Is your skin feeling tight, dry, flaky, congested or sensitive? You could be experiencing a compromised (damaged) skin barrier. And don’t worry, it’s easy to come by…
Discover the function of your skin barrier, what causes barrier damage and a simplified skincare routine that will help you heal your barrier, so you can restore your confidence!
What’s your skin barrier?
Your skin is made up of many layers and the outermost layer is your skin barrier! It’s paper thin, it consists of tough skin cells bound together by lipids (oils) and it works to regulate moisture levels (keeping water locked in your skin) while also protecting you from harms way (environmental damage, bacteria, viruses). It’s pretty busy!
But when your skin barrier is damaged you can experience everything from tightness, dryness, flaking, congestion, breakouts and sensitivity.
What causes a damaged skin barrier?
Everything from your environment (a dry climate, overexposure to UV rays), pollutants and even top skincare ingredients can cause damage to your precious skin barrier (when not used correctly!).
And when it comes to skincare in particular, a damaged skin barrier is usually due to over-cleansing (stripping the skin’s natural oils), over-exfoliation (causing micro-tears or dryness) or overuse of active ingredients such as retinol, AHAs, BHAs, l-ascorbic acid, glycolic acid, lactic acid and salicylic acid (due to their abilities to exfoliate or resurface the skin).
Thankfully, healing your skin barrier is easy enough! Just…
Simplify your skincare routine
Firstly, put the actives aside (you can add them back in later!) and simplify your skincare routine with hydrating, nourishing and strengthening ingredients for the next 28 days (because your skin cells take about a month to renew). Simply:
Cleanse: Use a gentle cleanser designed to clean your skin, without drying it out. Cleanse once or twice only, remember not to over-cleanse
- We recommend: Purified: Purifying Cleanser
Hydrate and strengthen: With a damaged barrier often the result of dehydration, your first real step back to recovery is to replenish that lost hydration with products powered by humectants like hyaluronic acid and glycerin (all of our moisturisers contain these essential ingredients).
You’ll also want to double up and strengthen the structural integrity of your skin too, so that it can function in a healthy manner – this can include a mix of ingredients like ceramides (vitamin B5), probiotics, rosehip oil and co-enzyme Q10
We recommend:
- Sol: Hydrating Gel Moisturiser
- The Limelight: Brightening Probiotic Lotion
- Luna Vitality: Restoring Moisture Cream
Lock in moisture: Assist your skin to retain the moisture you’ve just added back in by creating a nourishing, lipid-like seal with a facial oil rich in plant oils like camellia, macadamia, sea buckthorn, jojoba and rosehip oil
- We recommend: Yester Youth: Regenerating Facial Oil
And that’s it! Keep it simple for a month and once your skin is back to normal, you can add your actives back in. YAY!
RAWKANVAS ingredients to look for
Just to be extra helpful, we’ve compiled a list of key ingredients to keep top of mind:
- Aloe Vera
- Camellia Oil
- Glycerin
- Green Tea
- Hyaluronic Acid
- Jojoba Oil
- Macadamia Oil
- Niacinamide
- Rosehip Oil
- Sea Buckthorn Oil
- Shea Butter
- Sunflower Oil
- Sweet Orange Oil
- Vitamin B5 (a ceramide)
- Vitamin E
