Hydrate & moisturize
Water and oils play an essential role in making sure our skin stays healthy, smooth, radiant and nourished, which comes from hydration and moisturizing. Many people use the words interchangeably, but in the skincare world, they have different properties and benefits, and therefore are not the same. Both are essential to your skincare routine and provide nourishment, however, the main difference between hydrate and moisturize is:
Hydration is the water content within the cells the absorption of moisture that infuses your cells with water.
Moisturizing is about locking in the moisture to build your skin’s natural protective barrier and helps prevent any water loss. This helps your skin stay soft and smooth.
Different skin types need different solutions:
With oily skin there is an excess of sebum (oil) production from the sebaceous glands. Products with humectant based moisturizing agents like hyaluronic acid are the best to retain hydration on the skin.
For dry, normal or combination skin, emollient based moisturizer with oils and fatty acid that can fill the cracks between the skin ( look for ingredients like squalene) helps retain skin barrier.
For mature skin you may look for a thicker, absorbent moisturizer that’s designed specifically to lock and trap the moisture into the skin.
If your skin is dry and flaky, it’s possible that your skin barrier is not locking in the moisture. If your skin is dull and fine lines and wrinkles easily show, then your skin may be dehydrated and need hydration to provide nourishment. When you hydrate (water) you’ll give your skin the nourishment it needs but it won’t stay soft if it escapes. So, putting oil on your newly nourished skin will lock it in. And if you only use a moisturizer (oil) on dehydrated skin, it might smooth those fine lines, but it will lack the softness that you desire.
Properly nourishing and hydrating skin goes beyond just a single step. Here’s a few things you can do:
Drinking water is one of the easiest ways to hydrate your skin.
Use Zenobia Skin’s hydrating serum with natural retinol alterative. It’s packed with water, squalane, hyaluronic acid, willow bark extract, rosehip oil, bakuchiol, prickly pear oil, apple stem cells and more.
Dry air can cause moisture to evaporate from the skin. Adding moisture to the air with a humidifier can offset this problem.
Use a facial toner essence to balance your ph levels and penetrate deeper into your pores.
This one might be hard for many of us, but skip the long, hot showers which helps moisture leave your skin. Try short, lukewarm showers instead.
