26/08/2026
Petroleum-based moisturisers (paraffin oil, petrolatum) have one good strength. They're pure hydrocarbons that sit on top of the skin like a raincoat, so nothing gets in and nothing gets out. That makes them hard to beat if the only thing you're measuring is water loss (Trans Epidermal Water Loss, or TEWL) rather than actual barrier repair and elasticity.
Natural emollients are structurally similar to the oils your skin already makes, so oils rich in linoleic acid supply the essential fatty acids your skin uses to rebuild its own barrier, rather than just sitting on top of it. They usually bring some handy companions too: tocopherols (natural Vitamin E), phytosterols, polyphenols etc. A good natural cream will also have things like Aloe, oil-soluble Vitamin C and Allantoin. And, bonus, natural oils generally just feel nicer on the skin (less tacky and greasy than petroleum oils).
We sent our Ceramide Cream off to be tested for water loss against the biggest-selling multinational ceramide cream and a popular Australian ceramide cream, both petroleum-oil based.
13 people, inside of the arm, over 7 hours. We figured the petroleum creams would win easily on the one thing they're built to do but hoped ours would help with TEWL as well. We were really pleased. As you can see from the table and graph, by the 7 hour mark all three creams were sitting within a margin of error of each other, within a 5 percent range of TEWL.
There are two ways to read that. You could say a petrolatum cream reduced water loss by an extra 5% or so. But we see it as a natural cream held its own against the single metric petroleum oils are famous for, while also bringing along everything else natural emollients do for your skin's long-term health.
We'll happily trade a sliver of short-term watertightness for that and absolutely believe that overall, natural ingredients are better for long term skin health.