Girl, you are a tall glass of water, but maybe your skin doesn’t feel like it’s had one in a long time…especially during winter.

Like when you get a zit, said zit heals, said zit scars, said zit causes a round ring of dryness where the concealer has caked away from the new, emerging skin. Or when our pores enlarge. Makeup looks great in the morning, makeup looks like it found its way into a million grand canyons by the end of the day. Or my personal favorite, morning wrinkles. Raising the eyebrows as high as they go to keep eyes open for the 6am alarm clock, just to realize those wrinkles did NOT follow the eyes back down…

Like when you get a zit, said zit heals, said zit scars, said zit causes a round ring of dryness where the concealer has caked away from the new, emerging skin. Or when our pores enlarge. Makeup looks great in the morning, makeup looks like it found its way into a million grand canyons by the end of the day. Or my personal favorite, morning wrinkles. Raising the eyebrows as high as they go to keep eyes open for the 6am alarm clock, just to realize those wrinkles did NOT follow the eyes back down…

It’s all about hydration and moisturization. And no, they are NOT the same thing. 

Dehydrated skin that is moisturized, can still feel uncomfortably tight and appear incredibly dull because it is lacking WATER.  In turn, dry skin that is hydrated but not moisturized will still have an unpleasant texture and flake because it lacks OIL. 

And don’t get me started on “oil free” moisturizers. They are like sugar free sugars. Fake, and inconsistently bad. 

So how do you fix the problem? Couple of ways!

1. Obviously keep the H2O coming. When you drink enough water, valuable minerals and vitamins in the body are able to flush to the surface to keep the skin hydrated internally. However, don’t overdo it. Too much water will flush away those minerals and vitamins before they even have a chance to reach the surface. Our skin is an organ, but it is the largest and farthest away from the rest. 

2. A smarter way to enhance your hydration and moisturization factors is by controlling them topically. For moisture, think oils. And no, you will not breakout. Our body creates a natural level of oil already, and when that natural oil is stripped, it needs to be replaced or it will overproduce and cause clogging (or even MORE oil and ultimately breakouts, which is also bad). A sign of dry skin is a STRONG oil production, so in turn, the cure for oily skin, is a better, topical oil. Catch-22. For Hydration, aim for ingredients with glycerin and hyaluronic acid (HA). Glycerin pulls hydration from your atmosphere and HA holds 1,000 times its weight in volume in water. Ta-Da! 

3. Be careful not to over wash, exfoliate too much, or over dry. As a rule of thumb, if you do not have acne, I strongly suggest avoiding sudsy face washes and soaps. They are prone to strip your lipid barrier of all natural oils. Which is terrible.

Talking to a dermatologist or someone in the skincare field is always a good idea as well. People like us generally know ingredients and which companies contain enough hyaluronic acid or oils to be effective. At the very least, we can guide you in the right direction. 

So I will leave you to ponder this thought: Don’t be a raisin, be a grape.

If you have questions, I would love to help! Shoot me a DM on instagram!