Especially when it occurs on your face, dehydrated skin often looks and feels like dry skin. However, there’s a major difference between the two: dehydrated skin is usually a temporary concern and dry skin typically doesn't change over time. Part of the confusion is that the term "dehydrated skin" is often used interchangeably with "dry skin" or "combination skin". Dehydrated skin can occur in all skin types and is not exclusive to those with dry skin or oily skin.
Is your skin dry?
Here’s how to recognize classically dry skin; Dry skin frequently feels tight and dry, with no oil anywhere to be seen. This situation rarely fluctuates; skin feels dry all year long. The dryness might get worse depending on the climate, season, or activity, but regardless of those things, without great skin care products, the uncomfortable dry, tight feeling will persist.
Is your skin oily?
If you have dehydrated skin, your skin may produce a normal or even excessive amount of oil on its surface. Despite the excess of oil flowing through the pores all over the face, the skin still feels tight or dry everywhere on your face, and is often accompanied by flaking.
What causes dehydrated skin?
Although dehydrated skin can be caused by different factors, more often than not it's the result of using skin care products that contain harsh or skin-sensitizing ingredients that disturb the protective barrier. It can also develop from using the wrong products for your skin, which leads to an imbalance. In essence, dehydration can be viewed as your skin complaining that it doesn’t like something you’re doing to it.
We speak with all sorts of customers who claim to need to use witch hazel or alcohol-based toners to control their sebum (oil) build-up. These astringent type products may actually be causing your oily skin! We also speak with people who use soap to wash their face. The PH of soap is very basic (high) and can damage the skin mantle on our face. Unfortunately, even though we make soap, that we highly recommend for use on your body, we don’t recommend bar soap for use on the face.
Skin-aggravating ingredients like sulfates or denatured alcohol, menthol, or fragrances can dry out the surface of skin and leave it feeling dehydrated.
What can you do to help it?
The most important thing you can do to take care of dehydrated skin is to assess your skin care routine, and stop using harsh, sensitizing products. That means you must:
- Use gentle, yet effective, cleansers that don't leave skin feeling tight, dry, or greasy. Try our Nourishing Cream Cleanser
- Use a hydrating toner instead of skin-stripping, alcohol- or witch hazel-based versions; toners should give back, not take away from skin.
- When applying targeted solutions or boosters, apply them on alternate days or every other day to judge how your skin does. It doesn’t take using specialty products like these every day to gain benefit.
- Only use toners, boosters, serums, and moisturizers that are loaded with antioxidants, skin-replenishing ingredients, and skin-restoring ingredients. These give your skin what it desperately needs to appear young, healthy, radiant, soft, and smooth.