Walk through almost any skincare aisle and you'll find dozens of products promising softer, smoother, more moisturized skin. Lotions, creams, oils, balms, and body butters may all be marketed toward the same basic problem, but they aren't formulated the same way.

One of the biggest differences is surprisingly simple:

Most lotions are water-based emulsions. Body butters are typically much richer in oils, butters, and other lipids, and some contain no added water at all.

That doesn't automatically make one better than the other. Water-based lotions have legitimate advantages, including their lightweight feel and ease of application. But understanding what water, oils, butters, humectants, and other ingredients actually do can help you choose a moisturizer based on what your skin needs rather than what the front of the bottle promises.

Let's break it down.

What Is Lotion?

Most body lotions are emulsions, meaning they combine a water phase with oils or other lipid-based ingredients that normally don't mix easily.

Because oil and water naturally separate, emulsions generally require ingredients that help keep the formula stable. Depending on the product, lotions may also contain humectants, emollients, occlusives, preservatives, stabilizers, thickeners, fragrance, and other ingredients that influence how the product performs and feels. [1]

Water helps create the lightweight texture people associate with lotion. It makes a product easier to spread across large areas of the body and can serve as a vehicle for other ingredients.

But the water applied with a lotion doesn't necessarily remain on the skin for long.

In a human study examining a single application of an oil-in-water moisturizer, evaporation from the water in the emulsion increased immediately after application but returned to baseline within approximately 15 minutes. Lipids from the emulsion remained on the skin much longer. [2]

That gives us an important distinction:

Water can be an effective part of delivering a moisturizer, but the complete formulation determines what happens after much of that water evaporates.

What Is Body Butter?

Body butter generally refers to a richer moisturizer built around plant butters, oils, waxes, or other lipid-based ingredients.

Some body butters contain water. Others, including Frozen People, are anhydrous, meaning they contain no added water.

Without a water phase, an anhydrous body butter doesn't need an emulsifier simply for the purpose of keeping water and oil mixed together. The formulation can instead be built around oils, butters, waxes, and other ingredients selected for specific purposes.

That makes waterless body butter concentrated by design.

It also changes the way the product approaches moisturization. Instead of supplying water through the product itself, an anhydrous moisturizer can help the skin retain water that is already present by reducing water loss from the skin's surface. [1]

To understand why that matters, we need to talk about the skin barrier.

Your Skin Is Already Trying to Hold Onto Water

The outermost portion of the epidermis is called the stratum corneum.

One of its essential functions is regulating the movement of water from the body into the surrounding environment. Water that passes through the skin and evaporates from the surface is measured as transepidermal water loss, commonly shortened to TEWL. [1]

The stratum corneum is often explained using a "bricks and mortar" analogy. Corneocytes act somewhat like bricks, while an organized lipid matrix surrounding them helps form the mortar. Ceramides, cholesterol, and free fatty acids are important components of this barrier. [1]

When the skin isn't retaining enough moisture, it can begin feeling rough, tight, flaky, or dry.

Moisturizers can address that problem in several different ways.

Occlusives, Humectants, and Emollients

Most moisturizers rely on some combination of three broad functional categories: occlusives, humectants, and emollients. [1]

Occlusives

Occlusive ingredients help reduce the amount of water that escapes from the skin.

Petrolatum is one of the most extensively studied examples and has demonstrated substantial reductions in TEWL. Research also suggests its effects extend beyond simply forming a passive film on the surface of the skin. [3]

Different oils, waxes, and other lipid-based ingredients can provide varying degrees of occlusion as well.

Humectants

Humectants such as glycerin, urea, lactic acid, and hyaluronic acid help attract and bind water within the stratum corneum. [1]

They are common in water-based lotions and creams and can be highly effective components of a moisturizer.

Emollients

Emollients help soften and smooth the skin by interacting with the outer layers of the stratum corneum. Certain lipid-based formulations may also support aspects of skin barrier function. [1]

This is why moisturization is more complicated than simply putting water onto your skin.

Effective moisturization depends on the complete formulation and how its ingredients influence skin hydration, water loss, and the skin barrier.

Does Your Moisturizer Actually Need Water?

No. A moisturizer does not have to contain added water in order to moisturize the skin.

