Following on from my love of urea products -- Garnier Hydralock is excellent

[otchayaniye]

Someone mentioned it on here and I spied it a few weeks ago and have used it since. It is a very, very good body moisturizer, with 5 percent urea. It costs a few pounds, whereas my trusty 10 pct urea Eucerin cost about 12-14 pounds.

On the body and with regular application the diff between the 5 and 10 percent is minimal. And there's Flexitol for the problem areas!

It's synthetic -- not from animals or humans. From oxidising ammonia salts I think.

Aldi have a whole range of urea stuff. I have been using the cream at night and it is just as good as any other expensive night cream and was 1.99!

good to know - the eucerin is so good that I daren't try anything else - does the Garnier have perfume etc in it?

The Hydralock hand cream is brilliant and is often on bogof. It smells of wine though!

I just bought some of this purely as it was on a discount offer but haven't used it yet, waiting for current bottle of moisturiser to run out! Excuse my ignorance, isn't urea urine??? If so why is this a good thing?

Basically urea (it's synthetic, not derived from horse piss or anything) works in several ways for dry skin.

It dekeratinizes (eats away at the keratin which isn't sloughed off easily in some people, hence KP) And because it penetrates deeper, moisturisation lasts longer.

It binds water more effectively, so your moisturizer works for longer. Try any really expensive cream. Feels lovely doesn't it, for a few hours, until the water evaporates

It is a very effective barrier

It's also antimicrobial

Don't use on acne or any broken skin or the very very young (like under 2) though.