’ve found ideal for the hot, humid days of July and August.

Some are perfect for very oily skin, a few best for very dry skin — and all of them perfectly effective for most skin types in between.

Two weeks ago, I featured five of my favorite warm weather face creams in an article titled, Super Lightweight Summer Moisturizers SS21 Part 1 – Best Brightening Moisturizer, Best Face Creams for Oily Skin (And All Skin in the Heat!).

The initial article featured one of the best face creams for oily skin, the Glossier Priming Moisturizer Balance. And when temps are in the 90s, we’re all oily, making Glossier’s lightest moisturizer perfect for just about everyone with skin.

SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT SUMMER MOISTURIZERS SS21 PART 1 – BEST FACE CREAMS FOR OILY SKIN (AND ALL SKIN IN THE HEAT!)

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On the opposite end of the oily-to-dry skin spectrum is Wander Beauty’s Sight C-er Vitamin C Concentrate. Introduced in the spring, the brand’s new Sight C-er is more of a rich lotion powered by Vitamin C, Niacinamide and Squalane for a veritable cocktail of skin-health goodness. During the colder months, I’ve used it as a layering serum. In summer, it’s the perfect moisturizer for normal and dry skins.

PRODUCT REVIEW: WANDER BEAUTY SIGHT C-ER VITAMIN C CONCENTRATE - BEST BRIGHTENING FACE CREAM VITAMIN C

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Speaking of Vitamin C, I also featured Kat Burki’s Vitamin C Intensive Face Cream — an excellent option for brightening the complexion. In fact, all of the Kat Burki formulas seem ideal for getting a dull complexion glowing. And Kat’s little pot of brightening goodness is a personal fave.

Rounding out those first five were Good Science Beauty’s 004-Br Skin Brightening Cream (an antioxidant powerhouse of Vitamin C, Melatonin and Glutathione) and my favorite summer hack — the Skinfix Redness Recovery+ Antioxidant Redness Treatment Overnight Mask. Even though it’s called a mask, it’s a remarkably effective daily face cream for sensitive skin — and a hidden skincare gem that I wish more people knew about.

PRODUCT REVIEW: SKINFIX REDNESS RECOVERY+ ANTIOXIDANT REDNESS TREATMENT –

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What’s the Difference between Dry Skin and Dehydrated Skin?

Many people confuse the two. They’re not the same thing and it’s helpful to understand the difference in order to advance your skin health. For the answer to that vexing questing, as I most often do, I turned to the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team for insights. There’s a superb piece on the Paula’s Choice site titled, What is Dehydrated Skin & How to Choose the Best Products. Here is an excerpt:

Dehydrated skin often looks and feels like dry skin all over your face, but there's a major difference between the two: dehydrated skin is usually a temporary concern (with various surprising causes) and dry skin typically doesn't change over time. If you have dehydrated skin, your skin may also produce a normal or even excessive amount of oil on its surface.
"Dehydrated skin" is something we’re asked about frequently. It seems there’s a lot of confusion about what this skin concern is about. A major part of the confusion is that the term "dehydrated skin" is often used interchangeably with "dry skin" or "combination skin" but they are not the same! Dehydrated skin can occur in all skin types and is not exclusive to those with dry skin or combination skin.
The Difference Between Dry Skin and Dehydrated Skin
Having classically dry skin is easy to recognize. Dry skin frequently feels tight and dry, with no oil anywhere to be seen. This situation rarely fluctuates; skin feels dry all year long. The dryness might get worse depending on the climate, season, or activity, but regardless of those things, without great skin care products, the uncomfortable dry, tight feeling will persist.
As mentioned above, dehydrated skin can look and feel similar, but there’s a major difference: Dehydrated skin tends to come and go, it does not persist.

