The air-drying trend that is at present taking off on TikTok has introduced the difficulty into sharper focus. The hack sees customers letting their pores and skin fully air dry earlier than moving into with skincare. And whereas there’s logic to the tactic—particularly when you use a towel to pat your face dry, which a) can harbor micro organism and b) can create friction on pores and skin—it seems, air drying continues to be not the easiest way to maximise on moisture.
According to Daniel Isaacs, skincare model Medik8’s chief product officer, skincare formulator, and director of analysis, “A standard fable is that air drying your pores and skin is the easiest way to make sure it’s free from irritation and permits it to ‘breathe.’ However, this may result in moisture loss and dryness.”
Rhysa Phommachanh, skincare specialist at Landys Chemist concurs. Letting the water dry off your face “contributes to transepidermal water loss (or TEWL), the place water evaporates from the pores and skin into the air, accelerating dehydration and leaving the pores and skin feeling tight, tough, and extra vulnerable to superb strains and wrinkles,” she says.
Instead, Daniel recommends “making use of moisturizer on damp pores and skin helps lock in moisture extra successfully. When pores and skin is barely moist, it may take up hydrating substances higher, enhancing the product’s efficacy. This observe permits the moisturizer to create a barrier that seals in hydration, leading to a plumper, extra radiant complexion.”
If you’ve got at all times favored a moist moisturizer software, full marks to you, but when not, you heard it right here first: preserve your pores and skin damp, folks.