In this article:
What is dehydrated skin?
The difference between dry skin and dehydrated skin
What causes dehydrated skin?
What are the skin signs of dehydration?
Does dehydrated skin cause blemishes?
How to treat dehydrated skin
Can you reverse dehydrated skin?
How do I moisturise my dehydrated skin?
Should I exfoliate dehydrated skin?
Choosing dehydrated skin products
Blemish-prone, dehydrated skin products
Dry, dehydrated skin products
When you hear the term “dehydrated skin,” what comes to mind? Is it dull, flaky skin?
Although a dull skin appearance with flaking and itchiness is a hallmark of dehydrated skin, it can also be associated with dry skin – we know, confusing! Surprisingly, dehydrated skin and dry skin are not the same thing – and as it turns out, anyone can suffer bouts of dehydration (yes, we mean any skin type!).
We know dehydrated skin can be tricky to identify, which is why we’re providing you with a guide below that covers everything from signs of dehydrated skin to the best products that help remedy skin dehydration.
What is dehydrated skin?
Dehydrated skin often looks and feels like dry skin all over your face, but there's a major difference (1) between the two: dehydrated skin is a skin condition involving a lack of water (with various surprising causes) whereas dry skin is a distinct skin type.
Dehydrated skin can occur in all skin types and is not exclusive to those with dry skin or combination skin. Once you understand how dehydrated skin differs from dry skin or combination skin, it will be much easier to find the best products and put together an appropriate skin care routine so you can see the smooth, glowing, plumped skin you want!
The difference between dry skin and dehydrated skin
Although often confused, dry skin and dehydrated skin are markedly different in their causes and treatments.
Dry skin is a skin type that you're born with and heavily depends on the density of oil-producing glands in your skin. Dry skin frequently feels tight and dry, with no oil anywhere to be seen because this type of skin produces lower amounts of sebum (oil) (2). This situation rarely fluctuates; skin feels dry all year long. The dryness might get worse depending on the climate, season, or activity, but regardless of those things, without nourishing skin care products, the uncomfortable dry, tight feeling will persist.
As mentioned above, dehydrated skin can look and feel similar to dry skin, but there’s a major difference: Dehydrated skin tends to come and go, it does not persist.
Another hallmark of dehydrated skin is that it’s often accompanied by a normal to even excessive amount of oil on the skin. Despite excess oil, the skin still feels tight or dry everywhere on your face, and these signs are often accompanied by flaking, which can be beyond frustrating. This is because dehydrated skin lacks water, not oil.
Simply described, if you’d describe your skin as dry underneath with an oily layer on top, most likely you have dehydrated skin. Surprising fact: For many people, the skin care products they’re using are to blame!
Sometimes, because of combination skin’s simultaneous flaking and oiliness, it gets conflated with dehydrated skin. Remember: Combination skin is when you have areas that are oily, usually in the T-zone (nose, chin, and center of the forehead) while skin on the sides of the face or cheek area is dry.
What causes dehydrated skin?
Although dehydrated skin can be caused by different factors, more often than not it's the result of using skin care products that contain harsh or skin-sensitising ingredients that disturb its barrier (3) or disrupt the skin's microbiome. It can also develop from using the wrong products for your skin, which leads to an imbalance in hydration. Essentially, dehydration can be viewed as your skin showing you that it doesn’t like something you’re doing to it.
Irritating ingredients like denatured alcohol (or SD alcohol), menthol, peppermint, fragrances (synthetic or natural) or drying cleansing agents can parch skin’s surface and leave it feeling dehydrated (4). It can also stimulate excess oil production at the base of the pore, so skin ends up being oilier and more prone to developing clogged pores (more on that later).
The same can happen when you use abrasive scrubs or stiff-bristled cleansing brushes. All these damage the skin's surface—and we know that an intact barrier is exceedingly important to healthy-looking skin (5).
