A good moisturizer can be something as simple as coconut oil and simple glycerin and paraffin and as complex as something known as “prescription emollient devices”. (PED’s) The most efficacious moisturizers contain both occlusive and humectant ingredients. The sum of these skin effects results in an environment optimal for barrier repair. While simple moisturizers may help in some cases, in today’s day and age of extreme environmental stressors, including harsh climate, environmental smoke and pollution along with other stressors, PED’s seem like a reasonable choice to consider.
PEDs are designed to target specific defects in skin barrier function - qualified as devices because they changed the water content of the skin, demonstrated by measuring the trans epidermal water loss (TEWL). They include preparations having ratios of lipids that mimic endogenous compositions. PED’s consisting of ceramides: cholesterol: essential fatty acids in the ratios of 1:1:1 or 3:1:1 claim to restore skin barrier function.
Ceramides are possibly one the most used agents in PED’s along with colloidal oatmeal. In comparison with other emollients such as petrolatum that form a more superficial occlusive barrier, ceramide-dominant moisturizers are thought to permeate the stratum corneum, be taken up by keratinocytes, processed in lamellar bodies, and re-secreted back into the stratum corneum to become a part of the dermal matrix. (In simple words they restore your skin lipids)
Consult your dermatologist to figure out which one works for you.