How To Treat Dry Skin

If you find yourself suffering with dry, itching or irritated skin, it may be time to revive your skincare routine and provide your skin with some extra nourishment.

In this post, we detail our top tips for soothing and hydrating dry skin, along with what is dry skin and some of the common causes:

What is Dry Skin?

Dry skin is a common skin condition defined by not having enough moisture in the outer layer of your skin (the epidermis). In most cases, this usually occurs due to seasonal/environmental changes such as a sudden increase or decrease in temperature, low air moisture or soaking in hot water. By making simple changes to your skincare routine, you can revive dry skin.

Sometimes, you may find you suffer severely or frequently with dry skin. In these cases, we recommend you seek advice from a doctor or dermatologist so they can help you effectively combat dry skin in the safest (and kindest) way for your skin.

Signs of Dry Skin:

Although common, dry skin is often a temporary condition. A whole host of factors can contribute to dry skin such as the weather, your age, where you live, your health, and much more. Signs and symptoms of dry skin include:

Dry skin is often temporary — you get it only in winter, for example — but it may be a lifelong condition. Signs and symptoms of dry skin depend on your age, your health, where you live, time spent outdoors and the cause of the problem. Dry skin is likely to cause one or more of the following:

• skin tightness
• rough feeling or looking skin
• itching and sensitivity
• skin cracking, scaling, flaking or peeling
• grey, ashy skin patches
• redness or irritation

What Causes Dry Skin?

Dry skin can affect anyone and everyone, including those with naturally oily skin! Whilst some people may be born with naturally dry skin, there’s also an array of external triggers that contribute to dry skin.

Dehydration and Diet

When you are dehydrated, your skin can also become dehydrated. By lacking in moisture or water, your skin can become dry, dull and itchy.

Environmental factors such as cold winds, air conditioning and heat can all cause your skin to be dehydrated. Lifestyle factors including having a poor diet, drinking too much alcohol, lack of sleep and even sweating a lot from a hard workout in the gym can all result in skin dehydration and dryness.

Eating healthy foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins (especially vitamins E, A and C!) can help retain and restore hydration levels. Water-rich foods such as cucumbers, watermelon and strawberries are your friend when it comes to staying hydrated.

Remember to drink at least 8 glasses or 2 litres of water every day too and your skin (and body) will be thanking you.

Weather Conditions

Humidity, harsh winds and cold temperatures can all play a role in drying your skin out.

As the days draw colder and the humidity levels start to drop in the autumn and winter months, the likelihood of dry skin increases. Along with this, the sudden transition from cold to hot as you step indoors away from the cold temperature outside can affect your skin’s ability to retain moisture as the central heating can dry out your skin.

It’s not just in the cold months that you need to take extra care of your skin though. The humid, summer temperatures can also dry your skin out so although a lighter moisturiser should do the trick during summer, it’s important to keep your skin moisturised all year round.

Harsh Soaps

Harsh soaps and body washes made with a high percentage of synthetic ingredients can leave your skin feeling dry. If you notice your skin feels more dry or sensitive after washing, it may be time to look at changing your soap.

Our Signature body washes contain 97% naturally derived ingredients including kind-to-skin moisturising vitamins such as Pro Vitamin B5 to help keep skin feeling silky soft and hydrated.

Other Factors

There can be an array of different causes and triggers for dry skin. From environmental to genetic and hormonal triggers, it can sometimes make it difficult to find out what exactly is causing your skin dryness to flare up. Your job can affect your skins moisture levels just like swimming too much or the simple process of ageing can also influence whether you develop dry skin.

That’s why caring for your skin and finding remedies and prevention methods that work for you is a super important step in managing your skin condition.

Remedies and Preventions for Dry Skin

If you find you are suffering with dry skin, don’t worry! There’s a ton of remedies and preventions out there to help you manage and banish your dry skin woes. Simple skincare routine changes can help to revitalise your skin.

Moisturise your skin

Moisturising your skin will help to lock in moisture, preventing your skin from drying out.

If you find your current moisturiser isn’t quite working it’s magic, look to switch to a rich body butter containing Vitamin E for enriched moisturisation. There are many skincare benefits of Vitamin E including how it can help to nourish nails, hair and skin.

Take Shorter Showers

We love a long, relaxing bath just as much as the next girl, but we try to limit how often we have them. By keeping you baths and showers short, you can improve your skin’s condition.

Similarly, make sure your shower or bath isn’t too hot! Turn the dial to warm to help keep your skin hydrated and prevent dry, itchy or inflamed skin.

Ditch the Drying Soap

Some soaps and body washes can actually dry your skin out. When looking for a new soap or shower gel, choose carefully and opt for a gentle body wash with added moisturisers.

SLS is a skincare ingredient that could affect dry skin. To find out more about SLS and how it differs from SLES, read our SLS vs SLES article.

In our bath and body products, you’ll find lots of kind-to-skin ingredients such as nourishing shea butter or moisturising Vitamin E to keep your skin feeling silky-soft and hydrated.

Daily Skincare Routine for Dry Skin

Help your skin glow again by making sure you add these simple yet nourishing steps into your daily skincare routine:

Wash with hydrating shower gel

If you suffer with dry skin, make sure you treat your skin to a hydrating, moisture-rich shower gel. Our Signature Body Wash collection all contain 97% naturally derived ingredients and natural fruit extracts.

These shower gels are sure to be kind for skin and include skin-loving Vitamin B5 to help reinforce your skin’s barrier, retain moisture levels and promote increased hydration.

Exfoliate and buff away dry skin

Exfoliating is a key skincare step for improving dry skin. The I LOVE exfoliating shower smoothie is filled with natural almond shell to help buff away dead skin.

Exfoliating will rejuvenate dry skin, remove impurities and leave you with soft, glowing skin.

Moisturise skin

Help keep dry skin at bay by moisturising your skin daily. Make sure you swap your moisturiser to suit the seasons, opting for a lighter moisturiser in the Summer months and a richer moisturiser for the colder seasons.

Our Signature Body Butters are a must-have skincare treat for people with dry skin. Featuring the perfect blend of nourishing Shea Butter and organic Coconut Oil, our body butter collection is designed to revive dull, dry skin and leave it feeling silky-soft, hydrated and wonderfully-scented.

Nourish dry hands

When it comes to your daily skincare routine, don’t forget about your hands! Our hands are always hard at work so they need some extra care, especially during the colder seasons when they are more prone to suffer from dryness.

Our Hand and Nail Creams are the perfect size to pop in your bag so you can keep your hands well-nourished whilst on the go. These hand creams contain skin-loving moisturisers such as Vitamin E and Pro Vitamin B5 to help condition your hands.

Keep lips hydrated

Skin hydration doesn’t stop there! Environmental factors can also take their toll on your lips hydration levels. Keep your lips well-moisturised and prevent dry, chapped lips with the Balmi collection of lip balms. These lip balms come in an array of flavours and are perfect for keeping in your bag for whenever you need a quick lip balm top-up.