The core result of long term dry skin is very simple. Wrinkles and lines. A wrinkle is nothing more than dehydrated skin. You can work to prevent and delay wrinkles with moisturization. Of course once they happen, they are near impossible to fix completely. Ever notice how nearly every great anti-wrinkle cream claims it reduces the “appearance” of wrinkles and not the actual lines? There is a big difference between genuinely fixing a line and just covering it up.

The one dry skin culprit you never thought to blame.

Ever wonder why men seem to “age” more gracefully than women? Or why women, who typically take much better care of their skin than men, still have to fight the signs of aging even with their diligent use of sunblock and moisturizers?

Although men and women have similar skin, there is a key difference between how the genders treat it. One major factor is that women wear makeup and men don’t.

And when it comes to dry aging skin for women, one of the most notorious culprits might be your foundation. It dries out your skin. And when skin becomes dehydrated and dry, it creases more easily. This creates fine lines or a sagging appearance.

Foundation is both a cosmetic and structural problem for the skin. On the cosmetic side, the dry foundation becomes powdery, cracks, flakes, and eventually disappears for loss of coverage. As you put on more coverage, the foundation cakes in certain areas, and settles into lines and wrinkles—making skin look aged.

But it is the long term structural effects that are really a concern. Foundation on dry, mature skin, makes the skin more dehydrated causing even more wrinkles and lines. This is a terrible cycle. Essentially you are covering the signs of aging skin with what is causing them.

Take a look at the ingredients in your foundation. Some of the more common ones are water, talc, and mica. These are the three we will focus on. Each is very absorbent and they make up a fair to large percentage of foundation.

So what’s the problem? It you have very oily skin, probably very little as these ingredients may help absorb the excess oil. But for those with drier or more mature skin types, consider the following.

• Have you ever sat in a bathtub filled with water for too long and seen your hands get really pruned? (That’s the effect of dehydration.) Some foundations are 90% water.
• Talc is an active ingredient in baby powder and is amazingly absorbent. You would be surprised to know how many foundations include this as a main ingredient.
• Mica are minerals used in pottery that make up many of the active ingredients in mineral foundations. How moist do most clay pots feel? Not very…

It is not just the drugstore foundations that use these ingredients predominantly. It’s nearly every single brand. By putting these products on top of your skin surface, you are forcing your skin to have to hydrate itself while countering the effects of the foundation. That’s certainly a lot to ask for.

Understanding your foundation. How to read an ingredients list.

Now let’s not jump to too many conclusions here. You are not going to find a liquid foundation without any drying ingredients. The pigment (color) in makeup needs to be dispersed somehow—and water, mica, and sometimes talc are all good at dispersing color. Using them does not necessarily make a foundation bad. As we said, their function is to hold and spread pigment. They are safe and necessary for foundation to work.

Unfortunately, most makeup manufacturers will not give the exact amount of water or other drying ingredients in the foundation. Therefore you cannot be sure how much is in your foundation. Certainly, the less drying ingredients, the better.

United States law requires manufacturers to list “active ingredients” which are usually the sunscreens or anti-acne ingredients in any skin products. All other “non-active” ingredients must be listed in descending order if they are over 1% of the formula. This means the highest percentage ingredients are always first. The closer to the top of the list, the more you have of that ingredient. Try to get foundation with the absorbent ingredients closer to the end of the ingredients listing.

Three simple hydration tips:

So we’ve figured out your foundation is drying. Now what do we do about it? Here are three very basic ideas that are the cornerstone to keeping skin young.

1. Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. If you are 25 years old or 55 years old, choose a quality moisturizer with some SPF. Don’t be fooled—ANY good moisturizer is an anti-aging treatment.

   Now you do not need to spend $200 for a quality moisturizer, but don’t be silly enough to think the $8 products are just as good. An $8 moisturizer has about 30-40 cents worth of ingredients in them. Look for some basic quality ingredients like aloe, shea butter, and hyaluronic acid. One other specific ingredient to seek out is NaPCA, which mimics the salt in your skin. It has hygroscopic properties that pull moisture to itself, which is constantly hydrating.

2. Invest in an excellent makeup remover. If you sleep with makeup on, it will continue to dehydrate your skin through the night. Use a top quality, sulfate free, makeup remover.
3. Turn your foundation into a moisturizing treatment. We have come up with a pretty novel idea at Skindinavia, which is to turn the foundation you have on into a moisturizing treatment. Instead of drying, we can actually turn your foundation (yes- whatever you already have on) into a secondary moisturizer. That doesn’t mean a watery mess. It means greatly slowing down the foundation’s ability to steal moisture, and then have it give back the water it takes. This may sound complicated to achieve, but it’s actually really simple.

Our 10 Years Younger Makeup Finish is designed to prevent foundation from drying out. Simply spritz it 2-4 times over finished makeup. It takes about 3 seconds to do.

It chills the makeup surface which causes drying to slow down greatly, and then it is loaded with a six hydrators that bring more needed moisture to the makeup surface. The result is glowing, dewy foundation that holds in place up to 16 hours. Use this and a quality moisturizer and the difference will amaze you.

Stay hydrated and stay beautiful,
Skindinavia

P.S.
To learn more about our 10 Years Younger Makeup Finish and watch a video, Click Here.