Oil vs Water: How To Know What Your Skin Needs
Is your skin dry or dehydrated? Everyone will most likely experience dry, dehydrated, or both dry and dehydrated skin at some point. Knowing the difference is essential so you know how to care for it. Dry skin is a skin type, and while your skin type can change over time, it doesn't happen often. Dehydrated skin is a skin condition, and skin conditions can fluctuate.
If you add oil to dehydrated skin, it will still be thirsty. And while too much water-based hydration will never hurt your dry skin, you will still feel dry without the right amount of oil to balance out what it lacks. So what is the role of oil and water in skincare, and how can we achieve better skin? Read on!
Oil and our skin
The sebaceous glands inside the pores of our skin make sebum (AKA "oil"). For some, oil can seem like a curse when it leads to "shiny" or acne-prone skin, but you should embrace your sebum! Sebaceous glands bring antioxidants and lipids to your skin to protect it to form your skin's barrier. Without sebum, we would wither away! If your skin type is most likely oily, meaning you see visible oil that you could blot, you most likely make plenty of sebum and need to read about water below.
Some people's natural skin type is dry, though. They usually have small or nearly invisible pores. Dry skin can be flakey and compromised since there's less sebum to protect it, and it can be misdiagnosed as "sensitive" skin. It needs to be balanced with oil. However, dry skin still needs active exfoliation, too, so if you feel your skin is too sensitive, you could benefit from adding oil and finding the correct method of exfoliation for your skin.
It's not overly common, but you can have dry skin and acne, especially with hormonal issues. If this is you, try adding an acne-safe oil to your acne-fighting regimen. While oil contributes to acne, balance is important for your skin, so if you are dry, you may stay clear better by adding more oil to your skin so your skin can protect itself better. If you are not prone to acne, add the most luscious skin oils and use them twice daily under your moisturizer. You still likely need active ingredients and possibly hydration, but once your lipid levels are higher, you will see big improvements in your skin.Fortunately, oils are one of the more affordable skincare products, but stick with a high-quality one meant for your face. Don't use oils meant for holistic health on your skin; they are not formulated to work that way.
Most people have normal or combination skin and will have some oil in the forehead, nose, and chin (t-zone) but will not produce much oil on the outside of the face. These people should seasonally add oil in for the fall and winter months. If you travel or feel stressed, you can have an oil you use a few times a week. Massaging your skin with oil is excellent for blood flow and healthy skin aging. Also, using an oil cleanser to pre-cleanse your makeup at night is a great way to introduce oils to your skin.
Water and our skin
Our skin naturally makes hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is the ultimate humectant, helping skin to retain moisture. It also helps heal wounds (including acne lesions) and keeps wrinkles and fine lines from forming. While you make hyaluronic acid, every skin can benefit from more of it, and unlike oil, you really can't have too much. Most people's skin is somewhat dehydrated. This doesn't mean your body is dehydrated (although it may be); it just means your skin is. Skin dehydration is caused by an effect called transepidermal water loss. There are so many contributors to why you would experience transepidermal water loss, but the common ones are over-exfoliating, overusing using many active products, sweating a lot, and weather conditions like dry air, sunshine, wind, and cold air. Also, hot water and showers dehydrate the skin as well as washing your face but not applying a follow-up treatment products or moisturizer.
If you feel like your skin is crepey or looks more wrinkled on some days than others, chances are you are dehydrated.Dehydration and dryness can occur simultaneously, but only hyaluronic acid and water-based hydrating products can truly quench the thirst of dehydrated skin, and only a lipid or oil-based product can balance dry skin. So, if your skin is dry and dehydrated, use a hydrating serum and then lock it in with an oil-based product.
If all of this was too much to follow, know that nearly every skin can benefit from added hydration. However, it likely only needs oil seasonally or as you age because the skin creates less oil as our estrogen levels decrease.