Hydration Station: Give your skin a drink with our pick of the best new hyaluronic acid creams, serums and masks!

There can’t be many skin care regimes where hyaluronic acid won’t be right at home. What’s not to like? HA is one of the best moisturising ingredients you can get, famed for its ability to hold onto a thousand times its own weight in water.

Apply a HA product and you’re giving your skin one almighty gulp of refreshment, boosting moisture levels, strengthening its barrier function and immediately plumping out fine dehydration lines. For instant gratification, it’s hard to beat.

HA also rubs along happily with other parts of your skin regime. Some skincare actives are best kept apart – for instance, vitamin C and retinol tend to do the day and night shift respectively to avoid skin overload – but HA slots in easily with whatever else you’re using.

It’s also one of the best tolerated skincare ingredients around. Reactions are rare, and it’s safe to use during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Don’t be alarmed by that word “acid” either; it’s not a skin resurfacer like, say, glycolic or lactic acid.

In fact, HA is a substance that’s found naturally in your skin, which is probably why it’s so easy to get along with it. It’s a natural humectant (water binder), and it helps make your skin flexible and supple. Levels fall naturally with age, so HA products have become one of the most popular ways to ‘biohack’ your skin regime, putting back what time takes away. Here are five new versions that pass our acid test….

L’Oréal Paris Revitalift Filler Plumping Water Cream,£24.99 here

Revitalift ambassador Eva Longoria was worth the advert fee just for explaining how you say ‘hyaluronic’ (it’s hy-a-lew-ronic, FYI). Now we've got our tongue around that, we can move onto this new and beautifully quenching water-gel formula. In its natural state, the hyaluronic acid (HA) molecule is too big to penetrate skin, but scientists have shrunk it so it slips through. Very sci-fi. This product has a new-gen ‘micro-epidermic’ HA, 50 times smaller than the macro form. In fact, it might even be more teeny-tiny than Eva herself.

Dr PawPaw Your Gorgeous Skin Day Cream,£18 here

The latest HA formulas don’t just use a single molecule, they have various ‘weights’ (or sizes) of HA which sink down to different levels of the skin for optimum hydration. This new day cream boasts no fewer than [itals] eight types plus antioxidant-rich papaya. That so-called “papayaluronic” power comes in a formula that feels light but delivers on results. In tests, 93% said it did a super job of hydrating. As an added eco bonus, it has 100% recyclable packaging, and the tube is 43% recycled plastic too.

By Terry Hyaluronic Global Eye Serum,£52 here

By Terry claims a "record-breaking" 10% hyaluronic acid concentration in its new serums, using four low weight, two medium weight and two high weight molecules for a thorough drenching across the skin’s layers. There’s a serum with some rave trial reports, and an eye cream that’s caught our attention with some impressive before and after photos – where did those crow’s feet fly off to? Beyond the HA plumping, this eye fix has niacinamide for brightening, phytosqualane for silky skin, and caffeine for a perky tightening effect.

Vichy Mineral89 72H Moisture Boosting Cream,£22 here

Minéral 89 Serum is one of Vichy’s most iconic products, and fans will be pleased to hear there’s a new cream version to dive into. It has a lovely melt-in texture, and features a cocktail of hyaluronic acid, vitamins E and B3 and squalane to smooth dehydration lines and give dewy, healthy-looking glow. Good news for sensitive skin: it’s fragrance free, and has been given the go-ahead in tests on complexions with a damaged surface barrier.

Sephora HYAPGA Overnight Hydrating Mask,£17.99 here

Want to slurp up those hyaluronic benefits all night long? Smother on this sleep-in mask, which combines HA with fellow skin quencher polyglutamic acid. There’s actually much discussion in beauty right now about whether PGA might even out-perform HA in the water-binding, skin-quenching stakes, but this mask brings them together as one happy hydrating team. So you don’t need to imagine two molecules elbows out in an ‘I’m better than you’ staring contest. That’s not *actually* how skincare works.

So drink up!

Hyaluronic acid is one of the most effective moisturising ingredients you can get, famed for its ability to hold onto a thousand times its own weight in water. It gives your skin one almighty gulp of refreshment, boosting moisture levels, strengthening its barrier function and immediately plumping out fine dehydration lines. For instant gratification, it’s hard to beat.

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