Our skin barrier is our defence against the outside world and below are ways to minimise disruption to the ‘defence systems’ within it. When our skin barrier is weak there is a higher chance of our skin showing signs of stress including dermatitis, redness and irritation. All skins will benefit from reinforcing and maintaining these systems – particularly skins with sensitivity or inflammation present.
Barrier Dysfunction
Think of our skin barrier as a medieval castle with a moat. The microbiome is the moat, the castle wall is the lipid matrix and the corneocytes (the hardened upper skin cells) are the soldiers. They all have their own job to do and all work together in their effort to protect the precious things inside. Any one of them is breached and it affects all the others, making them more vulnerable and soon enough an all-out war ensues – inflammation!
Our skin barrier can be impaired by many of our day-to-day skin habits:
Habits that negatively affect our microbiome.
Products with too many/potent preservatives – If preservatives are not easily biodegradable by the skin they do not stop working when they are applied to the skin – meaning they will continue to destroy the innate bacteria on the skin and deplete the microbiome. We need to maintain our skin bacteria as the vast majority or it is benefitting our skin health.
Products with too high pH – our skin is acidic (approx pH 4.5) and the microbiome thrives in that environment. Use of soaps and products that say they are pH ‘balanced’ (which generally means that are at a pH of around 7 as this is in the middle of the pH scale) tip the balance of pH to higher than 5 which is good news for pathogenic bacteria and can leave the skin susceptible to microbial imbamlance leading to conditions such as rosacea, acne, Seborrheic dermatitis.
Products with mineral oils/ petrolatum and silicones – these are all occlusive and don’t penetrate the skin. They are often used in products for sensitive skin as they rarely illicit allergic response but they suffocate the skin microbiome and offer little in the way of long-term rebuilding of the skin barrier.
See my blog >>> “cautions and considerations for ingredients” to be more informed about ingredients to avoid and what to look out for instead.
Habits that negatively affect our lipid matrix (mortar)
Strongly foaming products or micellar waters that contain high amounts of surfactants (emulsifiers) which are designed to lock-on to oil and remove it from the skin. The problem is they are often too effective and remove oils from within the skins lipid matrix which reduces it’s ability to hold water, making it dry and potentially affecting the enzymes that initiate natural exfoliation (desquamation) which can lead to blocked pores, congestion and milia. It may seem counCounter intuitive that dryness can cause congestion and blackheads but when you understand the process of skin shedding and this includes cell shedding from within the hair follicle it makes complete sense. Enzymes initiate this process of cell shedding from the skin and they need plenty of water to work efficiently, if the skin is dry then these enzymes don’t work properly and cells build up in the hair follicle creating a comedone.
Use of statins – Statins are one of the most prescribed drugs worldwide and block the production of cholesterol to lower your chances of a heart attack but one third of our lipid matrix is made up of cholesterol so people who are on statins can find that their skin is drier, more itchy and prone to dermatitis. Clearly if you need to take statins I’m not recommending that you stop but mitigating the side effects by supplementing your skin with moisturisers that contain a good amount of fatty acids, triglycerides and ceramides is really important.
Habits that affect our corneocytes (bricks)
AHA overuse – Hydroxy acids dissolve the links that hold our corneocytes (top skin cells) together, making them lift off the skin prematurely. This exposes immature skin cells to the outside environment and they are not designed for this. Our skin is acutely well tuned to turn over at the perfect rate for healthy cell production at the basal layer so removing these cells too early can result in an impaired barrier as cell division and differentiation is rushed. It is much better to improve cell turnover by using ingredients that can communicate with the skin to encourage this such as vitamin A and bakuchiol. As well as increasing circulation and energy levels within the cells with exercise and Red light therapy.
Dermaplaning/microdermabrasion – anything that scrapes off many cell layers at a time can impair the skin barrier. Both of these treatments are difficult to control in terms of how much skin they remove and therefore have a similar result to overuse of AHA’s whereby cell formation is rushed in an effort to reform the complete skin barrier.
Our skin has been designed over millennia to do a superb job of protecting us – scraping, ablating, and sandblasting our skin from the outside is NOT the way to resolve issues like congestion, acne or the way to achieve flawless skin – we must work by communicating with the skin via topical ingredients that can move through the skin barrier without damaging it and initiate a response from within.
Read more on >>> “what is the skin barrier”