Is your skin dry or dehydrated? Find out which natural skin care products to use for thirsty skin
Posted on July 13, 2018 Written by: 100% PURE®
Summertime, and the living’s easy. Our weekend getaways and summer barbecues might be easy, but our skin? That can be a bit more problematic. We spend our carefree summer days lounging by the pool or flirting beachside with a margarita, but by nightfall our skin feels like slightly stale toast. While we love the look of richly tanned skin (and how being tan makes us look 5lbs lighter), being out in the sun all day definitely takes a toll on our body’s largest organ. Even staying lubricated on the inside can’t combat the effects of long-term sun exposure. Show your skin some extra love with these skin hydration tips and summer skin care tricks!
Dry Skin Vs. Dehydrated Skin
If you suffer from dry skin, or even combination skin, that means that some or all of your face feels dry on a regular basis. Any frequent, regular skin behavior is what classifies your skin type. Dry skin is caused by a mix of internal and external factors, and may be exacerbated by summer sun and heat, but ultimately, having dry skin isn’t a temporary thing. Perhaps the biggest difference is that dry skin is caused by lack of oil, while dehydrated skin is caused by lack of hydration. Dehydrated skin may look and feel oily, yet dry at the same time. It often occurs as a result of external factors, and is a temporary feeling that goes away with steady treatment through hydrating natural skin care products.
Dehydrated fruit vs. plump, hydrated fruit... similar to what happens to your skin when it’s dehydrated, vs. what it would look like if properly hydrated!
Signs of Dehydrated Skin
Let’s be honest with ourselves -- we don’t always drink enough water. By the time we notice how thirsty we are, it’s already too late – dehydration has set in. While thirst is a pretty obvious sign of dehydration, unfortunately it isn’t always easy to tell if our skin is a little parched. Even more confusing is that skin often becomes oilier when it’s dehydrated, to compensate for the dryness. What’s the first thing you do when you notice your skin is looking excessively shiny or greasy? At that point, the first thing we’ll do is try to neutralize the oil. All the blotting paper, translucent powder, and charcoal cleansers in the world will help lessen oil, but won’t fix the root cause of dehydrated skin. To avoid making things worse, it’s important to know the signs of dehydrated skin:
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Excess oiliness of the skin, especially if your skin is usually neutral, combination or dry
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Tightness or discomfort of the skin (think about how it feels when you smile, and notice how your under-eye area feels)
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Flakiness, peeling, dry patches or inflammation – this can sometimes look like heat rash
What Causes Loss of Hydration in Skin?
One thing we can surely say about skin is that it does not respond well to extreme conditions. During a summer day, we might go from chilly air-conditioned temperatures to blistering heat within a matter of minutes. Not only does heat in the air affect how dry our skin feels, but so does the intense light of the sun. The sun can literally just suck the moisture right out of our skin! They might seem obvious, but remember to avoid these triggers:
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Extreme temperatures and rapid climate changes
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Lack of internal and/ or topical hydration (i.e. drinking water or using hydrating natural skin care)
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Prolonged sun and heat exposure
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Hot showers, especially if you aren’t replacing loss moisture with natural skin care or body care after drying off
The Difference Between Moisture and Hydration
Like we mentioned earlier, dry skin is caused by a lack of oil -- in other words, a lack of moisture. Either the skin cannot produce enough oil internally to sustain itself, or dry skin is building up on the surface preventing oil and natural skin care products from properly penetrating. This is why our natural skin care products for dry skin feature loads of moisturizing ingredients. Some helpful ingredients to seek out? Naturally fatty avocado butter, coconut oil, honey, olive oil, and vanilla bean. Moisturizing ingredients like these contain vitamin E and vitamin B to keep the skin supple, elastic, and soft. These types of moisturizing ingredients fight dryness happening under the surface of the skin.
Hydration is designed to quench the skin with water, not oil. By using water or water-based ingredients, hydrating natural skin care treats the outermost layers of the skin. Hydrating natural skin care or body care ingredients like hyaluronic acid (from sweet potatoes), aloe vera gel, glycerin, and cucumber perform by providing moisture and locking it into the skin to counteract temporary dryness and dehydration. By adding these veritable water bombs into your daily natural skin care routine, you can save your skin from the unnecessary misery of dehydration.
Rescue Skin with Hydrating Natural Skin Care
Hydrating Toners
Toners are great for dehydrated skin because they help to clear any leftover dirt and debris from pores and inject a blast of hydration into the skin with very little effort. Toners of the past were more astringent, and primarily used to neutralize excess oil on the skin. 100% PURE hydrating toners are designed to balance the skin in a gentle and natural way using hydrating, calming, and soothing ingredients.
Our favorite summertime toner for dehydrated skin is the Restorative Sea Culture Hydrating Toner. This product includes protein-rich chia seed water which is a miracle ingredient for depositing and maintaining hydration levels in the skin. This toner is also infused with hyaluronic acid. If you have never heard of hyaluronic acid, this marvelous ingredient is naturally occurring in the body and gives mega plumping effects and suppleness to the skin, keeping moisture levels so high we don’t know what to “dew”. Dynamic duo sea kelp and algae bring enriching minerals that sink into the skin and the symphony of essential oils – bergamot, sage, lavender and honeysuckle – keep skin calm, antibacterial, balanced and bright.
Hydrating Moisturizer
If you’re serious about getting water back into your skin, lock in precious hydraNow that we all know how to hydrate skin, and ways to avoid dehydrated skin this summer, share your refreshed skin selfies with us on Instagram by using #100percentpure!tion with the 100% PURE Hydra Drench Cream. Formulated with anti-inflammatory rose water and mega hydrating glycerin, chia seed gel, hyaluronic acid, and cactus extract, this cream was meant to fight dry, dehydrating whether conditions. Use it as your daily morning and evening moisturizer, or as a skin refresher post-sun fun.
Hydrating Masks
Need a quick fix? Our hydrogel masks will do just the trick. The mask is made of natural ingredients including plant cellulose and – our personal favorite – organic aloe. As the skin absorbs the hydration and nutrients inside, the mask gets thinner until your skin is totally plumped up. Use our Bright Eyes Mask for mornings when your eye area is feeling totally dry and wiped out, or after a long day in the sun. For treating the whole face, turn to our Green Tea Water Bomb Mask which includes skin-smoothing chrysanthemum, nourishing cucumber, antioxidant-rich green tea and calming chamomile. This mask is perfect for treating mild sunburns and chronically dry or temporarily dehydrated skin.
Now that we all know how to hydrate skin, and ways to avoid dehydrated skin this summer, share your refreshed skin selfies with us on Instagram by using #100percentpure!
- Tags: Bath and Body, July-2018, Skin Care
We carefully hand-select products based on strict purity standards, and only recommend products we feel meet this criteria. 100% PURE™ may earn a small commission for products purchased through affiliate links.
The information in this article is for educational use, and not intended to substitute professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should not be used as such.
