Is your skin dehydrated?

Dehydrated skin is not a skin type. Many women don’t realise, but all skin types can be dehydrated, even oily skin. Just like reactive skin, atopic skin or dull skin, dehydrated skin is a skin condition. 

Unlike your skin type, however, skin conditions can vary. Nowadays, many of us suffer from dehydrated skin, thanks to multiple factors like air-conditioning, weather conditions, hard water, harsh chemicals coming in contact with skin, and in weather like this – sunburn!

Very dehydrated skin can be diagnosed through the intensity of discomfort (tightness, loss of elasticity) and the visible dehydration lines.

Though some symptoms of dry and dehydrated skin are identical, such as tightness, discomfort and the need to apply cream, their intensity/recurrence varies. While dehydrated skin mean a significant lack of water, dry skin signifies a significant lack of both water and lipids.

Dehydration lines are fine lines and wrinkles that appear on the forehead, around the eyes, on the cheekbones and near the mouth, and these can affect anyone regardless of gender, age or skin type.

The good news is; you can do something about it. 

La Roche Posay is one of the most respected named in skincare, and their HYDRAPHASE range is specially formulated to treat dehydrated skin.

For this trial, I visited a Derma Skincare advisor, the lovely Amanda in Hickey's pharmacy on Henry Stret. Amanda mapped my skin, using both a Dermoanalyser system. Data gleaned from the pictures was used to measure my levels of dehydration.

In all honesty, this part felt like a test! Amanda couldn’t have been nicer, and she was so informative I really felt like I was in safe hands, but I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed to find that my skin was very dehydrated, with my skin hydration at only 41.8%. 

It was not entirely unexpected. I’m really bad at drinking water (even though I now know it’s more about the water levels in the food you eat that how many glasses you intake). I work long days in an air-conditioned environment, and I live in the inner city. But ‘very’ dehydrated? That’s a wake up call.  

On the bright side, it means I'm the perfect candidate to test this range! For the next two weeks, I will be using the La Roche Posay HYDRAPHASE products pictured above, and after that period I will return again to have my skin tested again with Amanda, hopefully with improved levels of hydration. Check back here for a full report, including the before and after moisture levels in my skin, in two week’s time!