Using the wrong combination of products or using certain products too frequently can make a mess of things and lead to a bout of dehydrated skin. For example, even though an AHA (alpha hydroxy acid) or BHA (beta hydroxy acid or salicylic acid) exfoliant, high-strength vitamin C product and a high concentration of retinol can have amazing benefits, when dehydration is present or when your skin isn’t fond of too much at once, using them every day, all together, can result in a dehydrated look and feel with excess oil on top.
This is a highly individual response, so it's important to pay close attention to how your skin responds to more potent, effective products such as these. Based on how your skin responds, adjust usage to get ideal results. For these types of products, once- or twice-daily use isn’t mandatory to see improvement. It’s a balancing act and your goal is to not tip the scale in favour of irritating skin.
What are the skin signs of dehydration?
The signs of skin dehydration are recognisable – once you know what to look for. Dehydrated skin’s main differentiators from dry skin are its transient and often oily nature.
Here are some examples of what dehydrated skin looks and feels like:
- Tight and itchy
- Very dry, but with an oily layer on top (as mentioned above)
- Flaky, sometimes with a whitened or ashy appearance
- Lacking in elasticity – when skin is pinched upward, it doesn’t immediately bounce back (this is known as skin turgor)
- Skin may look shiny from the oil but still feel dry, with a rough texture
Does dehydrated skin cause blemishes?
No, dehydrated skin does not cause blemishes. What’s most likely happening is that you’re using products that aren’t right for your skin type (too emollient or too drying) or products that contain harsh, irritating ingredients (are you seeing a pattern here?) and you might be skipping out on daily sunscreen use (sun damage plays a significant role in disrupting the surface of skin and can worsen blemishes) (6).
This could be causing your skin to be oilier yet dehydrated at the same time, clogging pores while also triggering inflammation that makes breakouts worse all at the same time. Correcting these skin care mistakes will go a long way toward getting your skin back on the right track.
How to treat dehydrated skin
As you can tell, the most important thing you can do to take care of dehydrated skin is to assess your skin care routine and stop using harsh, sensitising products. That means you must use products that nourish dehydrated skin and curate a skin care routine that includes:
- Gentle, yet effective, cleansers that don't leave skin feeling tight, dry, or greasy.
- Never using harsh (grainy or gritty feeling) scrubs and/or rough cleansing brushes.
- Using a rehydrating toner instead of skin-stripping, alcohol- or witch hazel-based versions; toners should give back, not take away from skin.
- Applying targeted solutions or boosters on alternate days or every other day to judge how your skin does. It doesn’t take using specialty products like these every day to gain benefit.
Use toners, boosters, serums and moisturisers that are loaded with antioxidants, hydration-replenishing ingredients and skin-restoring ingredients. These give your skin what it desperately needs to appear healthy, radiant and smooth.
Can you reverse dehydrated skin?
Yes, dehydrated skin can be reversed. Since dehydrated skin isn’t a permanent skin type, but rather a temporary skin condition, addressing the issues that led to the problem in the first place can result in a reversal of that condition.
That’s the best possible news – just make certain to follow a gentle, effective skin care routine, like the one outlined above, and you’ll get the results you want in just a few weeks (7)!
How do I moisturise my dehydrated skin?
Because of dehydrated skin’s unique needs, you need to find a moisturiser middle ground that addresses hydration without clogging pores or making skin oilier. This is where exploring moisturiser textures comes in.
Hybrid textures like a lightweight, gel-cream moisturiser tend to work best for dehydrated skin. This is because they pack a hydrating punch without adding onto dehydrated skin’s oily nature. Steer clear of more richly emollient, creamy products. These creamy products are better suited for dry skin.
For daytime, don’t forget a moisturiser with SPF. Fluid sunscreens are excellent for hydrating and protecting skin in a lightweight layer that doesn’t leave skin feeling greasy or occluded. Hydrating sunscreens are essential to both the recovery and prevention of dehydrated skin because UV rays can cause dehydration!
Should I exfoliate dehydrated skin?
