How to use ceramides and everything you need to know about the skincare hero

Plus five of the best ceramide-rich moisturisers at high street prices

Ceramides are widely tolerated and shouldn’t harm customers if applied over-zealously.

Our skin loves fats. The good fats you eat (think salmon, avocado, and hummus), and especially the kinds that hold its protective layer together to keep it smooth and protected. The skin’s surface layer is sometimes compared to a wall that holds in moisture. Flattened, dead cells are the bricks and the mortar that tightly binds them is made up of natural fats, or lipids. 

Waxy ceramides are the most abundant of these fats. They make beauty news quite often and their skincare equivalents have been in vogue this past year. Customers who over-exfoliated while following the ongoing trend for alpha and beta hydroxy acids may wonder if ceramides can repair their sensitised skin. People with persistent dryness may seek new products that support their depleted moisture barrier.

Signs of ageing can generate yet more curiosity. The rather alarming assertion that we typically lose about 60% of our natural ceramides by our 40s is often repeated in media and marketing that covers ceramide products, as well as in media quotes from some professional dermatologists. 

I cannot trace this specific percentage and age range to published research and am sceptical of how you would come up with them, but it is true that we lose natural ceramides over time and that they are essential to healthy skin function. Whether we can replace them with ceramides in skincare is another story.

“It is established that ceramides are an important component of the epidermal barrier, and that ceramides are depleted in patients with eczema. So, it does make sense that industry would and should pursue ceramide skincare to remedy the ceramide depletion,” Dr Jules Lipoff, Assistant Professor of Clinical Dermatology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, tells me.

“However, though there have been positive signals, there hasn’t been sufficient evidence to definitively suggest that ceramide creams are superior to standard emollients such as Vaseline at improving moisturisation. There may be lower ceramides with dry skin or eczema, but I don't think there is good evidence that we can add back missing ceramides with a cream.”

What are ceramides in skincare?

It is important to distinguish between the essential ceramides in our skin and the sometimes-expensive skincare ceramides can certainly be beneficial but share their benefits with many cheaper, more widely available ingredients. The ceramides in skincare can perform four functions.

They prevent the loss of water from deep within your skin into the environment (transepidermal water loss). They are soothing and help to prevent redness (anti-inflammatory). Cosmetic ceramide precursors (such as phytosphingosine and sphingosine) may encourage skin to make more natural ceramides on its own, thereby strengthening its natural resilience and elasticity. Finally, cosmetic ceramides give skin an instantly plumped, more youthful look. Fantastic, right? Why haven’t they been part of every moisturiser ever made?

Different kinds of ceramides

Raw ceramides are expensive for skincare brands to use because the quantity found in plant extracts is very low. As a result, the industry most often uses synthetic, yeast extracted phytoceramides (which have a similar structure to the fatty acids extracted from plants) that, while cheaper, do not penetrate the skin as well. 

Many affordable skincare brands use a ceramide 'complex' such as SK-INFLUX® that combines these with cholesterol and free fatty acids in a specific ratio that resembles the skin’s natural moisture barrier. This ratio can be tricky to implement effectively, not least because everyone’s barrier is unique. Again, these products are not bad, but ceramides are probably not their MVP.

Cosmetic ceramides are familiar to many customers solely based on their 30+ year association with Elizabeth Arden’s luxury capsules. They are not traditionally an everyday purchase for most people, not just because of the cost and availability but because we have so many affordable alternatives that work extremely well. 

Do they do the same job as a moisturiser? 

The functions cosmetic ceramides perform — moisture protection, calming, plumping, and the encouragement of natural ceramide growth — can all be achieved with ingredients from the three main groups of moisturisers (occlusives, emollients, and humectants) at a far lower cost to beauty companies and customers. Even the newer, affordable ceramide-labelled brands like CeraVe have formulas that rely heavily on ingredients from those three groups, particularly glycerin, Cetearyl alcohol, and petrolatum (AKA Vaseline). These products aren’t bad, but it is hard to know whether it’s the effects of their ceramides that keep customers buying.

