Water is the elixir of life for your skin. It keeps them plump and enables the various regeneration processes. Unfortunately, water is as fleeting as it is essential here. The skin has mechanisms that prevent too much good moisture from escaping. But environmental influences, maturity and unsuitable care can dry them out. It is all the more important to understand what exactly your skin needs when it reports drought. Let's see it!
If the skin becomes thirsty, this has unpleasant consequences. At first, the skin simply feels dry, tense or itchy. In the stratum corneum, the horny layer, water-soluble enzymes are left stranded and regulate the protective cuticle layer. This is how rough, scaly patches form. The skin loses elasticity and becomes cracked or shows hairline fissures that make it look older. Spoiler alert: oil alone is not enough. This only has a moisturepreserving effect, but not a moisturedonating effect.
☝️ Note: Dry skin needs a combination of moisture AND fat.
You can't just pour water into the skin at will. It doesn't flow into invisible tanks somewhere below the surface from which it can draw forever. The skin needs it in the horny layer and that's where it stores it. Here is a mix of active ingredients known as Natural Moisturizing Factor (NMF) . It soaks up water like a bath sponge.
But even such a sponge dries out again over time and shrivels up. To ensure that this does not happen to your skin, it also secures this store with the skin barrier. This is intended to prevent transepidermal water loss (TEWL), i.e. the evaporation of water from the skin.
💡 The NMF determines how well the skin is able to absorb moisture. The TEWL indicates how quickly the moisture is released again.
In short: Your skin is well moisturized when it has enough of its own moisturizing factors (NMF) to bind water and an intact skin barrier to prevent it from losing it
The Natural Moisturizing Factor is not a single substance, but a mixture of water-soluble, powerful humectants that the body produces or absorbs from food. These include amino acids, salts, glycerin, urea and hyaluron1. Healthy cells in the outer layer of skin contain around 20 to 30% of NMF by dry weight (i.e. excluding water).
The NMF substances act like small water magnets and bind moisture in the horny layer. If they are not fully utilized, they draw in additional humidity to fill up their stores.In principle, the system regulates itself. This is important because a well-hydrated horny layer:
On the one hand there is very dry ambient air. It does not provide fresh water to the NMF and ensures that the water that is present evaporates more quickly. In addition, the skin may be lacking in substances that are part of the NMF. For example, the amino acid content decreases as we get older. Mature skin therefore has a lower storage capacity than young ones.
You can imagine the outer layer of skin like a protective wall . It consists of individual horny cells that are lined up like bricks in a wall and connected with the skin's own fats. It keeps unwanted external influences out, but is not completely impermeable. Otherwise the NMF would not be able to absorb water from the ambient air, for example.
The skin barrier has a dual function. First, it shields the skin from germs, bacteria, toxins, etc. from the outside. And secondly, it prevents water from evaporating freely from the skin. But the barrier can become brittle. Aggressive cleaning or certain ingredients (more on this below) literally throw the system out of joint. Important lipids are washed out of the barrier and make it too permeable. Note: Dry skin often has a disturbed barrier.
The transepidermal water loss is quite normal to a small extent. The skin is not a leak-proof plastic can, but allows certain substances in and out on purpose. If the barrier is damaged, however, it can no longer regulate this properly. The water loss increases and increases. It is now important not only to give the skin back the missing water, but also to tackle the cause. The barrier lacks lipids. That's why you need to add water AND fat to your skin.
Unfortunately, some nursing practices have become established that promote TEWL.
The cause of dry skin can therefore be a lack of fats or moisturizing factors. However, as long as she is acutely dehydrated, you definitely need to moisturize her. A balanced care is needed! The supplies active ingredients that donate moisture and those that maintain it.
And to avoid the problem with the emulsifiers, my tip is to combine two products. A waterless balm or face oil and a moisturizing serum are suitable for this.
Where do you find your dream team against drought? Discover our natural beauties: the FIVE facial oil - dry skin & the FIVE facial serum.
Simply mix both products between the palms of your hands before applying, the skin's own (and therefore harmless!) emulsifiers will do the rest.This has another advantage: You can react individually to whether your skin needs more oil or more moisture
So there are two different triggers for dehydration. But which one applies to your skin? This is where the next post will help. It revolves around the question: Do I have dry or low-moisture
Nourishing oil for dry and mature skin
30 ml (1230 € / 1 l)
Inkl. MwSt., zzgl. Versand
Regulating oil for normal to oily skin
30 ml (1230 € / 1 l)
Inkl. MwSt., zzgl. Versand
"No cream should have more ingredients than you can count on one hand."
Anna Pfeiffer