Yes! Despite the myth that exfoliation thins skin’s protective barrier, the opposite is true. A gentle, well-formulated exfoliant helps restore skin’s barrier. In fact, it’s a great solution for the unique problem of dehydrated skin, since exfoliation unclogs pores and enhances hydration, taking care of the dual problems of dry, flaky skin, and oil production (8). AHAs in particular can help restore skin’s natural moisturising factor (NMF) to what it was when skin was healthy (9).
The key here is gentle exfoliation – formulas featuring soothing supportive ingredients are the way to go, as well as ones that have their exfoliating acids formulated at the proper pH for the most effective and least irritating impact on skin. It’s also important to remember that for dehydrated skin, gentle exfoliation can also mean reducing the number of times you exfoliate. Start by exfoliating once a week and slowly increase the cadence as you monitor skin’s response.
Choosing dehydrated skin products
Choosing products that cater to and help reverse dehydrated skin is as easy as following our above advice: avoid ingredients and tools that weaken skin’s barrier and protect skin from damaging agents, like pollution and UV rays.
But that’s easier said than done. Searching through an ingredient list looking for sensitising ingredients can be overwhelming. To bypass the confusion, use our Beautypedia Skin Care Ingredient Checker which ranks ingredients in a formula from Best to Worst based on analysis of peer-reviewed and other solid sources of research. Simply copy-and-paste or upload a photo of any skin care product’s ingredient list into the tool and watch as it identifies irritating, possibly dehydration-causing ingredients for you.
After you identify all of the no-good components in your products (and prospective products) you can focus on using soothing products with humectants. Humectants are a group of skin care ingredients that work to attract and bind moisture to skin. Since dehydrated skin needs water, the two are a match made to last! Common humectants and humectant-like ingredients to look for in your dehydrated skin care products include:
- Hyaluronic acid and sodium hyaluronate
- Glycerine
- Butylene or pentylene glycol
- AHAs
- Panthenol (vitamin B5)
- Ectoin
After investing in humectants and other hydrating ingredients, make sure to always round out your morning skin care routine with a broad-spectrum sunscreen. Treating skin to hydration without using SPF renders all the time and work you put into your skin care routine useless.
Blemish-prone, dehydrated skin products
Blemish-prone dehydrated skin requires a few more ingredients and products to care for its specific breakout needs. Much like dehydrated skin, it requires cutting out irritating ingredients, hydration and SPF. However, it also needs soothing, anti-breakout superstars like salicylic acid.
Incorporating a salicylic acid exfoliant formulated to be gentle into your routine for blemish-prone, dehydrated skin can help alleviate visual irritation and reduce the occurrence of clogs and bumps. Blemish-prone, dehydrated skin could also benefit from a targeted benzoyl peroxide treatment that simultaneously soothes and fights blemishes. Both ingredients have anti-breakout track records (10).
Don’t forget to add products with these ingredients into your routine slowly, one-at-a-time. Begin with application every other day and gradually increase to twice daily after noting skin’s response.
Dry, dehydrated skin products
Dry, dehydrated skin requires intense nourishment because it lacks both moisture and oil. Beyond humectants, it also requires occlusives and emollients. These two groups of ingredients sit atop skin and act as a barrier, not allowing trans-epidermal water (moisture) loss. Notable emollients and occlusives to look for in skin care products for dry, dehydrated skin include:
- Ceramides
- Shea butter
- Non-fragrant plant oils (almond oil, avocado oil and coconut oil to name a few)
- Caprylic/capric triglycerides
Unlike dehydrated skin, dry, dehydrated skin can also handle creamy moisturisers with richer textures.
Learn more skin care tips.
References for this information:
- Jurnal Tribologi, May 2020, pages 59-82
- Skin Research & Technology, March 2020, pages 163-168
- Clinics in Dermatology, March-April 2018, pages 109-115
- Cosmetics, January 2021, pages 1-12
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences, October 2022, pages 1–14
- Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, September 2020, pages 2,201-2,211
- Journal of Dermatological Treatment, June 2021, pages 300–305
- Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, November 2010, pages 135-142
- International Journal of Cosmetic Science, February 2000, pages 21-52
- Dermatologic Therapy, September 2022, ePublication
