Published: March 15, 2025
Dry skin usually lacks both sebum and moisture, which can quickly cause the skin to start flaking and peeling. Not only does this affect your appearance but it can also feel itchy, uncomfortable, and, sometimes, painful.
The good news is that there are plenty of steps that you can take to overcome this! Keep reading as CBGärdN shares some effective, dermatologist-approved tips that will soon have your dry skin feeling smooth, supple, and beautifully soft.
Moisturize While Your Skin is Damp
One of the most important tools for tackling the look of dry skin is a moisturizer. Not only will a moisturizer hydrate and condition your skin’s surface but it will also form a seal over your skin. This prevents moisture from evaporating away quite so quickly – something that can significantly contribute to the flakiness you’re experiencing.
To make the most of your moisturizer, apply it to damp, instead of dry, skin. Why? Because this way, the seal that it creates over your skin’s surface will lock in those extra water molecules that have remained on your skin. Instead of disappearing into the air, they’ll be pushed down into your skin cells. This will boost your skin’s overall moisture content.
Of course, rich moisturizers are better at doing this than lightweight moisturizers, so pick the right formula to use. The CB Bio-Restorative Creme, for example, contains shea butter and sunflower seed oil. These ingredients not only boast fatty acids that encourage softer-feeling skin, but also have occlusive properties that help to block moisture loss.
Give Slugging a Try
If your skin is dry to the point of being flaky, this indicates that your skin’s natural protective barrier has been compromised. One way to give your barrier some much-needed time to heal while also increasing your skin’s moisture levels is by slugging.
This skincare trend involves slathering a rich occlusive, like petroleum jelly, over your face before bed. It works in a similar way as a moisturizer, except that the layer it forms over your skin’s surface is much thicker. Apply a hydrating serum underneath, like the CB Refining Complex Serum from the Satin Leaf Collection, and the occlusive will push that moisture in to an even greater extent. Once you wake up the next morning, cleanse your face as normal and you should notice that your skin feels much softer and bouncier.
Use a Fragrance-Free and Sulfate-Free Cleanser
This is something that can easily make dry skin worse. Many of the surfactants that are used in cleansers, such as sulfates, strip away the skin’s sebum and inhibit skin barrier function. This is the opposite of what your dry skin needs! Dermatologists also recommend opting for a fragrance-free cleanser. Fragrances can often irritate dry skin, especially when used at the cleansing stage.
If your cleanser doesn’t quite make the mark, check out the CBGärdN CB Facial Cleanser. Its coconut-derived surfactants condition and soften the complexion while the inclusion of jasmine flower oil not only hydrates the skin but also provides potent antioxidant power. With amino acids in the mix too, it will leave your skin barrier feeling stronger.
Ramp Up Hydration Overnight
If you have dry skin, moisture loss is pretty much a 24/7 problem. However, it becomes significantly worse once nighttime rolls around. Once your skin goes into its evening repair mode, skin barrier function declines. This then means that moisture is able to escape from the skin even faster than it did during the day.
Fortunately, there’s an upside to this. With skin barrier function inhibited, skin permeability increases. This makes nighttime the perfect time to focus on ramping up your skin’s moisture levels with the use of hydrating skincare products.
The CB Replenishing Serum is a game-changer when used every evening. Its humectants will leave your skin feeling intensely hydrated while its peptides will rebalance and strengthen the feel of your skin barrier.
The CB Midnight Melting Mask would be another worthy addition to your evening skincare routine. As you can tell from its name, this leave-on overnight mask has been designed for nighttime use. Its brimming with skin-quenching humectants and a long list of antioxidant-rich superfruit extracts. Why are antioxidants so important for dry skin? You’re about to find out…
Add More Antioxidants to Your Skincare Routine
Dry skin is much more vulnerable to free radical damage. This not only makes the dryness worse but also leads to everything from wrinkles to dark spots. Adding more antioxidants to your skincare routine is the best way to tackle the appearance of free radical damage.
Even better, certain antioxidants, like vitamins C and E, can actually boost skin hydration levels. You’ll find both of them in the CB Illuminating Vita C Serum. They’re joined by other antioxidants, as well as a blend of antioxidant-rich plant oils. Between jojoba oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and olive oil, this serum is also intensely hydrating. It leaves dry skin looking dewy and radiant.