Today I’m presenting the second part of my SS21 series on lightweight summer face creams. It features one of the best anti-aging face creams yet and a personal go-to, the Paula’s Choice 0.3% Retinol + 2% Bakuchiol Treatment. It’s the rare wrinkle innovation that’s formulated with both Retinol and the Retinol alternative, Bakuchiol. And it’s a genius formulation. Call it what you will, it’s a perfect summer moisturizer!

The collection features a second anti-aging innovation — One Skin’s OS-01 Topical Supplement. Powered by a new, proprietary peptide, the OS-01 Topical Supplement looks like some sort of crazy alien technology. I’m always on the hunt for alien technology I have a nose for it!

One of the best face creams to fix the microbiome, the Layers Immunity Moisturizer is a probiotic-powered formula with a beautiful, silky texture that’s such a pleasure to use. The Layers brand launched in the spring with treatments to help rebalance both the skin and gut microbiomes for a 360 solution for the skin-gut link.

LAYERS PROBIOTIC SKINCARE – BEST LACTIC ACID SERUM, BEST PROBIOTIC MOISTURIZER FOR MICROBIOME HEALTH

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Last is the Skin Alphabet 2% Hyaluronic Moisture Creamserum. If you’re unfamiliar with Skin Alphabet, it’s the latest of the democratically priced brands offering well-formulated skincare at rock-bottom prices. Skin Alphabet’s Hyaluronic Acid-powered moisturizer is just about $11.

Let’s have a look one of my super lightweight summer moisturizer picks for SS21 in part two of my two-part series…

Layers | Immunity Moisturizer

I first featured this innovative skincare range that cares for the body’s microbiome on the Skincarma Blog several weeks ago when I reviewed the Layers Probiotic Serum. It’s one of the most innovative and pro-skin health treatments that I’ve come across this year — and one of my favorite exfoliating serums with one of the gentler AHA’s, Lactic Acid.

So yeah, Layers has had me intrigued from the start. I’ve been having so much fun exploring the brand and its innovative science — and am excited to feature the Layers Immunity Moisturizer in my SS21 recommendations of the best summer face creams.

PRODUCT REVIEW: LAYERS PROBIOTIC SERUM – BEST LACTIC ACID SERUM, BEST MICROBIOME SKINCARE

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Layers was founded by Rachel Behm, a beauty industry veteran with extensive experience and knowledge of the microbiome and the link between gut health and skin health. Over several weeks this spring, Rachel and I connected over our shared passion for gut health; mine, of course, being related to my drive to understand and conquer my migraines.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to pick Rachel’s brain on emerging microbiome science, the link between the gut microbiome and the skin, and how what’s going on in your gut can affect the way your skin behaves each day.

LACTIC ACID TREATMENTS I'M INTO FROM SUNDAY RILEY, KAT BURKI AND DRUNK ELEPHANT – BEST LACTIC ACID SERUMS

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Excerpts from my conversation with Rachel:

Carmine: How did you come up with the idea for Layers?

Rachel: The idea for Layers came to be when I learned of the human microbiome project, and the profound connection between gut health and skin health. The Human Microbiome Project was conducted over 10 years and studied the interactions between humans and their microbiomes to health-related outcomes. Ranging from obesity to mental health to skin health. It produced 4 terabytes of data that is available to the public to continue to advance this field (much like the human genome project did almost 2 decades ago). 50% of the cells in and on your body are bacteria…and this project taught us a lot more about their importance in human health.

Carmine: How did you become interested in the microbiome?

Rachel: I just so happened to work as a lab tech on the human genome project many years ago, and when learning about the Human Microbiome Project, I saw that it had the same potential to change healthcare outcomes for the better. And one element of that being overall skin health.

I’m always on the hunt for true skincare innovation that stands apart from marketing fluff and Layers feels like a genuine breakthrough in the science of the skin and, more specifically, in the way skincare interacts with the skin to promote optimal skin health.

