How To Tell Whether Your Skin Is Dry — Or Just Dehydrated

“My skin is so dry, how can I fix it?” It's an age-old beauty conundrum, and we have yet to find a universal, quick-fix for banishing dull and tired skin. Sigh.

But, fear not, because we've been schooled on the scientific roots of skin dryness and dehydration —and what have we learned? You gotta start at the dictionary. Most of the time, we assume that skin dryness is a direct result of dehydration, or a lack of H2O. In actuality, we may be totally off in how we've been thinking about dryness and dehydration, because, as skin-care guru Reneé Rouleau explained to us, the two are actually not synonymous.

Your best defence against flakey, tight skin is understanding the difference between dryness and dehydration, then finding the right products to achieve moisturised skin based on your need. Read on for a lesson on how to properly diagnose, treat, and prevent skin dryness and dehydration to keep your complexion at its most radiant.