Our presence at various events gives us the opportunity to discuss skin types with people and we have noticed that there seems to be confusion between dry skin and dehydrated skin! So we called on Catherine Mondor, beautician at the Relais Santé Mieux Être in Rawdon , to distinguish between them.
“To make the right choices when it comes to skincare, you first need to know your skin type. I've heard a thousand times: phew, I have dry skin!! When most of the time, it's completely inaccurate!”
Distinguishing between dry and dehydrated skin
Dry skin is skin that lacks oil. The skin's natural lipid film is insufficient or absent. It must be nourished by increasing lipids, providing a lipid barrier to the skin.
What does dry skin look like? “Dry skin feels rough to the touch, and often the complexion can be dull. The skin feels tight. You can't see any oily areas on the face. A person with dry skin experiences a lot of discomfort, especially if they don't apply cream to their face every morning, sometimes even a few times a day in winter… It feels like the skin is too small for their face.”
Dehydrated skin lacks water, so we must increase water intake to avoid “over-secretion” of sebum.
What does dehydrated skin look like? “We often notice the presence of scales (small pieces of skin that detach from the surface layer of the epidermis) and we can sometimes even see inflammation where there is peeling. The skin can also have oily areas.” So it is possible to have dehydrated skin, but oily.
Choosing the right moisturizers
Choosing the right moisturizer is therefore very important if you don't want to end up with other problems! “So imagine that you have combination or oily skin (which therefore has a significant amount of oil) but dehydrated (lack of water), and you buy a cream labeled dry skin (to add oil), because the central area of your face burns a little, is red, and there are lots of small white skins coming off. Here is the result you will get:
Oily skin (with too much fat) + dry skin cream (significant addition of fat to the skin) = no water intake, so still dehydrated even after a whole pot of cream… And you get even more spots than before! Do you think your cream is no good? Wrong, it’s not right for you! You needed a cream for oily skin with a high moisturizing component.”
The same thing could happen in the opposite situation: choosing a cream for combination to oily skin when you have dry skin will give you more water but not enough oil to compensate for the lack of sebum.
Need help determining which skincare products would be best for your skin type? Contact us!