Welcome to a little series on my blog discussing “Where to start with Skincare”. We are going to start with which skincare concerns to address first and in what order. We will also get into the details of the skin problems, what causes them, how to address the problem, products, and more. Now, let’s get into the first skin concern to address which is ‘sensitive’, ‘irritated’, ‘red’ skin caused by a damaged skin barrier.
There is no such thing as perfect skin. People may look like they have flawless, poreless, even skin, but it’s like a unicorn. It’s not real but we sometimes pretend like it is. Most of us either think we don’t really have any skin issues but they can lie undetected or unnoticed because we have lived with them for so long that’s just “how our skin is supposed to be”. While some of us have 50 issues that we want to correct.
There are orders of skin concerns that we want to treat first before moving on to either more intense treatments or skincare routines.
Start With Fixing Your Sensitive Skin AKA Skin Barrier
The first concern we want to treat is the issue that has the potential to cause pain or long lasting problems like sensitivity or acne. However, if you have sensitive skin with acne, you need to address the sensitivity first.
Example: if you have acne and rosacea and use an acne wash, your skin will most likely become irritated. Now you not only have acne but also red, dry skin.
Sensitive skin is a broad term as sensitive skin is different for everyone. There are many different symptoms, different irritants, different types of sensitive skin, and different levels of how sensitive the skin can be.
Let’s start with the basics of how it can appear, what are some types, and how we are going to try to fix it.
Sensitive skin can show up a few different ways such as:
- Dryness
- Itchiness
- Rough or discolored patches
- Acne
- Sensitive or inflamed areas aka redness
- Burning
- Dehydrated skin
By fixing your sensitive skin, you will be able to tolerate more aggressive treatments to treat your other concerns that require stronger ingredients.
You can develop sensitive skin or it can be genetics, but depending on the type of sensitive skin you have, there are ways you can help the redness and dry, itchy feeling you might be experiencing.
Along with different symptoms of sensitive skin, there are also different types of sensitive skin:
Allergic Reaction – this occurs when your skin comes in contact with something that it doesn’t like.
Natural Effects – this is due to wind, sun, high or low temperature.
Contact Dermatitis – there are many different types, but the most common one happens when the skin touches an irritating chemical, experiences too much friction, or makes contact with heat.
Dry Skin – skin tends to be more sensitive when it’s dry and has moisture loss. Most common during the winter months.
Eczema – mainly known as atopic dermatitis. Certain foods, such as nuts and dairy, can trigger symptoms. Environmental triggers include smoke, pollen, soaps, and fragrances
Rosacea – Many people misdiagnose rosacea for acne, eczema, or an allergic reaction. It can show up as flushed skin, irritated skin or pimples. Read more about Rosacea here.
Photodermatoses – is an abnormal reaction to sunlight within the skin itself.
With these different types of sensitive skin, some need to be diagnosed by a dermatologist to help narrow down what the exact irritant is that causes flare ups. Once you go through these tests with your doctor, you will want to avoid those irritants.
If you have more mild sensitive skin, you might be able to already tell what triggers your symptoms. It can be weather, an ingredient, or even sometimes hot water.
Where Do I Start?
Some of these causes for sensitive skin are hard to treat and a little more complicated that’s when you might want to go to a doctor to help. However, the majority of the time, you can help reduce the symptoms, redness or irritation by repairing your outermost skin layer and the lipid skin barrier.
Usually, the whiter or paler the skin, the thinner the barrier, which means you’re more prone to rashes, redness and irritation.
You need to start with repairing the lipid skin barrier causing sensitivity as it gets disrupted by stress, sun, wind, smoke, pollution, and weather and only gets more sensitive when exposed to these factors more frequently. These environmental factors can penetrate your skin and enter your body if your lipid barrier is damaged enough.
Your skin barrier helps to reduce bacteria growth. If you are experience acne from wearing a face mask all day AKA maskne, your underlying issue could be a damaged skin barrier. Check out my other blog post about how to prevent and treat maskne.
What can cause a damaged skin barrier?
