Dry skin during pregnancy

Dry skin during pregnancy is common, and it is usually a normal response to changes in your skin barrier rather than a sign that anything is wrong. This article explains what is actually happening to your skin, when dryness tends to peak and which ingredients relieve it, as part of the Pregnancy Skincare Guide. If you want the wider picture first, it helps to understand how skin changes during pregnancy.

Is dry skin during pregnancy normal?

Yes. Skin dryness in pregnancy is common and measurable and it follows a predictable pattern.

A 2025 prospective study followed women through pregnancy and the months after birth, measuring their skin at set points. Water loss through the skin, skin roughness and the thickness of the outer skin layer all increased over that period.¹

An earlier longitudinal study measured water loss through the skin three times during pregnancy and three times afterwards. It rose at every single visit.²

So if your face feels tighter, rougher or flakier than it did before, that is a real change and a well documented one. It is not a sign that your skin has suddenly become problematic. It also settles. In that same study, readings had returned to the normal range by six months after birth.²

Why does skin get drier in pregnancy?

What is the skin barrier and why does it matter?

Your skin barrier is the outermost layer of your skin, and its job is to hold water in and keep irritants out.

Think of it as brickwork. The skin cells are the bricks and a mix of fats, including ceramides, is the mortar holding them together. When that mortar is depleted, water escapes more easily and skin starts to feel tight, rough or flaky.

Researchers measure barrier quality by tracking how much water evaporates through the skin, which is why this measurement appears in almost every study on pregnancy skin.¹˒² A rising number means the barrier is working harder to hold onto moisture.

This matters because it changes what helps. Dryness driven by the barrier does not improve much by drinking more water. It improves when you give the barrier back the materials it is short of.

Do hormones cause pregnancy skin dryness?

Hormonal change is part of the picture, but the evidence points more specifically at the skin barrier than at hormones alone.

The 2025 study found something useful here. Water loss through the skin, roughness and skin thickness all changed across pregnancy, while the water content of the outer skin layer, its acidity and its elasticity did not.¹

In plain terms, the amount of water in your skin stays roughly the same. What changes is how well your skin holds onto it.

That is a meaningful distinction, but the full mechanism has not been mapped. The authors of that study concluded that the practical response is to support barrier quality with skincare, which is a reasonable and evidence-consistent position.¹

When is dry skin in pregnancy at its worst?

Dryness tends to build gradually, and it is often most noticeable in the weeks after birth.

In the longitudinal study, water loss through the skin rose steadily at each pregnancy visit, then reached its highest readings around two months after delivery. At that point a meaningful share of women were measuring well above the normal range.²

By six months post-delivery, average readings had returned to normal.²

If your skin feels at its driest in the newborn weeks, when you have the least time and energy to think about it, that is expected. It is also temporary. Keeping your routine simple and consistent through that window does more good than adding new products to it.

What actually helps dry skin during pregnancy?

Which ingredients help pregnancy skin dryness?

Three groups of ingredients do the work: humectants that draw water into the skin, emollients that smooth and soften the surface and occlusives that slow water escaping.³

Glycerin is the humectant with the strongest track record. It sits in the skin's outer layer and holds water there.³

Ceramides are the ingredient most directly matched to the problem, because they are part of the mortar that holds the barrier together. In a randomised study, a moisturiser containing a ceramide precursor reduced water loss through the skin, lowered visible dryness scores and increased skin hydration after four weeks, compared with untreated skin.⁴

Squalane and shea butter work as emollients, softening rough texture. Hyaluronic acid during pregnancy is a useful humectant alongside them.

You do not need all of these separately. A well built moisturiser during pregnancy combines them.

How should you wash your face if your skin is dry?

Use a gentle cleanser that does not leave your skin feeling tight, and apply your moisturiser while your skin is still slightly damp.

That tight, squeaky feeling after washing is a sign the cleanser has stripped some of the barrier lipids you are trying to protect. A cleanser built around glycerin, panthenol and soothing ingredients cleans without doing that, which is what a hydrating cleanser during pregnancy is designed for.

A few other things help. Keep showers warm rather than hot, and shorter. Cleanse once at night and rinse with water in the morning if your skin is very dry.

Applying moisturiser within a minute or two of washing traps the water still sitting on the skin, which is a small change that makes a noticeable difference.

When to speak to your doctor about dry or itchy skin

Speak to your doctor or midwife if you develop new itching in the second half of pregnancy, particularly itching without a visible rash.

Most itching in pregnancy is straightforward dryness or stretching skin. But new onset itch without a rash, especially on the palms and soles or worse at night, is one of the signs clinicians look for when checking for a liver condition of pregnancy called intrahepatic cholestasis.⁵

It is checked with a simple blood test, and it is important to rule out rather than something to worry about in advance. Your care team would much rather check and reassure you.

Also mention it if dryness becomes red, cracked, painful or spreading, which can point to a skin condition that needs treatment rather than moisturiser alone.⁵

A simple routine for dry skin during pregnancy

Keep it short. Consistency matters far more than the number of steps.

In the morning, rinse or cleanse gently, then apply a barrier moisturiser while your skin is still damp. At night, cleanse with a hydrating cleanser during pregnancy and moisturise again.

Look for a formula built around ceramides, glycerin and squalane, which is how the moisturiser during pregnancy in the nātelle range is designed. Moisturising and barrier supporting ingredients of this kind are considered appropriate for use throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding.⁶˒⁷

Resist the urge to add exfoliating acids to remove flaking. Flaking is a barrier problem, and exfoliating usually sets it back.

If you want to check anything else you are using, start with skincare ingredients to avoid during pregnancy.

This article is intended as general educational information and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider or dermatologist before making changes to your skincare routine during pregnancy.