To prevent or eliminate dry skin, the goal is to maintain the health of the skin’s intercellular matrix. Moisture loss is definitely a symptom of dry skin, but simply giving the skin moisture won’t repair the intercellular matrix because no matter how much water you give it there is no way for it to stay put. What is far more significant is to give the skin the substances lacking in the skin’s epidermis—called the intercellular matrix—that holds skin cells together and allows the skin to function as it should, namely keeping hold of it’s water content. Substances like glycerin, lecithin, cholesterol, ceramides, hyaluronic acid, and many, many more, allow the surface of skin to behave in a somewhat younger way, similar to how it did before sun damage began causing problems. Just compare the parts of your body that haven’t seen the sun very much with the parts that have and you’ll get a good idea of what the problem really is. For most of us, the parts of our bodies not exposed to the sun don’t look or act like dry skin.
Without question, moisturizers play a significant role for dry skin. The number of products aimed at this problem is staggering, and they go by all kinds of names. The key thing is to ignore the names and pay more attention to the texture: the more emollient it is, the better it is for dry skin. Fortunately, almost all moisturizers and anti-wrinkle products, by whatever name, are wonderfully able to take care of most dry skin conditions.