Is Your Skin Dry or Just Dehydrated? Here's How to Tell.

Not sure if your skin is dry, dehydrated, or both? Here's how to tell the difference with simple tests you can do at home, and the best products to help your skin feel balanced and healthy.

Readers of this blog may know that I recently came back from an eye-opening trip to the motherland of skincare, Seoul. What you may not know is that my travel companion on this trip was an equally skincare obsessed friend, who lugged along an extra empty suitcase just to pack her skincare shopping. True story.

But, I digress. The reason I mention my friend is because, before this trip, we used to think that our skin types were polar opposites. My skin is combination/oily, and hers is dry (or, so she thought). Even the products we used in our routines were completely different. She loves her rich, luxuriously textured creams and emulsions. I can’t live without my lightweight gel moisturizers and watery toners. We used to joke that whatever one of us bought and didn’t like, we’d just give to the other.

But that all changed on the day we decided to get some treatments at a Korean skin clinic. During our visit, both of us decided to get a skin analysis that gives you a breakdown of everything from redness and acne levels, to hydration and sebum levels. To our absolute surprise, our skin types were far more similar than we’d imagined. Turns out, her skin wasn’t dry at all, it was just dehydrated and her skin type was more on the normal to oily side.

It got me thinking, if someone I consider pretty skincare literate could make this mistake, there are probably thousands of people out there making the same one. So I decided to write a post with some easy ways to tell if your skin’s really dry or just dehydrated, along with product recommendations for each concern.

Dry vs. Dehydrated Skin: What’s the Difference?

Before we get into, let’s start with a basic question: What is the difference between dry and dehydrated skin?

I blame the English language for the confusion here, because in most of our vocabularies, the words, dry and dehydrated, are interchangeable. But in the language of skincare, they mean different things. And I mean very different things.

• Dry skin is a skin type that means your skin produces less sebum (aka oil) than average. Skin types are genetic, we’re born with them. There are factors—like aging, weather, stress and hormones—that can cause your skin type to change over time. But the change is either gradual, or a clear result of external factors, and doesn’t fluctuate often.

• Dehydrated skin is a skin condition. It’s temporary and caused by a lack of water in the skin—not oil. Which means you can have dry skin and be dehydrated, but you can also have normal or oily skin and be dehydrated. Dehydrated skin can be a result of external factors, but is very often a result of using harsh, stripping skincare products.

TL;DR: Dry skin = lack of oil. Dehydrated skin = lack of water.

Dry and dehydrated may be interchangeable in the English, but oil and water certainly aren’t. So, you can imagine what your skin may be going through if what it really needs is water, and what you’re giving it is oil.

My lovely friend finding out her life is a lie as she gets a skin consult in a clinic in Korea

How to Tell if Your Skin is Dry or Dehydrated

Assuming you can’t just pop into a Korean skin clinic and get a full skin analysis done, there are a couple of popular techniques that may help you understand if your skin is dry or just dehydrated.

• The Pinch Test. This is an age-old at-home test that dermatologists often recommend. Although it’s not full-proof, it can be a good place to start. Here’s how it works: Gently pinch a small section of skin on your cheek and hold for a few seconds. If the skin snaps back immediately, your hydration levels are likely okay. If it looks crinkly, papery, or takes a few seconds to return to normal—it’s probably dehydrated.

• The Face Wash Test. I learnt this technique from popular dermatologist turned YouTuber, Dr. Shereene Idriss, who recommends washing your face with just water first thing in the morning and then applying no skincare afterwards. Observe how your skin feels after 30 minutes. If it’s rough, scaly, maybe even flaky, you probably have dry skin. If it feels tight and stripped, like you’ve just washed your face with an extremely harsh cleanser, you’re more likely to be dehydrated.

