What Is The Difference Between Body Cream And Body Lotion?

So you are in your favourite beauty store, but you are staring at the shelf. Lotions, creams, body butters, body oils, floral sprays, the list seems to go on and on. And yet you just want something simple to moisturise your skin.

We feel you.

Many customers want to know the difference between body cream and body lotion. Some also ask about body butter and the specific benefits that body butter can bring to our skin.

So in this article, we will talk about 2 fundamental concepts that help make various types of skin moisturisers we see on the market. We will also share our tips on how to use various skin moisturisers whether it is a body butter, body oil or a lotion in our daily skincare routine.

What Is In Our Moisturiser?

To understand skin moisturisers, we first need to understand how they are made. The two main ingredients in our moisturisers are water and oils. And to avoid confusion, oil contents in this case can come from solid butters such as shea butter and mango butter or they can come from liquid ingredients such as jojoba oil.

Concept 1: Oil To Water Ratio Affects The Consistency Of Your Moisturiser.

So the basic concept is the more oils you have in a formulation, the thicker or heavier the product it is. Think of your favourite body butter, which most likely contains zero water content and has a consistency just like the butter that we spread on our toasts.

As the water content increases in a formulation, the moisturiser becomes lighter in texture. So moving from thick body butter to less buttery cream to watery lotion and eventually to hydrosol (floral spray), we have a whole range of moisturising skincare products to choose from based on their oil to water ratio.

“How do we use them?” I hear you ask. “Do we have to include all of them in our skincare routine?”

Well, to answer the how-to-use question, we need to learn about the property of these moisturisers.

Concept 2: Moisturisers Can Be Occlusive Or Hydrator.

Depending on their ingredients, each moisturiser comes with their unique nurturing properties and work differently to help our skin.

For example, buttery ingredients such as shea butter and waxy ingredients such as jojoba oil, they are known as occlusives to formulators.

These heavier ingredients form a barrier on our skin (hence the term occlusives); they seal in moisture rather than hydrating our skin.

Yep, you heard it right. Body butters don’t hydrate our skin, because they contain no water in their ingredients. Instead, body butters soften our skin and locks in moisture while protecting our skin from external elements.

Lesson 1 to remember :

Water hydrates, oils retain moisture.

So you can see why recommending a body butter straight up to someone who has very dry skin won’t do much good. Dry skin needs water to stay hydrated and an occlusive moisturiser alone won’t provide much help at all to dehydrated skin.

Lesson 2 to remember:

Dry skin needs a moisturiser that contains more water than oil as its primary skincare product.

On the other hand, moisturisers with a higher water content such as creams or lotions hydrate well – particularly if they also contain water-attracting ingredients known as humectants.

As our skin needs hydration regardless of skin types, lotions and creams with a high water content are generally suitable for all skin types. 

So Butter Or Lotion? Which One Is Better For Our Skin?

The best way to look after our skin is to combine both occlusive and hydrating skincare products in our routine. This skincare combination provides much needed hydration to our skin while ensuring the moisture also is sealed in.

A Simple And Yet Effective Facial Skincare Routine

Let’s use our face as an example.

Step 1: Hydrate the skin

We start out with a moisturiser that has a good hydrating property. Pick a lotion or cream made of natural ingredients that you love.  

If your skin is super dry, try our Organic Hydrating Facial Moisturiser, which contains rosehip oil and avocado oil and is infused with beautiful lavender essential oil.

If you have an oily complexion and prone to acne, our specially formulated lavender-infused Organic Hydrating Facial Moisturiser, which features hero ingredients such as aloe vera, jojoba oil and Apricot Kernel Oil.

Step 2: Moisture retention

We then follow up with a second moisturising product that is occlusive in nature to retain our skin moisture while benefiting from the lubricating effect of a heavier moisturiser.

For facial skincare routine, a few drops of a high quality facial oil after applying the hydrating lotion is a perfect way to pamper your skin at the end of the day.

We hope this article has made choosing your skincare a little bit easier. Do you have a question or two about natural skincare yourself? Send us your questions and let us pull our collective brainpower together and help answer the question. 

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