Published: July 30, 2025
If you’ve been keeping an eye on skincare trends, you’ve likely come across skin flooding – a technique that promises to deliver an intense moisture boost to the skin. Like with many new trends, this one certainly sounds appealing, but there are a few lesser-known downsides to it too. Join Bionyx as we take a deep dive into the skin flooding trend to help you decide whether or not this technique is worth adding to your skincare routine.
What is Skin Flooding?
Not familiar with skin flooding? This technique ties in with skin layering, which involves layering multiple skincare products over each other on your skin. With skin flooding, however, the products that are layered are all lightweight, hydrating products.
The first layer is applied while the skin is damp, and this is followed by subsequent layers of moisture, hence the name skin flooding. Each new layer helps to push the previous one in, after which they’re all sealed into the skin with a hydrating moisturizer.
The Benefits of Skin Flooding
The main benefit of skin flooding is that it boosts skin hydration levels. Hydration is crucial for a healthy complexion. Moisture is needed by every single one of your skin cells, and the outer layers of your skin usually don’t receive enough of this internally. By layering moisture topically, those skin cells are able to pull in enough moisture to ensure that they’re capable of functioning to their full potential.
This has a knock-on effect of keeping the skin barrier feeling supported. The more hydration that’s available to your skin barrier, the stronger and more resilient it will feel. This can be particularly beneficial if you’re suffering from a compromised skin barrier, as moisture retention is something that a damaged skin barrier can really struggle with.
Most people choose to save skin flooding for the evenings, mainly because moisture loss naturally increases overnight, and skin flooding can help to counter that. However, turn to this technique in the morning and you’ll also appreciate how it gives your skin a plumper and dewier finish.
When Skin Flooding Goes Wrong
Skin flooding can be beneficial for all skin types. After all, everyone’s skin needs plenty of moisture! However, if you have oily skin, it’s very easy to get skin flooding wrong…
As you’ll know, oily skin is more susceptible to clogged pores due to all of the excess sebum that it produces. Add in multiple layers of various skincare products, and you’ll only be increasing your odds of congesting your skin and blocking your pores. This will quickly lead to a surge in acne breakouts. If you don’t want to completely miss out on skin flooding, you can get around this problem by applying fewer layers of moisture or triple-checking that each product you use is truly lightweight, meaning that no pore-clogging ingredients have been incorporated into those formulas.
If you suffer from sensitive skin, you’ll need to be careful about skin flooding too. Yes, your sensitive skin barrier could really benefit from all of that extra moisture, but using several products in one go could prove to be problematic for your skin, simply due to the fact that it will suddenly have to deal with so many different ingredients. Some of these may not be fully compatible with each other, making things even worse for your skin. Again, you can avoid those issues by cutting back on how many layers you flood your skin with. Make sure that each product you use is gentle and safe for your skin.
Creating an Effective Skin Flooding Routine
Want to give skin flooding a try? Here’s a routine that will quickly leave your skin feeling deeply quenched:
Start By Cleansing Your Skin
The first step is to thoroughly cleanse your skin. This will encourage your skin to absorb all of the hydrating products you’re about to apply. Without cleansing, those products would simply sit atop the layer of dirt and sebum that coats your skin, failing to do any good for your complexion.
To keep your skin barrier feeling calm before your skin flooding experience, use a gentle cleanser. Pick one that contains hydrating ingredients too, like the Bionyx Rhodium Mousse Cleanser, and you’ll be able to start skin flooding from this very first step of your routine!
Apply a Hydrating Toner
Now that your skin has been cleansed, it’s time to gather together your hydrating skincare products. The first should be a hydrating toner. Not only will this give your skin its first layer of moisture, but toners are also designed to rebalance the pH level of the skin’s surface. This will leave your skin feeling more receptive to the other products you’re going to be applying.
Dermatologists recommend choosing a toner that contains a form of hyaluronic acid. This exceptionally hydrating humectant should be applied as close to the skin as possible for the best results, which is why a toner that’s infused with the ingredient, like the Bionyx Rhodium Facial Toner, is perfect for a skin flooding routine.
