Is Your Skin Dry or Dehydrated? Find Out Which Natural Skincare Products to Use for Thirsty Skin
Posted on May 19, 2024 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 cool refresher, but by nightfall, our skin feels like slightly dry stale toast.
While we love the look of tanned skin, being out in the sun all day definitely takes a toll on our body’s largest organ – our precious dermis! Even staying hydrated on the inside can’t combat the drying and dehydrating effects of long-term sun exposure.
Show your complexion some extra love with these skin-hydration tips and summer skincare tricks for plump, healthy skin – plus get that summertime glow within and out without the tan damage!
What Is the Difference Between Dry and 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 or you could be experiencing dehydrated skin. Though the symptoms and signs of these skin-sapping conditions are overlapping and interlinking, dry skin is not the same thing as dehydrated skin. While they have similar qualities, they have different underlying causes.
DRY skin is a condition that you’re predestined to have (or not have) at birth. It’s skin that is defined by having a low or reduced level of lipids present in your epidermal layer. Naturally, dry skin doesn’t produce as much sebum (that waxy substance we know as ‘oil’) as other skin types do, and as a result, this skin type will be chronically flakey and papery to the touch.
Dry skin may be exacerbated by summer sun and heat, but ultimately, having dry skin isn’t a temporary thing. You will need a curated skincare routine for dry skin to help nourish and balance your complexion year-round.
On the other hand, dehydrated skin isn’t so much a skin type as it is a skin condition. It occurs when the epidermal layer seriously lacks WATER. Skin that’s dehydrated is often simultaneously oily, leading to congestion, dullness, and combination symptoms. It will appear to be greasy and dry simultaneously, may experience breakouts, and will come and go based on a variety of external factors. These factors can include sun exposure, weather, hydration, diet, and caffeine and alcohol consumption.
Dehydrated skin often occurs from external factors, and is a temporary condition that can go away with the right natural skincare 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. When we finally 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 parched. What’s 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? You may probably try to quickly eradicate it or neutralize the oil. All the blotting paper, translucent powder, and charcoal cleansers in the world will help lessen oil, but they won’t fix the root cause of dehydrated skin.
To avoid making things worse, it’s important to know the signs of dehydrated skin.
Excess oiliness of the skin, especially if your skin is usually neutral, combination, or dry
Tightness or discomfort of the skin
Flakiness, peeling, dry patches, or inflammation – this can sometimes look like heat rash
While experiencing these symptoms is unpleasant, it’s important to understand the causes of dehydrated skin to find the right skincare products to bring your complexion back into balance.
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. Hot air – dry or humid – not only affects 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!
Extreme temperatures and rapid climate changes
Lack of internal and/or topical hydration (i.e. drinking water or using hydrating natural skincare)
Prolonged sun and heat exposure
Hot showers, especially if you aren’t replacing the loss of moisture afterward with hydrating skin and body products
The Difference Between Moisture and Hydration
As we mentioned earlier, dry skin is caused by a lack of oil, which essentially means a lack of moisture. This occurs when the skin can’t produce enough oil naturally to sustain itself. Dry skin can also be the result of a build-up of dead skin cells and dry flakes on the surface preventing oil and crucial natural skincare ingredients from properly penetrating and treating it.
The best treatment is twofold; replacing and maintaining hydration and moisture in the skin – and why all skin types need a little of both. Your skin needs hydration and moisturization to retain water in the skin. This is precisely why our natural skincare products feature the best in hydrating and moisturizing ingredients.
Hydration is designed to quench the skin with water, not oil. By using water or water-based ingredients, hydrating natural skincare treats the outermost layers of the skin. Hydrating natural skin 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.
The Best Hydrating and Moisturizing Skin Products for Dehydrated Skin
By adding these veritable water bombs into your daily natural skincare routine, you can save your skin from the unnecessary misery of dehydration. They feature skin-hydrating and mega-moisturizing ingredients, such as essential oils, hydrating seaweeds, nourishing super fruits, and more!
It’s time to quench your summertime skin blues and deliver it into glowing bright like the sun without its harmful effects.
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. Traditional toners feature more astringent or alcohol ingredients, which can strip the skin of its essential oils.
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 infused with hyaluronic acid, which naturally occurs in the body – and gives mega-plumping effects and suppleness to the skin. 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, clear, balanced, and bright.
If you’re serious about getting water back into your dehydrated skin, you’ll need a skincare product that can lock in precious hydration and moisturize. Our Hydra Drench Cream pulls double-duty to rehydrate thirsty skin and lock in precious water. Featuring anti-inflammatory rose water and mega-hydrating glycerin, chia seed gel, hyaluronic acid, and cactus extract, this cream was meant to fight dehydrating skin in a pinch. Use it as your daily morning and evening moisturizer or as a skin refresher post-sun fun.
Need a quick fix? Our hydrogel masks will do just the trick. These masks are 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. But don’t forget that our delicate, fragile eye area needs TLC, too!
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.
Happy skin is all about balance. To avoid dehydrated skin and maintain a healthy, harmonious complexion, be sure to incorporate hydrating and moisturizing ingredients into your daily skincare routine. This applies not just to the natural, fabulous products we curated here for you, but also applies to skin habits.
Here’s to summertime fun and getting that summer glow within and out without the tan damage! Now that’s the (water) bomb!
Frequently Asked Questions About Dehydrated Skin
What are the key differences between dry skin and dehydrated skin?
Whereas dry skin (a skin type) is lacking oil, dehydrated skin (a skin condition) is lacking water. This skin concern is typically caused by damage to the skin’s protective barrier or various external factors, such as extremely cold or hot, dry weather conditions, or inadequate water in one’s diet.
How can I identify signs of dehydrated skin?
It’s important to look for the signs of dehydrated skin by excess oiliness, especially if your skin is usually neutral, combination, or dry; uncomfortable tightness or discomfort of the skin; flakiness, peeling, dry patches, or inflammation – this can sometimes look like heat rash.
What causes dehydration in the skin during summer?
The sunlight zaps the moisture from the skin leaving it dry and flaky. The pool you jump in to cool off from the hot rays may also contain chemicals that can strip the skin, leaving it dried out. If you’re not taking in enough water, especially on hot days, your skin can also easily become dehydrated.
What are the best natural skincare products for hydrating dehydrated skin?
The best natural skin care products for hydrating dehydrated skin should provide hydrating and moisturizing ingredients. Gentle, creamy cleansers, hydrating toners, moisturizers, gel masks, sleeping masks, eye masks, and sheet masks are all welcome to join your skincare routine. They feature skin-quenching ingredients like moisturizing essential oils, hydrating seaweeds, nourishing super fruits, and more for happy, healthy, balanced skin.
How do hydrating toners and moisturizers help treat dehydrated skin?
The best natural hydrating toners and moisturizers will contain ingredients that can help treat and balance dehydrated skin. Some of these are hyaluronic acid, AHAs, ceramides, niacinamide, and vitamins C and E. These ingredients hydrate and nourish skin, brighten and soften your complexion, and help with cellular turnover. Look for ingredients rich in antioxidants, such as green tea and berry-infused formulas, that have skin-boosting benefits.