The outermost layer of your skin is a wall of dead cells held together by lipids — ceramides, cholesterol and fatty acids in roughly a 3:1:1 ratio. When that mortar is depleted, water leaves and irritants get in. Nearly everything people describe to us as sensitive skin is a barrier in that state.
How barriers get damaged
Hot water, foaming cleansers with sulphates, physical scrubs, acids used daily, retinoids introduced too quickly, and — most often — several of these at once, layered by someone who has been told each of them individually is good for their skin.
Repairing one
- Stop all actives. Everything. For two weeks.
- Cleanse once daily, in the evening, with something non-foaming and lukewarm water.
- Apply a ceramide-containing moisturiser to damp skin, twice daily, more generously than feels reasonable.
- Sunscreen every morning.
Most barriers recover within two to four weeks on that regimen. It is dull, and it works.
Reintroducing actives
One product at a time, twice weekly, with two weeks between introductions. Retinoids buffered by applying moisturiser first. If your skin stings on application of anything, the barrier is not ready yet.
When it is not the barrier
Persistent redness across the central face with visible vessels, pustules without comedones, or anything that flares with heat and alcohol may be rosacea, which needs treating rather than moisturising. Speak to us or to your GP rather than working through another shelf of products.
