For those of you out there who have dry skin, you know that the cold winter months can be absolutely awful for your already sensitive skin!<\/p>\n
Even if your skin isn\u2019t dry all year-round, chilly weather and icy air can definitely change up your skin\u2019s trouble spots.\u00a0\u00a0It can be a struggle to keep this skin type hydrated and happy.\u00a0\u00a0Whether your skin is chapped from wind and exposure, or just needs a little bit of care, there are a number of products that can be used to alleviate this condition.\u00a0\u00a0Your dry skin can feel silky-soft and smooth in less time than you might think.<\/p>\n
Which products are best for me?<\/p>\n
Let’s first talk about the two main categories of products.<\/p>\n
First you have what is called an ANHYDROUS product.\u00a0\u00a0This is a product that contains no water and is purely oil based.\u00a0\u00a0This includes face oils, body butter and balms.\u00a0\u00a0These products make the skin soft and lovely, and definitely have their place among the plethora of skin products available.<\/p>\n
As one may think otherwise, if you are ONLY using anhydrous products on your dry skin you may not be providing the right kind of long-term hydration, moisture and healing that your skin needs.<\/p>\n
Oils make the skin softer but that does not mean\u00a0hydration.\u00a0\u00a0It is water that hydrates the skin and anhydrous products alone cannot hydrate the skin because they literally DON\u2019T have water in them.\u00a0\u00a0If you have been relying upon body butters or other anhydrous products primarily for your dry skin, and you are not seeing results beyond immediate, short-term softening, this might be your problem.<\/p>\n
Butters, oils and emollients ARE very important for your skin, so don\u2019t discount them completely.\u00a0\u00a0Just know that these alone cannot long term handle overly dry skin.\u00a0\u00a0They can definitely be a component in a routine but they cannot be the only one.<\/p>\n
In order for skin to be healthy, hydrated and functioning properly, it needs both water and lipids (oils).\u00a0\u00a0Water will plump the skin and prevent the cells from drying out.\u00a0\u00a0The skin produces what\u2019s called NMF (Natural Moisturizing Factors), which are a mixture of molecules that collectively work to help retain moisture inside the cells.\u00a0\u00a0The cells in the stratum corneum (the outermost layer of the skin) are surrounded by lipids (fatty acids, cholesterol, ceramides) which further protect the skin from becoming dehydrated.\u00a0\u00a0This is why these lipids are often referred to as the lipid barrier or moisture barrier.<\/p>\n
So in summary for the skin\u2019s protective function to be effective, it needs to have enough water, humectants (things that trap the water) and lipids.\u00a0\u00a0This is why an ideal routine for dry skin needs to contain exactly those.<\/p>\n
Here is what Dry skin needs to be properly nourished.<\/p>\n
For those of you out there who have dry skin, you know that the cold winter months can be absolutely awful for your already sensitive skin! Even if your skin isn\u2019t dry all year-round, chilly weather and icy air can definitely change up your skin\u2019s trouble spots.\u00a0\u00a0It can be a struggle to keep this skin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cosmetics-skincare"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n