An Expert Guide to Skin Hydration

Well-balanced, hydrated skin looks plump, nourished and radiant. But if you experience dry or dehydrated skin, you might notice your skin feeling rough, tight, dull and uncomfortable. It’s a tough cycle to break, but prioritising your skin’s hydration can help improve skin elasticity and minimises the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

Whether your skin is dry in nature or in a temporary state of dehydration, we’ll walk you through our expert-approved tips for how to hydrate your skin using a combination of efficacious skincare and healthy lifestyle habits.

Dehydrated skin vs dry skin

Before you can address your skin’s needs, it’s important to know whether you’re dealing with dry or dehydrated skin. Though they sound similar, there are a few differences and distinct products required to support each issue. Let’s break it down.

What causes dehydrated skin?

Dehydrated skin is a skin concern that refers to a lack of water in your skin, which results in dullness, prominent dark circles under eyes, fine lines, and loss of elasticity.

The best way to tell if your skin is dehydrated is to pinch your cheek – if it wrinkles instead of holding its shape, it’s likely dehydrated. This concern can affect different skin types and may be triggered by several lifestyle factors, including:

• Seasonal changes
• Not consuming enough water
• Using harsh or stringent skincare products

What causes dry skin?

Dry skin is a skin type dictated by genetics and is characterised by having fewer natural oils (sebum) in the skin. Attributes of dry skin can include redness, flakiness, roughness, tightness, and itching sensations.

Why does skin hydration matter?

Dehydrated skin can have a snowball effect on your overall complexion, exacerbating other textural and discolouration concerns. But keeping your skin hydrated offers a number of benefits. It:

• Diminishes visible signs of ageing. By adding water to the skin, hydrating skincare products help to make fine lines less noticeable.
• Fortifies the skin moisture barrier, which makes your skin less susceptible to environmental stressors that trigger sensitisation.
• Keeps the skin’s sebum levels regulated, so the skin does not compensate for a lack of moisture by overproducing oil.
• Comforts the skin, mitigating tightness and itching sensations.

How to build a hydrating skincare routine

The key to unlocking skin hydration is to build a skincare routine with nourishing products that promote water retention in the skin surface and help strengthen the skin moisture barrier. For guidance on how to hydrate your skin with the right products, read on for our step-by-step routine to help you prioritise skin hydration and suppleness.

Seek out ingredients that support skin hydration

To form a dehydrated skincare routine, you’ll need a few hero ingredients in your skincare arsenal. Below are some of our favourites.

• Hyaluronic acid: Often considered the holy grail of hydrating ingredients, hyaluronic acid is a humectant (water-attracting) ingredient that can hold up to 1,000 times its weight in water. This makes it a powerhouse when it comes to retaining water in dehydrated skin.
• Glycerin: Like hyaluronic acid, glycerin is also a humectant that helps bind water to the skin surface. You’ll find it formulated in a range of hydrating skincare products: including serums, moisturisers, cleansers, and even exfoliators.
• Ceramides: These belong to a class of fatty acids called lipids that occur naturally in the skin. Ceramides reinforce your skin moisture barrier, which helps mitigate dryness and protect the skin from external stressors.

Use a gentle cleanser

Cleansing is an essential step in achieving and maintaining healthy skin, no matter your skin type or concern. For dry or dehydrated skin, you’ll want to apply a gentle cleanser (like a cream or oil-based cleanser) that has a hydrating formula free from stringent ingredients. This will help remove dirt, makeup and other impurities, while supporting the skin’s natural moisture levels.

Apply a hydrating serum

A hydrating face serum is the secret weapon your dry or dehydrated skin needs. The benefit of face serums is that their small molecular structure allows them to penetrate the skin surface and deliver concentrated ingredients – like some of our hydrating heavyweights.

The best hydrating serum for particularly parched skin is the Pure Shot Night Reboot Serum, which is formulated to target rough, dull skin by delivering an optimal dose of glycolic acid – a gentle exfoliant that helps soften skin overnight.

Nourish with moisturiser

The best skincare routine for dry skin would be incomplete without this essential step. Where serums deliver hydration to the skin surface and beyond, moisturisers lock in the hydrating skincare products you applied beforehand.

The Pure Shots Perfect Plumper Cream is ideal for use in the morning or at night, and helps support a radiant complexion by aiming to plump and rejuvenate dehydrated skin. Apply over your face and neck.

Additional skin hydration tips

Hydrating skincare products play a significant role in the look and feel of your skin. However, dryness and dehydration are more than skin-deep – and several lifestyle habits can contribute to the quest for healthy, hydrated skin, too. These include:

• Avoiding long, hot showers – hot water can rob your skin of moisture, leaving it feeling tight and dry. Instead, use lukewarm water and apply your hydrating skincare products soon after showering.
• Drinking plenty of water. Water is essential for improving skin elasticity, so aim for at least two litres a day.
• Applying SPF every morning to help protect your skin from sun damage, even in cold months.
• Eating a hydrating diet – this means reducing your caffeine and alcohol intake and opting for water-dense and antioxidant-rich foods alongside healthy, nourishing fats.

When you have hydrated skin, you might find yourself relying less on makeup for coverage. So now, find out how you can embrace a minimalist makeup routine – and let your dewy, plump skin shine through.