Skin dehydration is a very common occurance – but it is often confused with simply dry skin. Yep – there’s a difference. While dry skin is the result of insufficient oil in the skin, dehydration is the lack of water in the skin. That means you would treat it differently as well.

First off, how can you tell if your skin is dehydrated? It looks scaly and flaky – and, you guessed it, it looks dry. Fine lines are much more visible, and skin can even appear as if it has an additional thin layer of skin on top. I know – that’s what dry skin can look like – but it is important to remember one thing: dry skin is skin type and tends to be hereditary or as a result of the aging process, while dehydration is condition and tends to be something more temporary. Dehydration can be the result of things like exposure to the sun, wind, or dry heat. It also is often caused by drinking too much coffee, tea or other diuretics.

And don’t forget – dry skin AND oily skin can become dehydrated. Oily skin often becomes dehydrated by using strong, harsh soaps and cleansers, as well as using astringents too frequently. And when oily skin becomes dehydrated the top layers of skin cells harden and block the skin’s ability to secrete oil. You can see where this is going – oily skin that can’t secrete the oils can increase (ugh) breakouts.

So now that you can identify it better – you can treat it more effectively. For instance, just treating dehydrated skin with oils can be completely ineffective. The trick is to find a moisturizer that is designed to trap the water in your skin by forming a thin layer of film on the skin’s surface. Ingredients to look for include glycerin, glycolic acid and lactic acids (which help to bind water and draw it into the skin) and hyaluronic acid (which traps the moisture). There are other ingredients, like dimethicone, which can also trap the moisture, but since that has a questionable safety rating, we don’t use it in Garden Girl products. Lastly, it’s important to treat dehydrated skin with a hydrating face mask weekly as well.

All Garden Girl face creams and body lotions are packed with hyaluronic acid, and our Like Magic anti-aging serum is highly-concentrated with hyaluronic acid as well. Plus our Cookies + Cream masque is perfect for rehydrating your sun-parched skin. So whether you have dry skin or dehydrated skin – we’ve got you covered!

Oh boy – very excited to announce that we have two new products! These products are targeting people with oily or acne-prone skin (although they work well for “normal” skin as well!).

We scoured around to find a manufacturer who could make us some some serious stuff – we were looking for dermatologist-grade products. And we found it. By using these 2 products, along with Even Ste(pH)en toner and either Nature Nurture face cream, your skin will be at its best. And best of all? You won’t be slathering your face with chemicals! Those of you with acne/oily skin know what I’m talking about. The products for oily skin – even if they have “botanicals” seem to be extra harsh and chemical-laden.

Well – you can kiss those chemicals good-bye once you try out the two newest Garden Girl additions:

At Long Last This is a fantastic face wash with a gentle cleanser that won’t irritate your skin with harsh toxins, combined with effective glycolic acid that removes impurities, exfoliates dead skin, and removes dirt and other irritants that can clog pores and cause break-outs. Note: I want to let you know that with this product, the manufacturer did erroneously put a small amount of blue color in the product (future batches will not include the blue). It is at such a low percentage that rather than trash the batch I decided to do the ecologically sound thing and keep the batch but I wanted to be sure to let you know. It is completely safe and non-irritating, just unnecessary.

Break Free We have been thrilled with this product because it is so effective and is easy to use – and it has a simple list of ingredients and isn’t laden with fillers or junk. Break Free is packed with THREE alpha hydroxy acids – glycolic, pyruvic and lactic – to combat oil, exfoliate dead skin, clean pores and even remove the outer layers of damaged or thickened skin. With repeated use, you’ll notice a brighter more even-toned complexion and a reduction in the appearance of age spots and other imperfections. One of our testers found that her skin looked as good using this (along with our toner and wash) as it did with ProActiv!

Feel great about treating your skin to what it deserves with these two products. Set yourself free from the chemicals and check out these new products. As with all Garden Girl products, they are free of parabens, sulfates, petroleum products and phthalates!

So to celebrate our newest babies – we want to offer a whopping:

50% off Break Free and/or At Long Last

This offer is only for our email-list customers. But we are extending our usual “one day sale” to Wednesday this week as a bonus!

To take advantage, simply go to:

www.gardengirlskincare.com/facecare

Add Break Free and/or At Long Last to your shopping cart, and use coupon code:

OCT6

when checking out. Happy Shopping! (and Go Sox!!)