Ceramides
Glycosphingolipids
The mortar between the bricks. Skin's own barrier fat, replaced from the outside.
If the outer skin is a wall of cells, ceramides are the mortar. They are waxy lipids that make up around half of the material between those cells, and they are what stops water leaving and irritants getting in. Skin that is short on them feels tight, looks dull and reacts to things it should ignore.
Putting ceramides back from the outside works, and the evidence for it is unusually good: creams built around ceramides measurably increase hydration and reduce water loss through the skin, and in people whose barriers are genuinely compromised the effect is clinically visible.
In a tinted stick they are the skincare half of the hybrid — the reason the finish feels comfortable through the day rather than drying down.
The study
Human studyA ceramide-based cream significantly increased skin hydration against a placebo (p < 0.001), outperformed three reference moisturisers at 24 hours and reduced water loss through the skin over the same period.
Spada F, Barnes TM, Greive KA. Skin hydration is significantly increased by a cream formulated to mimic the skin's own natural moisturizing systems. Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 2018;11:491–497. PubMed 30410378
Research on the ingredient, not a test of any FOUNDER product. Cosmetic benefits only, and skin varies. These are cosmetics, not medicine.