Lactic acid and urea are both cheap humectants that have been shown to encourage the skin to grow more of its own natural ceramides.

The skin can be soothed, and its redness prevented with multiple purse-friendly ingredients. Panthenol, for example, is a non-greasy and calming emollient that can be safely used on acne and rosacea sufferers without fear of flare-ups or discomfort. Plumping and smoothing is something every moisturiser should do, at least temporarily, and I especially like shea butter, squalane, and other fatty emollients for this purpose.

Hyaluronic acid is perhaps the most famous of the plumping humectants, though glycerin is even more widely used. When it comes to a stellar moisturiser, there is no one ingredient that beats all, but it is certainly possible to make a cream that does something you’d like ceramides to do for your skin without having ceramides on the ingredients list.

Do I need to switch to ceramide skincare?

Ceramides in skincare can be wonderful skin hydrators, plumpers, and soothers but I cannot call them essentials on a par with a gentle cleanser or broad-spectrum sun protection, even if you have problem dry skin. Some of us need to protect a weak natural moisture barrier just to go about our lives in comfort and a product with ceramides may certainly help. 

It is worth noting that even though people with eczema have a depleted moisture barrier and are ceramide insufficient, the first eczema cream to be endorsed by the British Skin Foundation was Cetraben, a white paraffin cream containing no ceramides at all. E45 cream, Oilatum, Silcox base, Aqueous cream, and other popular barrier creams for people with eczema and psoriasis are also ceramide-free, despite being recommended to people with diminished natural ceramide protection available to them.

If you suffer from acne or a kind of rosacea that means you cannot tolerate occlusives like the above and you still need a moisturiser, ceramides can help but so can silicones and niacinamide.

Temporary plumping and smoothing should be even easier. As previously mentioned, hyaluronic acid or plant-oil rich serum can both cost less and plump the skin up like a ceramide product. If you love what you use, stick with it.

I like ceramides as a trend because the ingredients are widely tolerated and shouldn’t harm customers if applied over-zealously (unlike chemical exfoliation or home micro-needling rollers, for example), but skincare can get very expensive. Loving the effect or experience of a ceramide product is a fine reason to buy it, but do not feel you are doing your skin a disservice by swotting up on the ceramides your body makes and then deciding not to try the cosmetic kind.

Finally, I think far too little of the media conversation about ceramides focuses on protecting the kind we have. Avoiding harsh cleansers and exfoliants, trying a urea moisturiser and — most importantly— protecting your skin from UV rays are all moves that help to keep your natural ceramides intact. Healthy skin keeps producing natural ceramides because that’s part of its protective function.

If I want to add ceramide skincare to my routine, where should I begin?

There are great moisturisers that contain ceramides available at every price point. Though it’s not always easy to are what makes them great because of their high concentrations of supportive ingredients such as petrolatum. It’s fair to say they’re valuable players. These are five of my favourites.

Aveeno Dermexa Emollient Cream, €12.82 at selected pharmacies, is a wonderful buy for those with eczema or other problem dryness. Ceramides, colloidal oatmeal, and vitamin e make a comforting combination.

CeraVe SA Smoothing Cream with Salicylic Acid, €20 at selected pharmacies, is a good one for tackling dry skin with keratosis pilaris, identifiable by the “chicken-bump” texture it gives the skin. Urea penetrates and hydrates dry and scaly patches while oil-soluble salicylic acid clears the bumps. Ceramides add to the creams moisturising and anti-inflammatory benefits.

Drunk Elephant F-Balm™ Electrolyte Waterfacial, €50 at cultbeauty.com, is a rich mask that combines ceramides with niacinamide and a host of plumping plant oils, including squalene, linseed, and jojoba.

The Inkey List Ceramide Night Treatment, €16.95 at lookfantastic.ie, is a lightweight lotion that gets a lot of play on social media. It’s a nice have-a-go price if you’re interested in something with ceramides for your face.

Lumene Arctic Hydra Care Moisture & Relief Rich Oleo-Serum, €37.39 at feelunique.com, is a comforting mix of ceramides, bilberry, oat, and canola oils that plumps skin and reduces redness.