Method of making and using a skin moisturizing formulation

A method for making a skin moisturizing formulation, comprising:

• providing a dermatologically acceptable vehicle;
• selecting a skin moisturizing agent based on its ability to absorb and retain moisture, wherein the skin moisturizing agent selected is a cationic dextran polymer, which has a dextran polymer backbone functionalized with quaternary ammonium groups;
• providing the selected skin moisturizing agent;
• combining the dermatologically acceptable vehicle and the skin moisturizing agent to form a skin moisturizing formulation;
• wherein the selected skin moisturizing formulation contains 0.05 to 10 wt %, based on weight of the skin moisturizing formulation, of the skin moisturizing agent;
• wherein the skin moisturizing formulation is a leave on skin care formulation selected from the group consisting of a color cosmetic, a lotion, a sunscreen and a cream;
• wherein the dermatologically acceptable vehicle is selected from the group consisting of an aqueous emulsion;
• wherein the selected skin moisturizing agent has a Kjeldahl nitrogen content corrected for ash and volatiles, TKN, of 1.0 to 4.0 wt %;
• wherein the dextran polymer is a branched chain dextran polymer and wherein the dextran polymer has a weight average molecular weight of 145,000 to 525,000 Daltons.