Rachel gets right to the heart of it — the reason she created Layers in the first place:

“I created Layers to honor the interconnectedness of our body's systems and how they work together to reveal skin's natural glow. And I promise that we’ll advance along with the burgeoning field of microbiome science. After almost a decade in the industry, I saw fads come and go. But what has stayed true is our skin’s natural ability to optimize its own health – rooted in our gut and skin microbiome. Like the soil in our farmland needs to be balanced and nourished for crops to grow, our gut and skin bacteria need to be diverse, balanced, and flourishing to keep our bodies and our skin at their healthiest.”

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Like the Layers Probiotic Serum, the brand’s Immunity Moisturizer is infused with lactobacillus ferment to soothe, balance and nourish the skin — and its surface microbiome.

According to the experts on the Paula’s Choice Research Team, lactobacillus ferment is one of the best actives in skincare. Lactobacillus ferment is a “lab-created, non-living probiotic ingredient made by fermentation of the microorganism Lactobacillus. Applied to skin, it’s been shown to have a potent soothing effect that in turn strengthens skin’s ability to defend itself from aggressors.

“Research has also revealed that this ferment may play a role in helping skin’s microbiome to maintain a healthy mix of flora, a benefit that may reduce the risk or visible severity of several common, often uncomfortable skin conditions.”

The Layers Immunity Moisturizer is a clean, vegan thick-whipped cream with a relatively tight ingredient list that comprises fewer than 20 ingredients.

As spring made way for summer, I found myself testing it out in climates varying from hot, humid sweltering days to more temperate, even chilly nights. It performed well throughout — and has been supremely comfortable on my skin.

It’s actually quite a remarkable formula. In addition to the skin-nourishing and balancing lactobacillus ferment, there’s antioxidant-rich Sunflower Seed Oil and Pomegranate Flower Extract — as well as Meadowfoam Seed Oil, also prominently featured in the Layers Lactic Acid-powered Probiotic Serum.

What Is the Microbiome and What Is the Link Between the Gut and the Skin?

I’ve been exploring the microbiome for the better part of the past year; in particular, its effects on skin health have intrigued me. Randomly, I’ve noticed that my skin seems to act up for no reason. And, of course, my migraines can strike at any time — again, seemingly for no reason. It was only over the past six weeks that I’ve really begun to grasp the existence of a gut-brain link.

Rachel Behm, CEO and Founder of Layers explains the body’s microbiomes and the link between our gut and our skin this way:

Your microbiome is made up of trillions of microbes found in your gut and on your skin, working as your skin’s natural defense system. Creating the right environment for the microbiome to be diverse and balanced (in a state of homeostasis), while also protecting it, leads to improved skin resilience from all stressors thrown at it, from aging to weather.
Gut Microbiome: In your gut, microbes digest lactose and fiber, make amino acids and vitamins, and even regulate your immune system. Your gut microbiome contributes to digestion, healthy weight, immunity, and glowing skin.
Skin Microbiome: On your skin, microbes protect you from internal and external stressors. They maintain the skin’s pH, regulate immune response, and defend against pathogens. Healthy skin relies on a healthy relationship with these microbes to prevent skin inflammation, causing redness, dehydration, dullness, and loss of elasticity.
The Gut-Skin Connection (gut-skin axis): The microbes in and on your body outnumber your human cells by a factor of 3:1. And your gut and skin are home to the largest communities of these microbes. A profound relationship exists between your gut and skin. Amazingly, these two seemingly separate systems talk to one another through your microbiome, the trillions of good bacteria whose micro-language is responsible for everything from releasing natural antibiotics to supporting our immune system to improving hydration and supporting collagen production.

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Antioxidant Milk Thistle is featured as well for its powerful anti-inflammatory benefits that help to calm and replenish the skin. Interestingly, my naturopathic doctor prescribes a Milk Thistle for me each morning so it’s not unfamiliar to me — or to my gut’s microbiome!

As I said, the texture of the Layers Immunity Moisturizer is a thick-whipped cream. But it’s softer than what you’d expect and has the qualities of a richer gel-cream, making it an ideal face cream for a hot day.

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