system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why does topical alcohol make skin dry?

Hello. I'm  getting into skin care and I was wondering about what makes topical alcohol dry the skin. 

Does it make the water in your skin evaporate? Does is dissolve lipids in your skin? Does it make the lipids evaporate? Does it make the water in your skin retreat back into your body? Does it not do anything to the water or lipids in your skin but makes it feel dry because of the damage it does to it? In any case, how so? 

Thanks for the help!
gpt
Simpler explanation from a chrmist: Alcohols can dissolve / mix with both water and oils. If you put isopropyl alcohol or ethanol on your skin, it will absorb both oils and water from your skin. If you then wipe the alcohol off, you wipe off the oils and water along with the alcohol.

This can also happen with soaps and detergents in general because they also dissolve both oils and water. This is why hand soaps will normally have moisturizers added to compensate.

Alcohols also easily evaporate, so any alcohol leftover after cleaning will quickly disappearing instead of forming an oily layer like a moisturizer.