How to Hydrate Skin? Best 101 Guide on Skin Hydration

If you were wondering how to hydrate skin, you are at the right spot. This post discusses how to rejuvenate your sensitive, dry skin ¹and gain that glamorous glow back.

Dull, patchy cheeks. Wrinkles. Baggy Eyes. Chapped lips. Cracked Elbows. The dry nose area and itchy forehead. Sounds like the worst nightmare? If you live this nightmare in real life, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Hydration is the most important concept you need to know more about. This post discusses everything from hydrating your skin to picking out the best moisturizer for your skin type.

In the era of social media, the beauty industry is the main reason why today’s youth often relate clear skin with makeup, foundation, and tons of highlighter. However, don’t fall for the vicious trap of makeup online!

The key to clear and glowing skin is hydration doesn’t matter what your skin problem is. A hydrating skincare routine will solve all your problems, from pigmentation to redness and bumpy texture.

Have you ever just paused at an advertisement and wondered how the skin of celebrities looks so clear and hydrated? If you want to achieve hydrated skin that glows and reflects a glam texture, this post will discuss how to hydrate skin, keep it damp, and make heads turn.

The Truth Behind Skin Hydration and Why it’s Important

The internet and the cosmetic industry are brimming with skincare products with tons of ingredients. Some promote the usage of harsh chemicals and mineral oils, while some promote mild ingredients like glycerin and rose water.

Products like moisturizers, cleansers, and exfoliators that do not wash off essential oils from your skin² are the ones to go for! However, picking one from millions of available options to suit your dehydrated skin is an arduous job. This post will discuss how to hydrate skin and how you can keep it in the best health possible.

Before diving into tips and tricks, it is imperative to understand the importance of well-hydrated and moisturized skin. Hydration is the way to prevent acne breakouts³, pigmentation, and inflammatory markers. Sebaceous glands increase sebum production if the skin is dehydrated, so your skin starts to break out and experience redness and inflammation.

The first step of enhancing your skin health is understanding if you experience dehydrated skin and then carefully picking products with active ingredients. Dry skin is deficient in oil, while the paucity of water content causes dehydration through the skin barrier.

How to Hydrate Skin: Top 9 Tips and Tricks for Dull and Dry Skin

Want to know how to hydrate your skin? Let’s Begin.

1. Ditch Hot Showers

Undoubtedly a good hot shower during the winter months or after work is heavenly. However, you would be surprised to know the amount of damage hot water has on your skin. If you want to know how to hydrate skin, ditch hot showers completely.

Hot showers and terrible showering habits can pull out excess oils and moisture from your skin. The damage doesn’t limit to that. It can increase eczema effectively, damage your natural barrier, and cause rashes for some people.

For ultimate hydration and a relaxing shower, depend on lukewarm water in the winter season, and in summer, go for a chilled cold shower.

2. Showering Habits: Gentle Cleanser and Best Tips

Look for body washes that lock in moisture to ensure a nourishing shower with good hydrating agents. Hyaluronic acid and rice milk content body washes are best for locking in water content. If you are wondering how to hydrate your skin, the simple answer is to use a gentle cleanser.

Gentle cleansers do not affect your skin barrier. Result? No bacteria, irritants, or allergens will penetrate your skin, and ultimately it will give you plump, hydrated skin.

Some other benefits of gentle cleansers include-

• It does not leave your skin irritated and offers a refreshing experience.
• It does not pull-out moisture
• It does not strip off natural oils from your skin
• Let the skin repair itself during the night
• It offers a healthy barrier function
• Radiant and balanced complexion throughout the day
• Steer clear your outer layer from any dead cells, pollutants, dirt, and mud

On the other hand, harsh chemical exfoliators and cleansers can irritate your dehydrated skin and maximize the damage. While picking your shower products, avoid cleansers with alcohol, fragrance, and dyes.

3. Over Cleansing: Your Daily Ritual or Are You Just Obsessed?

If you are obsessed with the skincare pamper routine, you are over-cleansing your face. Yes, washing your face is important to avoid accumulating dirt and excess oil. To prevent breakouts, cleaning at least once a day is crucial.

Twice-a-day cleansing removes pollutants and assures a healthy barrier. However, if your skin feels tight and dry in certain areas, chances are you go overboard with the concept of cleansing.