Pay close attention to the way your skin reacts to certain products as well, because that could give you an indication of what’s really going on under the surface. Which brings me to…

What to Use if You Have Dry Skin

If you’ve identified your skin as dry, your goal is to replenish your skin’s natural oils and strengthen its lipid barrier. Look for:

• Creamy, nourishing cleansers instead of foaming or gel-based cleansers

• Emollients, lipids and occlusives like ceramides, shea butter, jojoba oil, collagen and petrolatum

• Thicker milky toners, emulsions, moisturizers or facial oils, especially at night

Here are some of my recommendations (note: I’m recommending these based on the formulas alone, I don’t personally use them since they don’t suit my skin type):

SKINFIX Barrier+ Triple Lipid Peptide Cream

This is a great choice if you’re both, dry and dehydrated, because it contains fatty lipids as well as glycerin, which is a great humectant and draws water into the skin.

BYOMA Hydrating Milky Toner

Another one that’s great for dry and dehydrated skin, this milky toner from Byoma is formulated with a lipid complex that delivers barrier supporting actives to your skin in an oil-based formula, alongside hydrating ingredients like panthenol and hyaluronic acid too. This is often touted as a dupe for the viral Rhode Glazing Milk, which is another great option for dry skin.

COCOKIND Ceramide Barrier Serum

Another lipid heavy formulation, this barrier repair serum from Cocokind contains fatty acids, cholesterol, squalane and a blend of five ceramides! The addition of Beta glucan means it’s hydrating as well.

What to Use if You Have Dehydrated Skin

If you’re dehydrated, your focus should be on hydrating ingredients that draw water into the skin, and on repairing your moisture barrier to keep that hydration locked in.

Look for:

• Water-based formulations, think watery toners, hydrating serums, and gel moisturizers

• Humectants like glycerin, hyaluronic acid, panthenol, beta glucan and aloe vera

• Barrier-repairing ingredients like centella asiatica, oat, green tea and ceramides. This is especially important if you’ve dehydrated your skin by over-exfoliating or using harsh actives

If you have dry, dehydrated skin, the recs above are still really great options. But if you have normal to combination/oily skin, here are my absolute all-time fave products to use:

PURITO Oat-In Calming Gel Cream

My repeatedly purchased, holy grail for oily, acne prone, yet dehydrated skin is this lightweight, gel moisturizer from Purito, formulated with oat kernel extract to soothe the skin, alongside squalane and panthenol to hydrate it.

APLB Hyaluronic Acid Ceramide HA B5 Facial Toner

A relatively new addition to my routine, but quickly earning a potentially permanent spot there, is this ultra lightweight and watery toner from Korean brand, APLB. As the name suggests, it contains hyaluronic acid and ceramides, along with soothing centella asiatica and hydrating beta glucan.

TORRIDEN Dive In Skin Booster

The entire Torriden Dive In range of products is incredibly hydrating, but my favourite has to be this lightweight, gel-like “skin booster” with a consistency somewhere between an essence and a serum. The star of this hydrating show is a blend of five types of hyaluronic acid, alongside ceramides for additional barrier support.

Final Thoughts

It can be easy to assume your skin is “just dry,” but dehydration is sneakier and more common than you’d think—especially if you use exfoliating acids, retinoids, or are exposed to environmental factors like dry weather.

I’ve seen so many people make the mistake of confusing one for the other, but understanding the difference between dry and dehydrated skin is incredibly important to formulating a skincare routine for yourself. Once you know what your skin is actually asking for—oil or water—you can give it what it needs to stay healthy, balanced, and glowing. Remember my friend from earlier? She switched out her heavy creams for lightweight, watery toners and found her skin was bouncier and more supple than ever. Goes to show what a difference understanding your skin can make.

Have you ever mixed up dry and dehydrated skin? What helped you figure it out? Drop a comment below—I’d love to hear your experience!

About The Skinimalist

Hi, I’m Mal, a 30-something recovering skincare addict, and this is my blog. A space where I attempt to de-influence you from chasing trends and buying more skincare products you may not need.

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