When You're Freaking Out About Your Dry Skin, Try Not to Scrub Your Face Off...

Dry skin occurs when the skin lacks sebum. This problem affects many people and strikes most often in the winter when you face extreme temperature changes such as cold temperatures outside and dramatically warmer temperatures inside. This can cause the epidermis to become cracked and even inflamed which allows bacteria to enter through the skin. Here are some do's and don't's to keep your skin soft and intact.

Do: Take a WARM bath- A warm bath will keep pores from opening more and allow you to retain moisture. When you do take your bath, make sure you use a mild soap and avoid scrubbing. This can cause your epidermis dry out even more.

Don't: Take a HOT bath- Hot baths also draw moisture out of the skin. This is because hot water opens up your pores and causes the moisture in you skin to diffuse out easier.



Do: Use an essential Oil- Essential oils are soluble with sebum, thus they get through to your pores and work like sebum.

Don't: Use Glycerin- Glycerin is often used in moisturizers however, this substance is terrible for dry skin. Glycerin actually draws moisture out of the stratum basale layers of your skin thus drying it from the inside out. In short, you will only prolong your dry skin.



Lush's Skin Drink Moisturizer is a rich, organic, vegan, rehydrating moisturizer that uses plenty of essential oils like Avocado, Sesame, and Almond Oil. - $18.55 for 1.5 oz

Do: Use an SPF- Dry skin is very sensitive. Thus it's much more susceptible to photoaging and other types of sun damage. With more shedding of skin cells from the epidermis, UV light is able to access inner layers of the epidermis and dermis possibly causing more mutation.

Don't: Use an intense exfoliater- One of the reasons your dry skin is so flaky and irritable is because your epidermis is shedding lots of dead skin cells. What does exfoliation do? It removes dead skin cells. In short, don't make the situation worse.