How to prevent dry skin and premature aging

MANILA, Philippines - Your sunscreen may be in check, but how are your hydration levels? Dryness leads to damage. Prevent dry skin and premature aging with a fortified moisturizer. 

Using a moisturizer may be part of one’s basic regimen, but finding the appropriate one is often overlooked. It’s simple — the secret to healthy and beautiful skin is to get round-the-clock hydration. Without the right amounts of moisture, skin can neither repair nor protect itself. Hydrated skin means nourished skin.

Hydration is key, whatever skin type you may have. You will always need moisturizers as skin naturally functions this way. Ask any dermatologist what skin can never do without, and no doubt, proper moisturization and sun protection will come up as the two most important steps to youthful skin.

The skinny on a good moisturizer

But more than just moisturizing skin, the real concern lies in what makes up a good moisturizer. Can it keep up with the demands of your skin and what the weather or your lifestyle brings?

If you have a history of dry skin or experiencing a harrowing dry skin spell, a so-called moisturizing lotion is not enough. You need a moisturizer made with specific ingredients, and one that works to specifically address dry skin concerns such as: extreme dehydration, flakiness, irritation, redness.

Managing Transepidermal Water Loss (TWL) is what dermatologists often help patients with to avoid dry and irritated skin — which is what causes skin damage and premature aging. TWL is the amount of water that passes from inside your body to the epidermis, the outermost layer of your skin.

Critical to skin hydration is the stratum corneum, the skin barrier found at the epidermis. It works tirelessly to shield skin from infection, stress, and moisture loss. If this skin barrier won’t hold the fort, skin becomes weak and vulnerable.   

Moisture loss in skin through diffusion and evaporation happens daily and is beyond our control. This means disruptions and irregularities in the skin barrier increase TWL. To keep skin protected, your moisturizer should work hard for you, delivering multiple benefits, nonstop.  

To enhance one’s natural skin barrier, strengthen its structural framework, and keep moisture in, skin needs enough water sources, beyond what your body provides from what you eat or drink.

Humectants are your skin’s best friends. These are moisturizing agents that attract water to the skin. They work to keep water in skin so it doesn’t evaporate and further aggravate dryness. These water-attracting ingredients nourish skin and defend against external aggressors. Even better, a healthy stratum corneum means skin can easily “spring back” and return to its natural shape (read: smooth and firm skin).

Finding moisturizers with an effective mix of humectants and skin-enriching ingredients is the best support your skin will ever need to safeguard against damage.

Moisturizers that thwart TWL for dry skin should be: mild (to maintain and not strip skin’s natural moisture), skin-soothing, and hypoallergenic (to prevent inflammation or flareups).

They shouldn’t just hydrate skin.  They must multi-task and deliver multiple benefits.

Sebamed is a skincare line that uses one of the safest and most effective humectants or emollients for skin — urea. Urea is part of skin’s NMF (natural moisturizing factor), an inherent component present in less than 7% of our skin. It maintains the healthy moisture balance and keeps skin soft and supple.

In Sebamed products, urea makes up 5% to 10% concentrations, depending on each product and the recommended amounts per skin area. 

Urea delivers the four keys to a proper moisturizing treatment: 1) it readily absorbs water, 2) increases water content, 3) reduces TWL, and 4) repairs and restores skin’s water barrier function. 

 Urea is also a natural exfoliant and works synergistically with other ingredients to remove dead skin cells and improve cellular turnover (even speeding up superficial wound-healing).

Sebamed, with its combination of strategically chosen ingredients, highly improves skin’s water-binding abilities, treating and caring for dry skin needs like Panthenol for skin regeneration, Bisabolol for relief from itching, and moisturizing lipid complex. This plus Urea’s mild keratolytic effect — ability to keep the top skin layer intact — makes Sebamed a super skin soother. 

Sebamed contains no mineral oils, no silicone oils, no PEG-compounds, and no colorants. It keeps the ideal pH value of skin, ideal for sensitive, problematic skin, or just anyone looking to supplement their daily moisturizing routine.

From top to toe

Sebamed treats skin from top to toe. From face and body skin relief and repair lotions, hand and foot care, to relief for scalp (scalp is skin, too!), soap-free cleansing bars, Sebamed offers a wide selection of skin soothers. They find solutions for dry, sensitive, aging and damaged skin. It even carries a well-loved range for baby and suncare. 

Tip: Layering is the secret to any moisturizing routine. It is recommended to protect your skin barrier from start to finish. From cleansing, applying moisturizers and locking in moisture with serums and sunscreen. 

Sebamed is a leading brand for medicinal skincare with a pH value of 5.5 for healthy skin. All products have high-quality ingredients that nourish skin without destroying its natural barrier. Over 120 scientific studies prove Sebamed is compatible with even the most sensitive skin.  

The Sebamed Extreme Dry Skin range — Relief Face Cream, Relief Hand Cream, Relief Shampoo, Repair Foot Cream, and Repair Lotion — is available at select dermatology clinics.