Hot Shot: Skin care is confusing. As appealing as it may be to stick to a simple routine that consists of just the basics, the otherworldly, moist, and glowing skin that many of us pursue requires some bells and whistles that are beyond cleansers and Go out sunscreen. On the flip side of a more reserved approach to skin care, there’s a whole world of products, from serums to eye creams, and some slightly more mysterious options like essences and ampoules to get the job done. Among those confusing options is another elixir that has blown my mind lately (and so soft on my skin) known as liquid lotion.
While lotion is by no means a new concept, it is the recently nuanced use of the term lotion in Western skin care that leaves room for questions. In the United States, this word has been used in the past to describe a light cream in both the face and body categories that has moisturizing or otherwise moisturizing properties. Picking up a bottle of lotion almost always meant squeezing a pump or squeezing a tube to release a gel-like vortex of smooth, spreadable emollient.
Thanks to the steadily growing appreciation for Asian beauty rituals – especially the associated routines from Korea and Japan – our understanding of what a product labeled as a lotion could be has evolved to include milky, almost liquid and liquid formulas that are intended for tapping into the skin in order to deliver not only intensive moisture, but sometimes also active ingredients.
