Skin Care Pros Share Their Top Tips for Healing Dry, Cracked Skin

Here's your permission slip to layer on thick, occlusive emollients as many times throughout the day as you'd like and can tolerate. "Emollients work especially well in combination with humectants because they sit on the surface of the skin to lock in moisture and prevent evaporative loss of water from the skin," says Maiman. "In other words, it helps keep in what humectants draw from the lower skin layers."

Examples include natural butters and oils, petroleum jelly, allantoin and mineral oil.

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