Did you know that a small number of skincare habits can wreck havoc to your skin barrier and cause long term issues such as persistent skin sensitivity, inflammation & redness?
Now before I go onto the 3 habits that damage your skin, I want you to ask yourself the following: Which one of these are you currently struggling with?
- Fine lines
- Premature signs of ageing
- Persistent dry skin
- Skin sensitivity
- Itchy & flaking
- Red patches of skin
Each of these can occur when your skin barrier becomes comprimised from damaging skincare habits. We'll need to very briefly go over what the skin barrier is before we go over the 3 habits that can damage your skin.
Your skin barrier is your defense system and withhout a healthy skin barrrier your skin can begin to feel rough to the touch, fine lines & wrinkles will appear more prominent, eczema & psoriasis can be more difficult to manage and you may start to notice more premature signs of ageing.
A healthy skin barrier is able to prevent irritants and allegerns from entering your skin and causing further damage with the handy little diagram below illustrating this a bit more clearly.
When your skin barrier is looked after correctly, the changes are drastic and can be seen even more clearly on a microscopic level as shown below where on the left the skin barrier is comprimised. The texture is rough & dry. On the right, the skin has a healthy sheen and is protected.
Your skin is usually quite good at sorting itself out but what we do can impair this. I'm now going to dive into the 3 habits that can damage your skin as these can wreck havoc on your skin barrier and cause lasting damage to it. Once it's damaged, you may start to suffer from some of the issues listed above.
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Using too many actives in your routine.
Skincare really doesn’t need to be that complicated and for most people, a seven step routine with many serums and actives simply won’t work. Not only will using so many products cost you a lot of money, it can also disrupt your skin barrier function. For example, If you are using an active such as tretinoin (Retin-A) then using glycolic acid and salicylic acid on top of this is going to wreck havoc on your skin by causing irritation and sensitising it. Avoid using multiple AHAs & BHAs at once.
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Overexfoliating your face.
This can really damage your skin barrier. Leaving it damaged, sensitive, reactive and more susceptible to infection. It's not necessary to use harsh physical exfoliants on your face where the skin is much thinner than the skin on the rest of your body.
A lot of scrubs for the body are way too abrasive for the face. It's best to stick to using a chemical exfoliant like an AHA on your face if you wish to slough off dead skin.
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Using high pH cleansers and soaps on your face.
If your cleanser is leaving your skin feeling tight afterwards, then the pH level of this cleanser is too high. Your skin is slightly acidic. By using a high pH cleanser you are stripping your acid mantle and damaging your skin barrier. Stick to a cleanser with a pH level between 4.5 & 6.5.
And have you ever noticed that your skin may sting when you apply a product straight after cleansing? An increased skin pH can make the skin more susceptible to irritation.
I've managed to find a website which has a very comprehensive list of cleansers and their pH level. This is a really great resource to use to make sure you're not using a cleanser with too high a pH.
https://goalstogetglowing.com/2017/09/18/ph-testing-results-cleansers/
If you do happen to use The Chocolate Orange Cleansing Balm, the great news is that it will not affect the pH level of your skin at all. Which is a win-win.
Hopefully this has made things a little clearer for you on what to avoid to protect and preserve your skin barrier. By protecting, preserving and healing your skin barrier you'll notice that a lot of skin issues such as rough dry skin, promiment fine lines and wrinkles, eczema, psoriasis, sensisitivity, red patches and dermatitis will become manageble and may even go away.
I'm a big advocate for protecting the skin barrier and it's what lead me to spend months & months perfectly a formula for protecting it. The result was the Skin Barrier Repair Cream which in all honestly is the only skin barrier cream that I have used that does not sting, burn, cause further irritation and is fragrance free.
I use the Skin Barrier Barrier Repair Cream religiously in my skincare routine as the last step. It's the one thing that keeps tretinoin irritation at bay on my skin.
But don't just take my word for it ;) It's an absolute staple for so many customers too.
