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How to Hydrate Dry Skin - Tips & Tricks
Makeup & Beauty Tips on How to Hydrate Dry Skin
Share your best tips and tricks for hydrating dry skin! Feel free to share your experiences, how you mastered techniques, or what you struggle with.
My Tips
- I like using products that help give an added boost to dry skin like hydrating serums/gels along with a really heavy duty moisturizer that I can use a spot treatment, so it won’t necessarily feel heavy or too much all-over but just right for those drier areas.
- Spend a little extra time working your moisturizer (both AM and PM) into the skin–make it more of a ritual. At night, make sure you’ve let your moisturizer absorb before laying on your pillow so your pillow doesn’t get half the hydration!
- Don’t over-cleanse or over-exfoliate. Make sure the products you’re using aren’t stripping your skin of its natural oils.
My few tips :
1. Drink enough and more water!
2. Rose water spray : You can spray rose water mist on your face during the day to keep it hydrated
3. Also work in your moisturizer when the skin is still slightly damp, that helps in moisture retention!
Happy Fall! 🙂
In the winter, I use oil (currently loving Tarte Maracuja oil) over any cream moisturizer I’m currently using. I rub a couple of drops in my palms and press it into my face, and I wake up with glowy, hydrated skin!
The most important step IMO: WATER! Make sure you’re actually hydrating your body and not just trying to correct bad drinking habits by applying products topically.
Second: Exercise! When I’m working out I notice a complete change in how my skin feels – especially in the winter when I dry out. It honestly makes a difference. I’m always cold in the winter too – and when I work out regularly I don’t run the heat nearly as high because my body feels warmer than when I’m just sitting around all day.
LASTLY 😉 I’ve had really good luck with AHA exfoliators! Just do the research to make sure they are properly pH balanced so they they are actually working. Once a week a good AHA product helps my skin not only look better but kind of “reboots” it and helps me feel hydrated.
P.S. please come back to YT at full strength!
Working on it! I don’t think it’ll be with a BANG but I’m working on it 🙂
P.S. Thank you. It actually means a lot to hear that from someone who I respect as much as I respect you. You’re an inspiration you know… I don’t know if you know that. Do you know that? 🙂 It’s true.
<3 <3
You are the inspiration around here, dear friend!
Glad to hear you are coming back - in any capacity :)
Christine- what are some moisturizers you like? (Both drugstore brands and non-drugstore brands)
Hey Kristina,
Here’s a good place to start – I give yearly awards to my faves, and every category has a high-end and budget-friendly winner 🙂 http://www.temptalia.com/awards-cat/skin-awards
Thanks for the response, Christine! You’re the best!
In addition to drinking plenty of fluids to hydrate your skin and exercising to improve your circulation, make sure that your moisturizer has glycerin and/or hyularonic acid towards the top of the ingredients. Those are humectants that will attract and bind water to the skin with hyularonic acid being the gold standard. Apply your moisturizer to moist, not wet, skin and let it set before moving on to sunscreen, primer, etc. And, don’t forget your neck and chest! The skin in those areas is particularly vulnerable.
I also agree with drinking water! And I like using the Julep Bare Face Cleansing Oil at night.. it really helps to rehydrate your skin without making it greasy.
My skin is oily, so I never have to deal with dry skin. But do like to keep my body well moisturized though. I love using body butters for that.
I don’t wash in the morning (just rinse lightly) and clean with coconut oil at night. So I basically never use soap or cleanser on my face unless I’m traveling or something. I find that clinique moisuresurge intense works best for me, but trying an experiment where I switch to embryolisse in the mornings because the clinique is a bit much for under makeup. So far so good – we’ll see how it goes through the winter.
Oh, and the cetaphil moisturizer in the big tub (for my body) is the only thing that gets me through the winters.
This is an area in which I have had many issues throughout my life. I have oily/combination/sensitive skin, but my skin looks dehydrated 75% of the time. I do need to drink more water (and less soda which is a problem with hydration as well as enlarged pores), and I do notice a difference when I work out a lot. But working out enough to make a difference means a minimum of 3 hours a day – not always feasible.
I am so glad everyone has these suggestions. I’ll try them in rounds to see how it goes.
Spritzing throughout the day helps.
I have PAINFULLY dry skin coupled with occasional psoriasis outbreaks on my face (thankfully rare, it’s mostly in other easier to hide places!). Water is of course the number one best thing. I try to drink 90-100oz daily, but a good rule of thumb is to drink at least half of your body weight in ounces (ie: 125 lbs =62 oz water).
