Dry skin is more than a mere beauty nuisance. Left untreated, it can quickly become inflamed. Cracking and redness can even develop into dermatitis, so the sooner you act, the better. You might think your skin becomes dehydrated because it's not getting enough moisture, but beauty is rarely so simple. Dryness often stems from a compromised skin barrier. Dry air exposure and insufficient water intake can worsen the condition, but if you try to treat it with moisture alone, you likely won't see much success.
Confounding Factors
Several habits and environmental factors might be contributing to your dryness:
- Dry or cold air draws moisture from skin.
- Harsh soaps strip skin of natural oils and moisture.
- Frequent hand washing and hot showers break down the barrier that protects skin.
- Aging reduces oil production, so when you start seeing a loss of firmness, the odds are fair that you'll also experience more dryness.
- Nutrient deficiencies can break down the skin barrier
- .Health conditions like dermatitis and diabetes can be just as destructive.
Essential Steps in a Dry Skin Body Care Routine
Step 1: Gentle Cleansing
If you use soaps and other surfactants, you're stripping your skin of moisture and protective oils every time you shower or wash your hands. You're undoing all the good work your dermatologist and skincare products are doing. Shower oils and soap-free cleansers leave your skin barrier intact. Use Sabon's Perfumed Liquid Hand Soap for its gentle, aloe vera-enriched effects. It might also be time to relegate your daily hot shower to the past. Too much heat can cause tightness, so add a splash of cool water to your routine.
Step 2: Exfoliating
Facial and body scrubs are more important for dry skin than you might think. Whether you choose chemical exfoliation or mechanical scrubs, removing dry, scaly cells from your skin's surface lets ointments, serums, and creams reach live cells. When nourishing ingredients penetrate beyond the epidermis, you benefit from turbocharged hydration. Sabon's salt-in-oil scrub formula is ultra-gentle and moisturizing, with Dead Sea minerals for extra nourishment.
Step 3: Targeted Treatments
Serum is more watery than hydrating lotions, so it can permeate the deepest layers of your dermis. For this reason, beauty brands use it to carry targeted active ingredients like antioxidants, hyaluronic acid, and collagen beneath the surface. That makes it a key step in your routine. Unlike ointments, serums don't require oil-based occlusives to perform their magic. Smaller molecules penetrate deeper, and deeper penetration means even better beauty magic.
Step 4: Deep Moisturization
Hydration is one of the most complex steps in your body care routine because not all skin responds the same way to every product. Oily skin needs an oil-free, noncomedogenic formula, and dry skin needs a thicker balm or butter. Sensitive skin tolerates fragrance and soap poorly, so it requires hypoallergenic emollients and natural oils. Sabon's body creams can cater to every skin type. Our moisturizing lotions, butters, and milks target dryness from five different angles simultaneously:
- We use humectants like glycerin to make your skin absorptive like a sponge. This way, you'll absorb moisture from the atmosphere throughout the day. It's like reapplying moisturizer, only easier.
- We use emollients to strengthen your skin's natural protective barrier so that any moisture your lotions introduce is locked in.
- We use occlusives to seal in moisture. These are especially important in severe dehydration, so we've added shea and other butters to our most intensive hydrators.
- We use water, too, of course, but if it were that simple, nobody would struggle with dryness. Moisture must be introduced with penetration enhancers that help it travel deeper into the skin.
- We use synergy boosters like vitamin B3 to encourage the skin to produce its own lipids. This way, moisturizing agents will stay where they belong—in the skin.
Step 5: Sun Protection
Sunscreen with a high SPF will prevent the sun from breaking down the ceramides in your skin's protective barrier, locking moisture in. It also helps prevent direct water loss by reducing UV damage, which can cause a rough, flaky texture. You should wear broad-spectrum sunscreen every day. If you're prone to forgetting this step, a body lotion with SPF might help.
Step 6: Lifestyle Changes
What you eat is as important as what you put on your skin. Any dry skin ritual worth its salt should include:
Hydration and Diet
Your skin absorbs nutrients best from the inside, not the outside, so a vitamin-rich diet with plenty of water can immediately reduce skin dehydration.
Humidity Control in Your Environment
Air conditioners and other HVAC equipment are notoriously dehydrating, but you don't need extreme temperatures to achieve a dewy complexion. Humidifiers are a powerful ally in your fight against ashy skin.
Fragrance Choices for Sensitive Skin
Dry skin is often highly reactive to every passing trigger, so it's best to omit synthetic fragrance from your body care routine. Botanical and essential oils give you all the luxury of an intoxicating scent without the harshness of petroleum-derived chemical compounds. You shouldn't have to use a soothing ointment to calm your skin after using the products in your body care routine, so it's only natural that Sabon extracts all its fragrances from Mother Nature.
If you're dealing with extreme dryness and irritation, you may need to rethink every step of your routine. Every product, from your body wash to your lotion, can help. This is a battle worth fighting because dehydrated skin can't heal or protect itself. You may live with the ravages for the rest of your life. Fortunately, you have Sabon in your corner, so a radiant, pliant complexion is well within your reach. Go ahead. Spoil yourself.
