Recently, I jacked up my skin barrier by adding a new product to my nightime skincare routine. I literally woke up the next morning with small white bumps all over my skin and slight inflammation. Once I realized what did it, it was time to repair my skin barrier.
Keep reading to see how you can repair your skin barrier and protect it with these products.
First off, your skin barrier is basically the top layer of your skin called the stratum corneum. This is the most important layer, because protects your skin including keratin and natural moisturizers. Your top layer of skin protects your skin from environmental toxins and helps moisture in your skin. So, yeah, making sure to protect your skin barrier is very important to my only your outer health, but overall health.
Unfortunately, we sometimes decide to try something new with our skincare routine and wake up to a layer of skin missing. However, other things that can damage your barrier include extreme heat or cold weather and harsh chemicals in detergents. It happens, but luckily, there are plenty of products that can not help repair, but also prevent it from happening again. The easiest way to do this is to simplify your skincare routine.
Like with any skincare routine, cleaning your face is step one. If I’m wearing makeup, I will still double cleanse with a cleansing balm or oil before using a gentle cleanser. My go-to simple cleanser is Cetaphil. Cetaphil is gentle and great for all skin types. I massage it into my skin at least a minute before rinsing it off with lukewarm water. Afterwards, I spray my face with rosewater to act as a toner to help calm and moisturize it.
Personally, I remove most serums that have active ingredients, such as acids. However, dermatolgist say that you can still use products with actives. You just have to layer them with ingredients that support the skin barrier. The one serum that I use is my hyularonic serum by The Ordinary, because hyaluronic acid helps repair the skin barrier to help it hold moisture. The other product that I use is COSRX Advance Snail Mucin 96 Power Essence for moisture and to make skin glow.
Finally, I use the Good Skin by Dermaflage, because a moisturizing scar cream that also contain hyaluronic acid and peptides, which encourage collagen. Afterwards, I pat a little skin oil on top and then I slather some Aquaphor. I always keep a tub of Aquaphor in my place, because I use to slug my skin and to heal any skin irritation. It always works!