ABSTRACT
Dry skin is associated with a low water content of the outer layers of the stratum corneum, causing a reduction of skin flexibility and dysfunctional desquamation due to loss of enzymatic activity that requires sufficient water (1). Poor desquamation exhibits itself as a disorganization of the outer layers and the appearance of flakes of compacted corneocytes. As a consequence, light reaching the surface of the skin is scattered at multiple disorganized air-tissue interfaces. The visual symptom of dry skin is diffuse surface reflection of uncolored (white) light. Because of its contrast, this is particularly visible on dark skin.