We are born with 75% water and dry up as we age, leaving this world with closer to 0% water. The weaker the barrier, the less hydration the body has. Aging in inevitable, but there are ways to get hydration back into the body and skin.
Your skin barrier can become compromised in different seasons, ages, or life events. You could be fine using a product for 5 years and then it will cause irritation because if the climate, things going on in your life, etc. Keep this in mind as well.
However, there are a lot of other things that can cause a damaged or compromised skin barrier.
- Overwashing
- Over exfoliating
- Pollution/Air quality
- Stress/Lack of sleep
- Aging
- Genetics
The lipid skin barrier is the first protective layer of your skin that provides the most protection. Without your lipid barrier, water inside your body evaporates, leaves you dehydrated, and can’t protect itself.
Think of it as gaps between the cells in your skin that are allowing more water to leave your skin and irritants have more space to get into your body.
You probably already know if your lipid barrier is damaged because you are ‘sensitive’ to certain products or elements.
With sensitive skin, you want to improve the skin and not just treat the symptoms. By building up the skin barrier, you will be helping your skin long term from other issues while helping repair your damaged skin barrier.
How To Repair A Damaged Skin Barrier?
Try to find the root cause
This may be hard but once to figure out if you’ve been overwashing, over exfoliating, whatever it might be and help you avoid it in the future. Sometimes it’s hot water that can be the cause. Take note of what you did prior to your skin being red or irritated.
Stop exfoliating for awhile
Allow your skin to regenerate it’s skin barrier and once the symptoms are resolved then you start before you reintroduce it into your routine.
Simplify your skin care
You want to wash, moisturize, and protect. Never skip SPF especially if you have sensitive skin. Look for a physical sunscreen that contains zinc oxide. The sun can irritate it even more and cause more damage to the lipid skin barrier.
**I haven’t personally tried these but based on the ingredients and reviews, they have what you need to help repair your sensitive skin
Wash
Lotion
Sunscreen
I would recommend the R+F Soothe line as this is the only one I know personally works. It is formulated to work together for the best results in the shortest amount of time using Multi-Med Therapy which is the right ingredients, in the right formulation, in the right order.
Be picky with your products and include the right ingredients
Not only do you want to keep your skincare simple, but you also want to include some ingredients in your products to help repair the lipid skin barrier to reduce your symptoms (see the products above for recommendations).
Incorporate:
- Hyaluronic acid
- Peptides
- Ceramides
- Plant oils
- Glycerin
- Niacinamide – slowly, as it can be an irritant and the beginning
Some of these ingredients, while they are generally a safe bet, sometimes still give people skin irritation such as peptides and niacinamide. Do a test patch on your face with any new product and if there aren’t any symptoms after 24 hrs, you are probably safe to use it.
Avoid hot water
Water can actually be an irritant believe it or not and hot water is like a double negative. It stripes the skin and can cause a need to itch, which you should also avoid itching the irritated skin.
There is no wrong time to repair your moisture barrier, but the spring is the absolute best mainly because the weather isn’t so harsh outside adding those environmental factors we don’t have control over.
What To Avoid When Repairing Skin Barrier
There are definitely things you will want to avoid if you are experiencing some of the symptoms that show up from sensitive, dry and irritated skin.
Avoid:
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin A aka Retinal
- Harsh cleansing products
- Essential oils
- High Concentration of active ingredients
- Acne treatments
- Drying alcohols
- Chemical Peels
- Over Exfoliating
Once you know what is causing the sensitivity, you obviously will want to avoid that as well. Just make sure you have a very simple skincare routine and be very picky about the products you are using.
Also, be very picky about your makeup and those ingredients. Most common ingredients that people are allergic to in cosmetics are parabens, preservatives and surfactants. Look for mineral make up as they usually don’t contain these irritants.
Keep in mind, the more damaged, the longer it will take to repair. Once you repair your skin barrier, your skin will be able to tolerate more products without irritation.
Check out the next blog post on what to treat after you repair your damaged skin barrier.