One final tip: apply your toner to your face while your skin is still damp post-cleanse. This will incorporate those extra water molecules into your skin flooding routine, giving your skin cells access to even more moisture!
Layer on One or Two Hydrating Serums
It’s now time to turn to the serum stage of your skincare routine. Serums are excellent products to use when skin flooding. They’re lightweight yet capable of carrying high concentrations of hydrating ingredients.
If your skin is oily or sensitive, you may want to stick to just one hydrating serum. However, for everyone else, layering two hydrating serums can really enhance your skin’s moisture levels.
At Bionyx, we have a couple of hydrating serums that lend themselves well to a skin flooding routine. The first is the Alloy Platinum Synergizing Serum. It hydrates with a blend of sodium hyaluronate, collagen, peptides, and glycerin. It also contains vitamin C – a powerful antioxidant that, with regular use, will soon have your skin glowing!
The BioLift Platinum Deep Wrinkle Concentrate is another hydrating serum worth considering. Sodium hyaluronate, sunflower seed oil, and oat protein focus on hydration, while vitamins A, C, and E tackle the appearance of skin aging.
Moisturize
The final step in your skin flooding routine should be to moisturize your skin. This is one of the most important steps to follow – without a moisturizer forming a seal over your skin’s surface, it won’t be long before all of those hydrating ingredients you’ve applied evaporate away.
Of course, this is also an opportunity to add one final layer of hydration. While all moisturizers hydrate, some do so much better than others. The Bionyx Platinum Transformative Cream, for example, is a hydrating superstar with its combination of lactic acid, sodium hyaluronate, peptides, jojoba esters, and more.
Skin Flooding With Success: Extra Tips to Keep in Mind
Before you get started with your new skin flooding routine, here are some extra tips to keep in mind:
Start Slowly
If you plan on adding several hydrating products to your skincare routine, make sure that you start off slowly. The last thing that you should do is pile them all onto your skin at once. Instead, introduce them one at a time, waiting for a couple of weeks in between each new product. This may mean waiting for several weeks before you can fully start skin flooding, but it will help to ensure that your skin isn’t going to react negatively to any of the products you’ve chosen.
Consider Compatibility
Generally, hydrating ingredients are compatible with each other. However, there’s a good chance that some of your skincare products will contain more than just hydrating ingredients. If any of them are infused with powerful actives, make sure that your routine doesn’t bring together any ingredients that don’t play nicely with each other!
Don’t Overdo It
We’ve already talked about how a skin flooding routine shouldn’t consist of too many steps if you have sensitive skin. However, this advice is important to note for other skin types too. The more products you apply to your skin, the more ingredients your skin barrier has to deal with. Stress it out too much, and it will start to suffer.
Combine Skin Flooding With Skin Cycling
If your skin seems to be responding well to a long skin flooding routine, but you’re worried (and rightfully so) about overdoing it, consider combining skin flooding with skin cycling. Skin cycling is when you cycle your skincare routine, alternating the use of active ingredients with hydrating ingredients. This means that rather than skin flooding every evening, you would only do it every few nights, which gives your skin some time to rebalance itself in between.
Consider Adding in a Humidifier
While there’s no denying that skin flooding is an effective way to lock moisture into your skin, you can enhance these effects even further by investing in a humidifier. Practice skin flooding in the evening, and then go to bed with a humidifier next to you. The next morning, your skin will feel more hydrated than ever!
Listen to Your Skin
Last but not least, make sure that you listen to your skin. This is important when trying out any new skincare technique, especially if it involves applying a variety of products to your skin. If your skin seems to be struggling in any way, strip your routine back and try to figure out what the problem is.
Summary
Is skin flooding worth trying? Definitely, especially if you have dry skin or a damaged skin barrier. It can be beneficial for other skin types too, so long as it’s done carefully. The skin flooding routine that we’ve shared above will set you on the path to success, so long as you also incorporate the extra tips that we’ve discussed. When done correctly, skin flooding is a great way to give your skin some extra, much-needed moisture!
Click here to shop for more hydrating skincare products from Bionyx.