This Derm's Favorite Skin Care Tip For A Hydrated Body Is Surprisingly Simple
So often in beauty, we think in steps, layers, and routines. I mean, a solid regimen is the cornerstone of your skin care routine, no? Well, perhaps we've taken this to be a bit too rigid: In the attempts to add structure to our beauty to-do lists, we've forgotten that these steps should flow together, feel organic, and work together.
Case in point? Hydrating your body post-shower.
This derm wants you to think of cleansing & hydrating as one step.
Board-certified dermatologist Whitney Bowe, M.D., is one of our favorite skin care experts—so when she gives advice, we listen. Well, on a recent episode of our beauty podcast Clean Beauty School, when asked what her go-to tip of late was, it was shockingly simple: "If I had to nail it down to the one sort of most important step that I think you can take in order to protect your skin barrier: It's to think about cleansing and moisturizing as one step," says Bowe.
The problem is when you mentally separate the two actions, you may not feel inclined to complete the second. "So often people will get out of the shower and they'll dry off with a towel and they'll get dressed. And if you just took a moment and you put your body moisturizer and your face moisturizer in the bathroom—within seconds, within moments of patting dry—you are doing such amazing things for that skin barrier, you're feeding your microbiome, and you're trapping in that moisture." We may even go as far as to recommend keeping your body moisturizer in the shower, so you can apply just after you've patted dry.
The takeaway.
Sometimes the best advice is the most simple—truly, why overthink and overcomplicate skin care? As long as you're tending to skin, hydrating it, and being gentle, you can feel confident that you're doing skin care right.
Alexandra Engler is the beauty director at mindbodygreen and host of the beauty podcast Clean Beauty School. Previously, she's held beauty roles at Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, SELF, and Cosmopolitan; her byline has appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Allure.com. In her current role, she covers all the latest trends in the clean and natural beauty space, as well as lifestyle topics, such as travel. She received her journalism degree from Marquette University, graduating first in the department. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.