Best Natural Ingredients for Dry Skin

How to Pick the Best Natural Ingredients for Dry Skin

Dry skin is one of the most common skin concerns, but it's also easy to manage. Dry and red skin can result from weather changes, stress, and other external or internal factors. Here is a quick guide to making sure your skin care products contain the best and most nourishing natural ingredients to help your dry skin. If your skin needs some TLC, read on to find out how to choose the right products to care for dry skin and repair it.

Moisturize - How to moisturize correctly! 

Anyone with dry skin understands the seemingly endless cycle of hydrating and rehydrating the skin. It sometimes seems like you can be prone to dry skin for the entirety of your life, but this isn't true. Moisturizing your skin is important, and there are different ways to moisturize your skin correctly to ensure dryness doesn't reoccur.

You should look for a cream or lotion that adds water to the skin with humectants like Glycerin and Hyaluronic acid, has emollients such as oils or peptides to soothe and heal, and finally occlusive ingredients like butters or waxes to protect from water loss. Using a product with a combination of these ingredients is important for finding the best treatment for dry skin. If you were to use only an occlusive barrier like a heavy oil, butter or wax and not apply any water based hydrating ingredients, your skin can become drier overtime from the lack of actual water based hydration. This was a common occurrence when moisturizing skin with pure Coconut Oil was popular a few years ago. Skin would be come moisturized and lovely initially but after of few weeks of using only Coconut oil, many people would complain that their dry skin would return and many times become even drier than before.

The SECRET to managing dry skin naturally is in using the right natural ingredients and applying them in the correct sequence.  For dry skin, you want to apply a water-based ingredient first, then add in a moisturizer and soother, then coat and protect from water loss or use products that contain a combination of these ingredients. 

HUMECTANTS, EMOLLIENTS & OCCLUSIVES

HUMECTANTS

Hydrating products must contain water-loving ingredients or humectants. Humectants are ingredients that can attract and retain water creating more water based hydration for the skin. These include ceramides which increase moisture in the skin and reduce moisture loss.

Popular HUMECTANTS:

• Hyaluronic Acid a molecule that can hold many times its weight in water. 
• Aloe, an amazing repairing and anti-inflammatory substance.
• Ceramides, which are both, a humectant and emollient.
• Glycerin; preferably from vegetable sources. 

EMOLLIENTS

Emollients are ingredients that help to moisturize and heal dry, damaged skin by providing vitamins, antioxidants or other therapeutic compounds to lubricate, protect, soothe and soften. 

Common natural EMOLLIENTS:

• Flax Seed Oil is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids.
• Lanolin; a moisturizing emollient (non-vegan). 
• Squalane Oil from olives is hydrating & protecting. 
• Rice Bran Oil is high in Vitamin E.
• Peptides - GAG | Tripeptide-5

OCCLUSIVES 

Heavier oils or waxes and butters also contribute to emollient benefits but go a bit further to help reduce moisture loss as they tend to create a greater protective barrier and block water from evaporating quicker. Occlusive ingredients like Shea and Mango butter, Beeswax and Petroleum Jelly seal and lock in moisture to help heal and moisturize dry skin. 

Common OCCLUSIVES:

• Shea, Mango & Cocoa Butters
• Coconut Oil & Jojoba Oil 
• Beeswax, Caranuba & Candelilla Wax

Whatever the cause of your dry skin, the good news is there are products that can help. When choosing products; make sure they contain a combination of these three types of ingredients. Having humectants (water-loving), emollients (moisturizing / nourishing) and occlusive (coating and protecting) ingredients in your dry skin products will maximize your results and keep your skin hydrated and moisturized properly while reducing moisture loss. 

Looking for an all-in-one product containing these necessary ingredients? Check out our Repairing Body Lotion and Butter and our newest product; MELT Barrier Balm. All are specially formulated to provide healing relief to thin, dry, damaged skin that needs moisturizing.  

Want more in depth information to different skin care ingredients? Follow our new Vella series on Amazon Kindle to read monthly episodes on the most popular ingredients in skin care, how to use them and why with our new Quick Guide to Natural Skin Care Ingredients. 

Sources:

Prevention - jojoba

Healthline – Jojoba Oil