Understanding Moisturizing Ingredients: MOIST72, WaterLock, HydroGel, and Trehalose

These ingredients provide hydration to the skin through different mechanisms:

• MOIST72 (Saccharide Isomerate) and Trehalose: These are both types of sugars that function as humectants. They work by attracting water from the environment and binding it to the skin, helping to increase the skin's moisture content. MOIST72 is known for its long-lasting hydration effect.
• WaterLock (Polyquaternium-51): This ingredient forms a durable, non-washable film on the surface of the skin. Its primary function is to create a barrier that prevents transepidermal water loss (TEWL), effectively locking in the skin's natural moisture.
• HydroGel: Based on your description, HydroGel appears to function similarly to WaterLock by forming a film on the skin to prevent water loss. However, unlike WaterLock, it washes off easily with water.

So, while MOIST72 and Trehalose add and retain moisture by drawing water in, WaterLock and HydroGel primarily prevent moisture loss by creating a protective layer on the skin surface.

Combining WaterLock, HydroGel, and Trehalose

Having WaterLock and HydroGel in your formula helps reduce water loss from the skin. Adding Trehalose, a humectant, can complement this by actively drawing and holding water in the skin. Whether you need to add Trehalose depends on the desired level of moisturization and how your current formula feels on the skin. If you find the combination of WaterLock and HydroGel at 0.25% each is not providing sufficient hydration, adding Trehalose could enhance the formula's ability to moisturize by increasing the water content within the skin itself, rather than just preventing loss from the surface.

Using Light Cream Maker with Ethoxydiglycol and Water

Light Cream Maker is designed to create oil-in-water emulsions, which form creams or lotions by combining an oil phase with a water phase using an emulsifier. Ethoxydiglycol is a solvent and carrier, not an oil in the context of emulsion formation with Light Cream Maker. If you combine Light Cream Maker with only Ethoxydiglycol and water, you will not achieve a cream texture. Instead, as you noted and as confirmed by formulation principles, this combination will result in a gel texture because there is no oil phase to emulsify into a cream structure.