In the morning I use an extremely gentle moisturizing face wash and I rinse with my hands and pat dry lightly with a wash cloth. I found that washing with the washcloth every day was overexfoliating and compounding my dry skin problems. Then I use a hydrating serum (favorites: Mario Badescu Herbal Hydrating Serum, Bioelements Moisture x10 Serum, Jeffrey James The Serum) followed by an intensely hydrating moisturizer. I often pick a night cream for my daytime moisturizer because they tend to be more hydrating and my makeup has mineral SPF which is more UV reflective anyway. I’ve been using Bioelements Crucial Moisture for a while, in between jars I tried their Really Rich Moisture. I prefer Crucial, it’s a little lighter feeling but both are great and work well under makeup. Another great one is Mario Badescu Complex Moisture. I always look for Mario Badescu and Bioelements when they are on Hautelook because they have great sales! I also use the Mario Badescu Aloe Herb and Rosewater spray after applying my makeup, it helps to set it and also helps to moisturize and can be reused throughout the day.
At night I use Mario Badescu Enzyme Cleansing Gel, cleans everything without leaving a trace behind but without drying my skin out. I exfoliate no more than 3 times a week and with a very sensitive based scrub or brush. Then a hydrating serum again and OIL. I will never use anything at night on my face other than oil. Tarte Maracuja is good, Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse is amazing and smells sooo good. I actually found an online whole saler fromnaturewithlove.com and order maracuja oil and rosehip oil and mix it 50/50 into my own dropper and I’ve been using that at night. For a huge bottle it was like $12 a piece, can’t beat that! 🙂
Using products with hyaluronic acid in them will definitely help keep the skin hydrated. Hyaluronic acid is like a tall glass of water for your skin and it helps keep the skin nice and plump and supple too! (something that dehydrated skin usually lacks).There are lots of masks and serums that have hyaluronic acid in them so they aren’t too hard to find 🙂
Rose water spray all the way!
There’s a massive misunderstanding about dry and dehydrated skin. Your skin can be dehydrated (lacking water) which caused it to be overproduce oil, making it oily/combination. The temptation is to use harsh cleaners to strip the oil, but that will make it worse.
You skin can also be dehydrated and dry (lacking oil) which makes it flaky and sometimes painful.
There are lots of products that hydrate, i.e. help your skin retain water. These include ingredients like Hydrualonic acid, glycerine. They shouldn’t break you out.
And yes, drinking more water helps
Should also add Caroline Hrions and Sali Hughes are very knowledgeable about dehydrated skin, if you search for them, their websites should come up and be able to tell you more
I try to avoid hot water, use a Clarisonic to exfoliate and use moisturizers that differ depending on my skin’s needs. In the summer I may only need eye cream and a light moisturizer such as Dermadoctor Wrinkle Revenge (a serum with lots of hyaluronic acid) or CeraVe PM (I use during the day as well because it has niacinamide) or I layer one over the other.
Winter is a different story. I need heavy duty protection so I use either Bobbie Brown Extra or Welenda Skin Food. I also use a balm that Kiehl’s makes that keeps skin from freezing (yeah it gets that cold here). I have recently discovered Fix My Skin Healing Balm and Lip Balm with 1% hydrocortisone (best lip balm ever!) and of course, the old stand by, Aquaphor for cuticles, elbows, feet, etc. To keep my body from drying up I use either safflower or coconut oil (from the grocery) after I get out of the shower to seal the moisture in.
I’ve been using a Clarisonic Mia 2 on my dry skin with a cream cleanser every night and it really helps my moisturizer absorb into my skin more efficiently. As others have mentioned, working moisturizer into the skin further aids its absorption.
I’ve been using argan oil under my eyes and have seen a decrease in the crepey appearance there.
And, yes, water, water, water! Not soda, not coffee, not tea, but plain ol’ water.
I love Puristics Anti Aging skin care products. It’s not too heavy and helps with keeping my face moisturized.
I spend extra time exfoliating, then apply my hyaluronic acid serum immediately after, followed by a custom mix of plant based oils to seal in the HA for the night. This leaves my oily skin much more balanced for several days afterwards. Not to mention ultra soft and hydrated the next day. I also take hyaluronic acid & cold pressed flax seed oil internally on a daily basis, which does wonders for the skin, hair & nails.
Forgot to say that many people with oily skin also have dehyđrated skin & rarely realize it. I’ve also found that the majority of those with oily skin have been so incredibly brainwashed that they’re terrified of using oils on their skin, totally unaware that the right plant based oils will actually help make their skin less oily & will result in *less* breakouts and clogged pores, *not* more.
I agree completely. That’s what I wrote on the “How to care for oily skin” post.
I love reading your articles, they are always have great information. I use CapriClear to help with my dry skin. It’s fairly new on the market, I like to try new things. So far this product has been really good for my skin, I highly recommend it.