Hi. There is a misconception about moisturizer. I'll talk about it so that you know how to choose a good one to use with this Regimen.

Thick, greasy moisturizers don't really hydrate the skin. The goal of this type of moisturizer is to form an occlusive barrier on the skin, which prevents water loss. If you suffer from dry skin, that's because your stratum corneum (horny outer layer of the skin) lacks a sufficient amount of water (and water-binding ingredients). You can load your skin up with the greasiest and most emollient of moisturizers, but unless there are good water-binding ingredients in your skin, you're left with that tight, itchy feeling which results in flakes upon opening and moving your mouth. Greasy moisturizers hide flakiness by providing an occlusive layer that just blends the flakes in with the rest of the skin. They're still there; you just can't see them! If you sweat (say, from exercising), the flakes reappear. That can be even more embarrassing than acne itself. I remember sweating and white patches of dead skin would appear around my mouth. I just thought my sunscreen turned white on the skin, but upon careful examination I found this not to be the case.

The solution is to find a moisturizer that contains great humectants (water-attracting ingredients). The main ones are sodium lactate and urea. Also, they should be high up the ingredients list, which indicates they are included in high amounts. The only product I found like this is Eucerin Smoothing Face Cream 5% Urea. It's not sold in the US, so I had to order it online. There is a nighttime version of this product, but I'll post the ingredients of the regular one.

• Aqua, Urea, Glycerin, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Cyclomethicone, Dimethicone, Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate, Triisostearin, Cetyl Alcohol, Sodium Lactate, Glyceryl Stearate, Benzyl Alcohol, PEG-40 Stearate, Biosaccharide Gum-1, Methylparaben, Lactic Acid, Lanolin Alcohol, Phenoxyethanol.

Look how high up the list urea is! That's what you want. I just wish this were the case for sodium lactate too. I also wish it contained sunscreen. But nothing comes close to its ability to hydrate, which prevents flakiness (remember that emollient/greasy moisturizers only temporarily hide it). The nighttime version is emollient, but that's okay because it still contains urea and lactate. Here is the science of this product: