Welcome your skin to hydration land!

The importance of hydration is widely known, always talked about and hardly overrated. Its significance can be correlated to learning addition and subtraction for solving a math problem, you need the basics to make your foundation strong. Uniformly, you cannot miss out on hydration and go ahead to follow elaborate skincare rituals. You have to hydrate properly and adequately to let your skin breathe and function. But, what is skin hydration and how does one know if their skin is hydrated enough? Read on to know more.

The science behind skin hydration

Our body naturally stores hydration with the help of humectants. Humectants are molecules that trap water into the skin. In the humid climate, humectants pull water from the environment, whereas in the dry climate, it pulls out water from the deeper layers of the skin. Thus, it becomes necessary to pair water with occlusives. Occlusive ingredients are oily, waxy ingredients that form a “seal” on your skin to prevent water from escaping, basically occlusives are moisturizers. So, hydration and moisturization are different terms in context of what they mean and what they do. 

The difference between hydration and moisturization

Hydration means attracting water into the skin. But to seal this water without letting it escape is called moisturization.  Hydrating implies drawing water from the environment into the skin, whereas moisturizing means to form a barrier and stop the water from escaping back into the environment. This correlates to the difference between dehydrated skin and dry skin. If your skin is dehydrated -and yes it can also happen to oily skin types- you need to drink more water. If your skin is dry, you need to moisturize your skin more to remove that flaky texture. Dryness is a skin type whereas dehydration is a skin condition.

Some of the humectants are

• Hylauronic Acid
• Aloe Vera
• Honey
• Glycerin
• Urea
• Propylene glycol
• Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs)

Some of the occlusives are

• Mineral oil 
• Triglycerides
• Sunflower oil
• Soybean oil
• Jojoba oil
• Evening primrose oil
• Olive oil. 

Know about the essential oils required for your skin from our blog.

How to know if your skin is dehydrated?

The symptoms of dehydrated makes skin look as well as feel dull, they are:

• Itchiness
• Dullness
• Darker under-eye circles
• Shadows around the nose and under the eyes
• Appearance of fine lines and surface wrinkles

You can also do a patch test to check if your skin is dehydrated. Pinch your cheek, If it's wrinkling with gentle pressure instead of holding its shape, your skin cells are desperate for hydration. 

Ways to keep your skin hydrated

There are umpteen ways to keep your skin hydrated, like intake of water or water-rich fruits and using safe skincare products with hydration benefits. There are many products enriched with water magnet hyaluronic acid, that come in the form of hydrating serums, water sleeping masks, eye gel masks, etc. So, look for this kind of products and don't leave your skin dehydrated, This should not come as a hassle, because hydration has innumerable rewards for our skin. To know more on this subject, click here. 

Keep this facts in mind the last time you don’t drink enough water. Make sure to drench your skin with hydration as well as nourish your skin with moisturization.

Happy hydration!