If you seek an answer to the question of how to hydrate your skin, incorporate a calming tea tree oil or peppermint essential oils⁴ for your night-time skincare⁵, this will repair your skin from the damage of over-cleansing.

4. Must-Have Hydrating Skin Products

The three pillars of hydrated and radiant skin are Humectants, emollients, and occlusive oil. Humectants ⁶attract water molecules and keep the skin moist, i.e., hyaluronic acid and glycerine.

While emollients are responsible for softening rough and flaky skin, occlusives add moisture and restrict water loss from the skin. A skincare guide that includes all three of them will serve you best if you have an extremely dehydrated skin texture.

5. Heavy Moisturizer: A Must-Have Night-Time Pamper Product

At night, a heavy moisturizer will hydrate your skin,⁷ assure moisture lock, make your outermost layer radiant, and support the skin barrier. Result? Water molecules will not evaporate while you are asleep.

Instead, a heavy moisturizer at night will give you plump and radiant skin the next morning. An emollient moisturizer that contains fatty acids, ceramides, squalene, and petrolatum is the best choice, explains Dr.

6. Other Skincare Tips: From Hyaluronic Acid to Aloe Vera

If you don’t understand the science behind skincare products, follow these top 7 tips and tricks for ultimate hydration-

1. Twice a week, hydrating sheet masks containing ingredients like aloe, green tea, vitamin c, and oat shea butter extracts are the secret behind seductive smooth skin. If your skin is feeling dry, get a face mask and enjoy your weekend with a glass of lemonade.
2. Pick exfoliators rich in humectant ingredients to reduce the lack of moisture in your skin and effectively remove dead skin cells.
3. Do not skip sunscreens. UV rays can affect your skin barrier terribly. To prevent dry and irritated skin and to retain moisture inside, never skin sunscreens. Use the three-finger rule to apply sunscreens and pick above SPF 30 products for better results.
4. Apply a good moisturizer, glycerin, at night to dampen the skin. Leave it moist for a few minutes, and apply moisturizer when it is still moist to protect and retain the natural skin barrier. Do not completely dry off your skin after cleansing.
5. Vitamin C serum after moisture penetrates deeper layers, stimulates the skin’s barrier, promotes collagen production, and protects your skin against UV damage. Being an antioxidant itself, it flushes out harmful toxins and hydrates your skin by replenishing moisture inside.
6. Toss in some eye serum or under-eye creams for ultimate hydration and relax your skin from redness, puffiness, and dark circles.
7. Pick toners infused with essential oils as they have ultimate hydrating properties. Pick hydrating toners rich in aloe, glycerine, or ceramides to keep your skin quenched.

7. Hydration Means Water

Flaky, dull, and dry skin? Chances are, your skin is screaming for an ultimate hydration routine. To achieve that even tone, radiant and plump skin, all you need is eight glasses of water content per day.

Quench your skin’s thirst and enjoy the after-radiant effects! Thus, drink enough water and increase your water intake slowly up to 3-5L to protect the top layer of skin from the outside environment.

8. Diet 101: Add Foods that Add Freshness to Your Skin Barrier

The mantra of living healthy and having the best glow-up ever is to focus on a healthy diet.⁸ Antioxidant-rich foods, fruits, and vegetables replenish the water contents of your skin, making your skin appear healthy inside and on the outside.

Consume spinach, carrots, and dark chocolates for healthy nutritional value. Minor lifestyle changes will help you achieve what-so-ever you wish for.

Skin cells function properly only if an adequate amount of healthy fats are consumed. Thus, it is advised to consume healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, fatty fish, nuts, and olive oil.

One can also go for hydrating supplements like phytoceramides for quicker results. Incorporate phytoceramides but say no to caffeine and alcohol as they can damage your skin barrier and be the major reason behind dehydration.

9. Humidifier: The Secret to Your Hydrating Skin

Yes, you have heard it right. Invest in a good quality humidifier that retains the indoor humidity range to about 45-50 percent. The next morning, this will prevent your dryness issues and offer you a well-hydrated look.

How Do I Know if My Skin is Hydrated or Not? 

Firstly know, dehydrated and dry skin isn’t the same. Dry skin means there are fewer oil-producing glands on the face, on the other hand, dehydrated skin means, the skin lacks water and not oil. It is very important to distinguish between the two problems, or else correct treatment cannot be provided to the skin. 

Dehydrated skin will not mandatorily show signs of flakiness or roughness rather the skin will show lifelessness. 