Anhydrous products demonstrate that clearly. Rather than supplying water through the product, lipid-rich formulations can reduce the loss of water already present within the skin. [1,3]

Research on water-based emulsions also shows that some of the water delivered during application can evaporate relatively quickly. [2]

But there's an equally important point:

Water-based doesn't mean ineffective.

Water can be extremely useful in formulation. It can improve spreadability, allow the incorporation and delivery of water-soluble ingredients and humectants, and help create the lightweight texture many people prefer.

A well-formulated water-based moisturizer can perform very well.

So the better question isn't:

Does this moisturizer contain water?

It's:

What is the complete formulation doing for my skin?

Body Butter vs. Lotion at a Glance

The important thing to remember is that not all body butters are the same, and neither are all lotions.

Simply removing water doesn't guarantee that a product will feel good, absorb well, or perform better.

A poorly formulated body butter can feel extremely greasy.

A well-formulated lotion can perform exceptionally well.

The ingredients, their proportions, and the overall formulation matter more than the category printed on the container.

Does More Lipid Mean Better Moisturization?

This is where the research gets interesting.

At the level of skin physiology, higher lipid content can improve certain measures of barrier recovery.

Held and colleagues tested six moisturizers containing approximately 21% to 100% lipid on experimentally irritated human skin. All six accelerated barrier recovery compared with untreated skin, but the more lipid-rich moisturizers generally restored barrier function more rapidly. [4]

That helps explain why richer formulations are commonly considered for dry skin.

But that does not mean a richer or more occlusive product will always produce a better real-world result.

The BEE randomized controlled trial compared four major emollient types: lotion, cream, gel, and ointment. The study included 550 children with eczema and found no significant difference in eczema severity among the four formulation types over 16 weeks. [5]

The researchers concluded that people should have access to different types of emollients so they can find one they're likely to use effectively. [5]

It's an important reminder that laboratory measurements aren't the only thing that matters.

Texture matters.

Skin feel matters.

Convenience matters.

And actually wanting to use the product matters.

Why Can Some Body Butters Feel So Greasy?

Removing water creates an interesting formulation challenge.

If most of what's inside the container consists of oils, butters, waxes, or other lipid-based ingredients, the finished product can easily feel heavy.

That's one reason two products both labeled "body butter" can feel completely different.

The specific oils, butters, waxes, powders, and proportions used in a formula can all influence spreadability, residue, and overall skin feel.

This was one of the biggest challenges we encountered while developing Frozen People.

We didn't simply want to remove water.

We wanted the concentration of a waterless product without feeling like we had coated ourselves in grease.

That required balancing the formula rather than simply adding more butter.

Why Frozen People Chose Waterless

Frozen People started because our family was frustrated.

Living in Alaska, dry skin wasn't an occasional inconvenience. Long winters, cold temperatures, dry air, frequent showers, and an active lifestyle made moisturizing something we dealt with constantly.

We tried inexpensive lotions.

We tried expensive moisturizers.

We tried different brands, textures, and formulations.

Again and again, we'd apply a product, our skin would feel moisturized initially, and a few hours later we'd find ourselves reaching for it again.

Eventually, we started paying more attention to what we were buying.

Water was frequently sitting at or near the top of the ingredient list, while many of the oils and butters we were looking for appeared farther down.

That doesn't make those products bad.

But it made us question whether that was the type of moisturizer we wanted.

So when we began developing Frozen People, we approached the problem differently.

Instead of starting with water and building an emulsion around it, we removed the water phase entirely.

Our formula is built around mango butter and jojoba oil, with vitamin E and arrowroot added for specific purposes.

No added water. No fillers. No alcohols. No synthetic fragrance.

Every ingredient has a reason to be there.

The result is a concentrated body butter where a small amount goes a long way.

That's the philosophy behind Frozen People.

Not that every lotion is bad.

Not that every body butter is good.

And not that "natural" automatically means better.

We simply wanted more of what we wanted on our skin and less of what we didn't need.

Should You Apply Body Butter to Damp Skin?

You've probably heard the recommendation to apply moisturizer shortly after bathing while your skin is still slightly damp.

There's a reasonable physiologic basis for the advice. Bathing temporarily increases hydration of the stratum corneum, and moisturizers applied afterward may help reduce subsequent water loss. Dermatology guidelines commonly recommend regular moisturizer use and often suggest applying moisturizer after bathing. [6,7]

However, the evidence supporting a very specific post-shower window is weaker than the advice sometimes makes it sound.

