water. just... water.

I keep coming back to this because I went through a patch last month where my skin just looked dull. Not breaking out, not dry exactly, just flat. And I'd been slacking on drinking enough water, like genuinely getting to 4pm having had maybe one glass. I'm not a dermatologist but the timing was too obvious to ignore. Once I actually made myself drink more consistently — nothing fancy, just water throughout the day — my skin looked less tired within about a week. The texture felt a bit smoother too, that kind of rough feeling on my forehead went down. I know hydration from the inside vs the outside is a whole conversation and topical stuff still matters, but I do think I'd been underestimating how much the basics affect everything. My hyaluronic acid serum was doing less work when I was basically dehydrated from the inside. Makes sense when you think about it.