Ceramides are currently emerging as the major skin care ingredients due to !heir barrier properties in the stratum corneum of the human skin. Thus, major cosmetic companies have developed synthetic ceramide analogs for their own use. In this study, several ceramide mimic compounds , new skin barrier lipids, were designed and synthesized, and their physical and biological properties were investigated to evaluate their skin care capability. Several structures were designed from the variation of hydrophobic alkyl chain and hydrophilic moiety by the use of molecular modeling software. The selected targets were synthesized, and their properties and activities were studied as the pure form, in the emulsion, or in the lamellar mixture containing cholesterol and fatty acid. Some compounds, such as 1,3-bis(N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-palmitoylamino)-2-hydroxypropane, enhanced the restoration of skin barrier damaged by SDS(sodium dodecyl sulfate), and by acetone treatment. The rate of restoration was comparable to that of natural ceramides. The synthesized compounds alleviated SDS induced skin irritation and facilitated lamellar phase liquid crystal formation. The treatment of 1,3-Dis(N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-palmitoylam ino)-2-hyd roxypropane on the acetone damaged skin revealed that the compound promoted the recovery of intercellular lipid lamellar structure of stratum corneum layer. The replacement of palmitoyl groups of the compound with shorter alkyl chain gave lower emulsion viscosity and liquid crystal density, suggesting easier formulation and poorer barrier activity. Most of the synthesized compounds were non-irritable in various toxicological tests proving that they can be safely introduced to the skin care formulations.