A small crossover study in children with atopic dermatitis compared moisturizer application immediately after bathing with application 30 minutes later and did not find a statistically significant difference between the two approaches. [8]

So our recommendation is practical rather than dogmatic:

After a shower or bath, lightly pat your skin dry and apply Frozen People while your skin is still slightly damp.

But don't stress about a stopwatch.

Consistently using a moisturizer that works for you is more important than trying to hit an exact number of minutes after stepping out of the shower.

Is Body Butter Better Than Lotion for Dry Skin?

There isn't a universal answer.

For someone who wants something lightweight that spreads quickly and leaves very little residue, a well-formulated lotion may be exactly what they're looking for.

For someone with dry skin who prefers a richer product and wants a formulation concentrated around lipid-based ingredients, a cream, ointment, or waterless body butter may make more sense.

The available evidence does suggest that richer, more lipid-heavy formulations can provide stronger occlusive effects and may improve certain measures of barrier recovery. [3,4]

But clinical research also shows that broad formulation categories don't tell the whole story. Lotion, cream, gel, and ointment formulations can all be effective, and the ingredients, formulation, skin condition, application habits, and willingness to use the product consistently all matter. [1,5]

There is also an important limitation in the research:

We don't currently have strong, adequately powered clinical trials demonstrating that anhydrous body butters as a category are superior to water-based lotions.

So we don't think the right conclusion is:

Body butter good. Lotion bad.

The better conclusion is:

Understand what you're buying.

Look at the formulation.

Think about how your skin feels.

Consider how often you're reapplying.

Pay attention to whether you actually enjoy using the product.

And choose the formulation that solves the problem you're trying to solve.

The Bottom Line

Lotion and body butter can both moisturize skin, but they're built differently.

Water-based lotions use an aqueous phase to help create a lightweight, spreadable emulsion and can effectively deliver ingredients such as humectants, emollients, and occlusives.

Waterless body butters remove that water phase and instead concentrate the formulation around butters, oils, waxes, and other ingredients intended to condition the skin and help reduce moisture loss.

Neither category is automatically superior. Formulation matters more than the name on the container.

For Frozen People, going waterless wasn't about following a skincare trend.

It was about building the moisturizer we wanted for ourselves: concentrated, simple, purposeful, and capable of standing up to the environment that inspired it.

Born in the Arctic. Built for everyday life.

Stay Wild. Stay Moisturized.

References

1. Rajkumar J, Chandan N, Lio P, Shi V. The Skin Barrier and Moisturization: Function, Disruption, and Mechanisms of Repair. Skin Pharmacology and Physiology. 2023;36(4):174–185. doi:10.1159/000534136.

2. Blichmann CW, Serup J, Winther A. Effects of Single Application of a Moisturizer: Evaporation of Emulsion Water, Skin Surface Temperature, Electrical Conductance, Electrical Capacitance, and Skin Surface (Emulsion) Lipids. Acta Dermato-Venereologica. 1989;69(4):327–330.

3. Ghadially R, Halkier-Sørensen L, Elias PM. Effects of Petrolatum on Stratum Corneum Structure and Function. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 1992;26(3 Pt 2):387–396.

4. Held E, Lund H, Agner T. Effect of Different Moisturizers on SLS-Irritated Human Skin. Contact Dermatitis. 2001;44(4):229–234. doi:10.1034/j.1600-0536.2001.044004229.x.

5. Ridd MJ, Santer M, MacNeill SJ, et al. Effectiveness and Safety of Lotion, Cream, Gel, and Ointment Emollients for Childhood Eczema: A Pragmatic, Randomised, Phase 4, Superiority Trial. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. 2022;6(8):522–532. doi:10.1016/S2352-4642(22)00146-8.

6. Eichenfield LF, Tom WL, Berger TG, et al. Guidelines of Care for the Management of Atopic Dermatitis: Section 2. Management and Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis With Topical Therapies. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 2014;71(1):116–132.

7. Sidbury R, Alikhan A, Bercovitch L, et al. Guidelines of Care for the Management of Atopic Dermatitis in Adults With Topical Therapies. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 2023.

8. Chiang C, Eichenfield LF. Quantitative Assessment of Combination Bathing and Moisturizing Regimens on Skin Hydration in Atopic Dermatitis. Pediatric Dermatology. 2009. PMID: 19706087.