Skin feeling parched, itchy or tight? Haven’t seen your Roe Glow since 2021?
The common denominator is probably dehydration and we’re here to help you and your skin avoid and/or deal with it.
Dehydration is a skin condition (and not a skin type like dryness) where the moisture content within your skin is diminished. Skin can become dehydrated year-round but the heat, humidity, and the spike in the UV index that occurs in the Summer months can leave your skin looking and feeling particularly thirsty.
How Can I Tell if My Skin is Dehydrated?
Your skin will respond to a loss of moisture in a number of ways; dehydration can be the underlying cause of redness, itchiness and tightness in the skin. It can be what creates those crinkles or fine lines around your eyes and it can make visible wrinkles more pronounced. Dehydration can also show up in the skin as clogged pores or congestion and visible inflammation, and dullness. It’s as if your natural glow is M.I.A.
What Causes Dehydration?
There are multiple triggers for dehydration including:
Environmental Factors
The most obvious occur in Summer when temperatures are higher, UV exposure is unavoidable, and the humidity causes us to sweat more and lose fluids. We also tend to spend more time outdoors in Summer thanks to daylight savings and the end-of-year holiday season. Extreme temperature changes like bouncing between the heat and air-conditioning in your home or car can pull moisture from your skin.
Diet & Lifestyle
A high salt and/or sugar diet can lead to dehydration from the inside out. As can key dehydration culprits - coffee (a diuretic) and alcohol, and lifestyle factors like smoking and vaping. Also, there are several oral medications (including those to treat migraine, Type 2 diabetes, bipolar disorder, and even constipation) that can leave skin dehydrated.
Ageing
As we age, skin tends to need more hydration to help fight the signs of the times. Upping the moisture content in your skin will help to plump, fill out fine lines and improve the look of wrinkles, and boost your skin’s barrier protection to keep environmental aggressors out and moisture. Boosting hydration will also help to improve overall skin resilience.
Our Favourite Hydration Hacks
A few tried-and-trusted ways to beat dehydration and boost the moisture content in your skin fast:
Take an inside-out approach
Before we talk topical hydration tips, we like to start by hydrating the skin from within. That means drinking at least two litres of water throughout the day and eating foods with a high water content like cucumber, celery, watermelon, iceberg lettuce, and strawberries (to name just a few). This is a great tip for those who don’t love drinking a lot of water or can’t seem to make it a daily habit.
Prioritise Humectants
Humectants are ingredients that draw moisture into the top layer of the skin. They’re an important inclusion in moisturisers, serums, face mists, and masks for the way they effectively rehydrate and plump the skin. Some of our favourite humectants include Hyaluronic Acid, Glycerin, Aloe Vera and Honey.
Carry a hydrating face mist, always
A face mist loaded with moisture-boosting ingredients is a skin-smart way to keep yours hydrated and happy. Our Bondi Hydrating Mist is the quickest, most convenient way to quench skin thirst and provide sweet Summer skin relief. Spritzing skin before you apply your moisturiser will help to trap hydration and keep it there.
Match your moisturiser to your skin type
All skins need daily hydration, even oily types. If you’re worried that using a moisturiser will make you breakout, try a lightweight formula like our Stoked Weightless Moisturizer with antibacterial benefits to reduce excess oil and the visible appearance of enlarged pores.
Check out our range of moisturisers for all skin types here.
Practice layering
In Summer, we like to tweak our Roe Routine to layer hydration-rich products. A couple of ways we like to layer:
- Apply True Blue Hydrating Serum under Barrier Reef Daily Face Shield SPF50+ to not only boost hydration levels (thanks, Hyaluronic Acid) but to also help strengthen the skin’s barrier protection and keep moisture from escaping during the day.
- Spend 15 minutes moisture-bombing skin with Icebergs Hydrating Mask before applying your night-time moisturiser.
- Press Lifesaver Skin Brightening Toner into skin before your morning moisturiser. Spiked with 2% Glycolic Acid and humectant Aloe Vera, skin is lightly exfoliated and brightened as a helpful prep step to allow skin to better absorb the moisturiser to follow.
Our Glow On The Go Essentials Kit sorts your Summer skin goals in this take-everywhere edit. Learn more here.
