Dry Sensitive
Dry skin that's easily upset.
The most careful end of our range.
Skin that feels tight and flaky, and that stings, reddens or flares more readily than most. Dry Sensitive skin struggles to hold on to moisture, and as it does, the things that cause irritation find it easier to get in. It asks for the gentlest, most careful care we make, and that is exactly what this part of the range is built to give it.
Is this you?
Dry Sensitive skin tends to feel tight, often soon after washing, and can look dull or show flaky patches by the afternoon. New products frequently sting or prickle before they settle, if they settle at all. It reddens or goes blotchy easily, in cold wind, after a hot shower, or for no obvious reason. And it can feel itchy or rough in a way that steadier skin simply doesn't.
If several of those are familiar and they happen often rather than once in a while, you're likely in the right place. If you're not certain, the skin type finder takes a couple of minutes and will point you the right way.
What this skin type needs
Dry Sensitive skin has two things going on at once. It loses moisture too easily, and because its barrier is doing less of its job, the things that cause irritation reach it more readily. So the work is twofold. Put moisture back and help the skin hold on to it. And keep everything calm and simple, so as not to add to the upset.
That shapes every choice in these moisturisers. Rich, barrier-supporting plant oils to replenish what dry skin loses. Soothing, well-tolerated ingredients rather than anything sharp or stripping. And a deliberately short supporting cast, because the more you put on reactive skin, the more there is for it to react to. The idea throughout is to support your skin, not to push it around.
The oils we chose for it
Every Dry Sensitive moisturiser shares the same blend of five cold-pressed organic oils, chosen for this skin type and carried at a different richness in each of the three textures.
Evening primrose brings gamma-linolenic acid, a rare omega-6 fatty acid the research links to barrier support, particularly where dry skin struggles to hold moisture. Baobab and tamanu are stable, conditioning oils rich in the fatty acids and sterols that dry skin draws on. Sea buckthorn adds omega-7 and carotenoids. And dragon fruit seed oil rounds the blend out with a light, well-balanced fatty acid profile.
Around those five sits a supporting cast shared across the whole range. Squalane, a lightweight oil close to one the skin makes for itself. Soothing allantoin. A prebiotic and postbiotic pairing chosen to support the skin's own microbiome, where the evidence is still emerging and we would rather say so than overstate it. And our signature bladderwrack, the same Atlantic seaweed species we know from the rocks below Welcombe, though the extract itself is produced in France from that species. The coast is the kinship here, not the supply chain.
Every ingredient, and the exact amount of each, is published on each product page. That's the whole point of how we work, and each one links through to its own page if you want to read further.
Your three moisturisers
The same Dry Sensitive blend comes in three textures, so you can match the richness to where you're using it.
Flow is the lightest, made for the face. Core is richer and more cushioning, for the body. Deep is the richest, for the areas that turn driest, the hands, elbows and feet.
Same blend throughout. More or less of it, depending on what the skin is asking for.
As with any new product on reactive skin, it's worth patch testing first.
Looking after Dry Sensitive skin
A few gentle habits tend to help this skin type as much as any single product does.
Wash a little less than you think you need to, with lukewarm rather than hot water, and something mild rather than a foaming or heavily scented cleanser. Pat dry rather than rub. Moisturise while the skin is still slightly damp, which helps hold the water in. Introduce new things one at a time, with a patch test, so that if something doesn't suit you, you know exactly what it was. Shelter the skin from cold wind and strong sun, both of which reactive skin feels keenly. And give any change a few weeks, because Dry Sensitive skin rewards patience and consistency far more than it rewards novelty.
You'll have noticed we never use synthetic fragrance, which is one of the more common triggers for skin like this. There's a single essential oil in the range, vetiver, at a low level and chosen on purpose, and it appears on every label so you can see exactly how much is there.
Your skin can settle over time
Dry Sensitive isn't a fixed label. Cared for gently and consistently, skin that's been struggling often calms over time, holding moisture a little better and reacting a little less. For some people that means the skin gradually settles toward the steadier Dry type, and the careful routine becomes less of a daily preoccupation. It's gradual, it comes from kind and steady care rather than from any single product working magic, and it's a good reason to treat where your skin is today as a starting point rather than a verdict. If it changes, the skin type finder is always there to place yourself again.
Where to next
- See the three Dry Sensitive moisturisers: Flow, Core and Deep
- Not sure this is you? Find your skin type
- The other skin types: Dry, Balanced, Oily, Oily Sensitive
- How we choose our ingredients, and the science behind them