Piling on more of the same moisturizer is the most common dead end in dry-skin care, because moisturizers do two different jobs and yours may only be doing one. Humectants (glycerin, hyaluronic acid) pull water into the skin; occlusives and emollients (petrolatum, dimethicone, shea butter, squalane) seal it in and smooth the flake edges down. A light lotion that's all humectant can leave water to evaporate right back out — in dry winter air, sometimes faster than before (the humectant/occlusive division of labor: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545171/). The fix is a richer cream at night, or simply layering something occlusive over what you already own.
Second suspect: your cleanser. A foaming wash and hot water strip the very lipids you're paying to replace. Lukewarm water and a gentle non-foaming cleanser, once a day for actual cleansing, changes more flaky faces than any serum.
Third: those flakes are dead cells that failed to shed neatly. Urea or lactic acid in a moisturizer softens and releases them gently — much better for already-dry skin than scrubbing, which tears the barrier you're rebuilding.
Expect real improvement within one to two weeks of the cream-plus-gentle-cleanser switch; barrier-supporting moisturizers show measurable water-loss improvement within days (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6197824/). If a patch stays stubborn — especially around the nose folds, eyebrows, or scalp line, or if it itches or looks pink and greasy-scaled — that pattern is classic seborrheic dermatitis rather than plain dryness (https://dermnetnz.org/topics/seborrhoeic-dermatitis), and it responds to antifungals, not moisturizer. A dermatologist can settle that in one look.