Skin hydration is your number one weapon when seeking how to treat dry itchy skin on face, and hydration also helps in the battle against aging. Sure, moisturizers have been used forever but modern times bring us multi-tasking ingredients that deliver more benefits. Hopefully your mantra isn’t “just drink water” because skin needs external moisturizing as well as an all day barrier for protection against drying elements.
Remember when a jar of Vaseline did the job of a hundred tasks? Everything from forming a skin barrier to removing makeup to acting as a balm to soothe skin and today Vaseline is still used. However we’ve learned that while it may hydrate it will also clog pores. At the end of the day this greasy balm just doesn’t deliver everything we need.
When you think about skin hydration, consider all the other things your skin needs; in addition to moisture, your skin needs a natural anti inflammatory and anti bacterial to calm skin irritations. This helps to promote healing, all the while, boosting cell renewal and locking in moisture.
Your skin breathes and sweats every day, all day long. However during this process of elimination you’re constantly evaporating water, leaving your skin thirsty. As we age our protective layer of skin thins and becomes less capable of retaining fluid; your skin becomes flakier, itchy and the texture becomes rough. The loss of moisture all leads up to wrinkles, fine lines and blotchy skin.
You have a variety of emerging moisturizers to choose from:
- Moisterizing creams; creams are a mixture of oil with water and best suited for normal and dry skin types – like this organic moisturizer.
- Lotions; are similar to creams but lighter in consistency; translucent with a high water content and special ingredients like silicone or hydrogel so that the lotion spreads evenly
- Gels; clear, lightweight and made with less water than lotions. Hyaluroinc acid is often used to form this gel that is excellent at retaining water
- Serums; clear and very thin and formed from water and oil into a consistency that allows for easy application under makeup
- Face Oil; organic oils that help brighten skin.
Besides the basic moisturizers, you have “power” moisturizers that take your skin hydration up a level. The active ingredients in this type of moisturizer help to re-program your skin, rebuild collagen throughout the layers and calm inflammation with an effective natural anti-inflammatory to help your skin recover quicker.
You have hundreds of moisturizers on the market to choose from so which one should I choose?
- If you have dry skin choose a moisturizer that is categorized as an Emollient that will sink deep in the layers of the skin.
- If you have oily skin, use an oil-free moisturizer categorized as a Humectant that will draw moisture from your cells up to the surface and remain well absorbed.
Treating Dry Itchy Skin Naturally
Everything you do throughout your day has a direct effect on your skin. What you eat, the stress levels you endure, unavoidable pollution, free radicals and more helps break down our skin. The good news is that there are also natural skin-fixing ingredients that restore and protect. But having a few select products that work overtime and provide double-duty benefits is a plus to any time-starved modern woman.
You can keep skin moisturized from the inside out by eating a bevy of fresh fruits and vegetables, like cucumbers, watermelon, berries and citrus fruits. More importantly, water will naturally hydrate your skin while flushing toxins from the body. Remember, in our hurried everyday lives we tend to push aside taking care of ourselves properly, but the more neglectful we are, the more evident it shows on the skin.
