Dry skin is characterized by a lack of moisture, tightness, and itchy or flaky skin, with accentuated fine lines and wrinkles predominantly around the eyes and on cheeks.
Dry, chapped skin needs moisturizing and balancing oils high in oleic acids to promote moisture retention and to help minimize inflammation so cells become plump and supple and for redness and irritation to disperse.
We use rosehip, pomegranate, sunflower, red raspberry, tamanu, olive, and argan in our blends for dry skin. Read more about them in Carrier Oils for Custom Blends.
Dry Skin Treatments
Here are a few of our suggestions for treating dry skin naturally. Simple, clean, and fragrance-free products are best to use on your skin. The soap you use and your exfoliating and moisturizing habits all contribute to dry skin.
Choose the Right Soap
- One of the most common causes of dry skin is your soap. Using a mild, naturally moisturizing soap is recommended for dry skin.
- Cleansing creams are a preferable alternative to soap and water. Honey, oatmeal, yogurt, cucumber, milk, apple cider vinegar, and coconut oil work well as non-sudsy, gentle moisturizing cleanser substitutes.
- After cleansing and before moisturizing, use a toner for dry skin such as neroli or rose hydrosols (the water that is leftover from the steam distillation process of natural botanicals) and aloe.
Exfoliate As A Regular Practice
- Exfoliating is very important, especially in the winter. When our skin feels dry we often load up on heavy creams to compensate for the dryness but dry, flaky skin means we have a buildup of dead skin cells.
- Exfoliate 1-2 times per week to remove dead skin cells, then follow with an oil or moisturizer. Exfoliating more than twice a week could exacerbate redness and irritation. Our Adzuki Bean Scrub is a natural exfoliator that is gentle enough for dry skin and does not cause irritation. Other simple scrub options for dry skin are sugar, ground oatmeal, almonds, or coffee.
- Knowing when to exfoliate can effectively remove dry skin buildup to help restore your complexion. An easy way to tell is to take a piece of clear tape and apply to your forehead, rub gently and remove. If little pieces of flaky skin are present, then it is time to exfoliate.
Moisturize Daily
- Use pure and natural emollients like oils, serums, creams, or butters daily to help decrease the evaporation of moisture from skin. The main goal is to stop itching and to prevent moisture loss. Dermatologists recommend non-water based heavy creams to restore hydration to dry skin.
- The optimum time to moisturize is after showering or bathing while skin is still damp to help lock in moisture. If using oils or butters, a little goes a long way. The leftover water droplets help evenly distribute the moisturizer. Air drying afterward helps with absorbing.
- Reapply as often as you need throughout the day. Always keep a butter or lotion bar handy so dry spots or hands do not need to worsen.
Products & Practices to Avoid
- Avoid harsh detergent soaps. You can tell if a soap is harsh by looking at its ingredients. The following ingredients are known examples harsh for dry skin: sodium lauryl sulfate, petroleum, alcohol, parabens.
- Lotions are mostly made of water (usually the first ingredient) and often contain preservatives, alcohol, and fragrances that can irritate dry and sensitive skin. Although they are absorbed more quickly lotions do not contain enough emollients to offer long-term protection against dryness.
- Fragrance in products is not recommended. Since the FDA does not require ingredients to be listed that make up a fragrance, there could be multiple chemical elements that are unknown, even within natural products.
- Essential oils are good aroma alternatives in products and have boosted benefits for skin and hair. We use a 1% dilution to avoid irritation and sensitizing. All essential oils we use and recommend in our dry and mature skin blends are valuable such as myrrh, carrot seed, patchouli, or palmarosa.
- Use masks and steams with great care, as they may encourage broken veins which dry skin could be prone. Soothing masks with ingredients like honey and yogurt are beneficial, but stay away from clays. Clays have oil absorbing properties that are good for those with oily skin, but are harmful for dry skin. If you use steams, make sure to limit your skins exposure to no more than 10 minutes, as dry skin does not handle heat well.
Check out Adzuki Beans for uses of this natural scrub, Natural Face Oils for oil application instructions and Essential Oil Blends for Custom Oils for essential oils formulated to help replenish and restore healthy, glowing skin.