Also, your skin can be both dry and dehydrated. 

A Simple Test to Check if Your Skin is Dehydrated

Pinch the knuckle on your hand if the skin of your knuckle stays risen even after releasing it then your skin is dehydrated and it needs hydration. While, if the skin on your knuckle goes down, that is a sign of hydrated skin. 

Causes of Skin Dehydration

Our skin has lipids within, and its loss causes dehydration. Lipids seal the moisture, and when there are fewer lipids then it leads to dry skin. Eczema is a condition, which causes the skin to lose its integrity. 

Also following are the reasons which diminish the water content of your skin causing it to dry:

1. Overtime in a cold or hot environment. 
2. Using harsh chemical soaps and body washes. 
3. Use of rough cloth to clean your skin. 
4. Taken long and hot showers. 
5. Drinking less water. 

Well, these causes are easy to be fixed. For example, you will drink a few more glasses of water every day, cut down your shower time, use naturally made shampoos and soap, and use a soft towel to pat dry your skin. 

Apart from this, there are some medical conditions which can also lead to dehydrated skin like:

• Thyroid disease
• Menopause
• Diabetes
• Sjögren’s syndrome
• Poor nutrition

If you have one of these conditions, your doctor can help you find the right treatment.

Home-Made Face Mask for Your Dehydrated Skin

If you have tried all possibilities to get that plum-hydrated face but still did not achieve that, then why not try our homemade face mask? 

What do you need for your facemask?

• 6 tsp of facial clay
• 2 tsp aloe vera juice (if natural then better)
• 1 tsp natural raw honey
• Natural Spring Water

How does it work?

The natural spring water used will hydrate your skin from within. To give the calming effect you can also add a few drops of lavender essential oil.

Now mix all these ingredients and apply them all over your face and neck and leave it for 20 mins.

Dehydrated Makeup Look – To-do Tips

We love doing makeup, but what will happen if you do your makeup on dehydrated skin? It will make your skin look dry and patchy and the makeup will end up getting messy. So, how to avoid that?

Follow these tips to get an even base and dehydrated makeup look:

• Use a natural cleanser to clean your face.
• You can also apply a thin layer of honey on your face and then wipe it up to feel hydrated.
• Use your normal moisturizer. Choose your moisturizer accordingly. If you are comfortable with oil-based moisturizers then go for it, else you can use water-based ones. It is better to use water-based ones in summer while oil-based ones in winter.
• Use a primer. Apply your primer in dots. Primer also moisturizes your face and gives you an even canvas for makeup.
• Use hydrating lip balm on your lips. Before the makeup, you can also scrub your lips to make them look plump and hydrated.
• Do not forget to use eye primer this will keep your eyelids hydrated and not dry after applying eyeshadow.  
• Pro tip: On your foundation add a few drops of facial oil to make your face remain hydrated. 

Key Takeaways

If you are using harsh loofahs, exfoliators, rough sponges, and hard soaps, now is the time you invest in gentle skincare products and incorporate healthy lifestyle changes! Focus on drinking water, eating hydrating foods, and regularly moisturizing to keep your skin hydrated.

Now that you are well acquainted with the dos and don’ts of skin hydration and how to hydrate skin, hop on the journey of looking like a diva!

Read more from us here.

FAQs

1. What is the cause of Eczema?

Ans. Triggers for Eczema are – soap, Shampoo, bubble bath, and detergent. Environmental factors like extremely hot and cold conditions, dust, and pet fur all these accuses eczema. 

2. How can I hydrate my skin in a fast process?

Ans. To hydrate your skin in a faster process, follow these tips:

• Sleep for 8-9 hours.
• Limit your shower time. Stand under the shower for a maximum 10 of minutes. 
• Do not use too hot or too cold water in your shower. Preferably use lukewarm water. 
• Drink lots of water.
• Limit your alcohol intake.
• Stop smoking.
• Switch to natural shampoo and soap. 
• Use soft towels. 
• Use gentle facewash. 
• Eat a diet that is rich in fatty acids. 

3. Which ingredient is best for reviving your dehydrated skin?

Ans. Hyaluronic acid is the best for reviving your dull dry and dehydrated skin. In many creams and moisturizers, hyaluronic acid is already present. Try switching to those creams and moisturizers. Else you can also purchase hyaluronic serums and add a few drops of it to your face daily.

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Last Updated on February 22, 2024 by ayeshayusuf