The CB Phyto Satin Finish Cream is also packed with antioxidants. Green tea extract contains some of the most powerful antioxidants around. Meanwhile, licorice root, chamomile, nettle leaf, rosemary, and algae extracts provide a plethora of others.
Of course, in addition to applying more antioxidants topically, try to increase your consumption of them too. Eat a rainbow of fresh fruits and vegetables to ensure that you’re feeding your skin cells from within with a vast array of antioxidants.
Protect Your Skin From the Elements
Not only is dry skin more susceptible to environmental damage but, when that damage does occur, the lack of moisture in the skin means that skin cells aren’t quite as capable of repairing that visible damage. Sure, bumping up your skin’s moisture levels will help with this but, ideally, you should also be protecting your skin from environmental aggressors to prevent that damage from occurring in the first place.
How? Start with sun protection. After all, with UV rays responsible for both causing and worsening dry skin, sun exposure is the last thing your skin needs. Ideally, pick a sunscreen that protects your skin from the sun while also giving you some extra hydration, just like the CB Multi-Active Moisturizer With SPF 30.
Cold weather and harsh winds can also really take their toll on dry skin. Keep your skin feeling shielded by applying a rich moisturizer before heading out into the winter elements.
Don’t Over-Exfoliate
People often respond to flaky skin by trying to exfoliate it away. While this may provide some temporary relief to the look of dryness, exfoliating dry skin too often will only make things severely worse.
As we’ve mentioned a few times now, your skin barrier needs to be prioritized if you’re hoping to overcome your dryness in the long term. Over-exfoliating hinders this. Instead, it damages the skin barrier, which will lead to a whole host of other skin problems in addition to dryness.
If you have severely dry skin, don’t exfoliate more than once or twice a week. If you want to exfoliate twice a week, make sure that you’re using a gentle exfoliator. The CB Microexfoliant Peel is one that will remove flaky skin without irritating or harming your skin barrier…so long as you don’t use it too often!
Don’t Use Hot Water on Your Skin
Hot water is something else that damages the skin barrier and prevents dry skin from healing. It all comes down to how hot water melts sebum, which forms an integral part of the skin barrier. Hot water also triggers inflammation in the skin, blocking its healing functions.
While you may be tempted to shower in hot water, especially in the winter, you won’t be doing your dry skin any favors. Instead, make an effort to turn the temperature down a bit. Keep doing this gradually until you reach a lukewarm temperature that you’re comfortable with.
Invest in a Humidifier
While you may think that your skin is safe from drying environmental aggressors when you’re indoors, this isn’t the case at all. Instead, be it from air-conditioning or indoor heating, chances are that you’re exposing your skin to dry air in your home too.
Why is this such a big deal? Because the drier the air around you, the more dehydrated your skin will be. Moisture loss accelerates in dry environments, which is why a humidifier can be such a game-changer. These devices work by adding moisture back into the air. In raised humidity levels, moisture loss decreases, meaning that your skin will feel much better hydrated.
For best results, set your humidifier up in the room in which you spend the most time. For most people, this will be the bedroom, which will also help to counter the increased moisture loss that occurs overnight.
Stay Away From Common Irritants
Your skin comes into contact with so many different irritants on a daily basis. While some may not have much of an effect, others will only exacerbate your dryness.
Take chlorine, for example. It strips away the skin’s natural oils, leaving it parched and vulnerable. Chemically-treated water can have a similar effect. Meanwhile, the laundry detergent that you use has a huge impact. Avoid fabric softeners and dryer sheets too as these can often leave a drying residue on the skin.
Healing the Look of Dry Skin With CBGärdN
While dry skin is already tricky to deal with, things can seem even more frustrating once flaking and peeling become an issue too. However, don’t panic. Dermatologists agree that just a few simple measures, including those that we’ve shared above, can often be enough to give your dry skin the level of moisture and lubrication it needs. Keep this up and, over time, you’ll be saying goodbye to the appearance of dry skin for good.
Click here to treat your dry skin to more bestselling skincare products from CBGärdN.