Wrecked your skin barrier?! Do this!

Sooooo, your skin behaves weirdly. You don’t understand it any more. It acts up. Could it be?! Could it? Yes, very likely you wrecked your skin barrier. Don’t worry, that’s easily fixable.

I like to preface posts like this with a disclaimer that I’m neither a medical professional nor a cosmetic chemist. I’m a skincare enthusiast with a lot of experience, and yup, I have actually wrecked my skin barrier at least twice in my life. I’ll share what I’ve learned here.

Did I wreck my skin barrier?!

Here’s how I did wreck my skin barrier for the first time: when I moved to Shanghai, I was, understandably, rather stressed. On top of that we had intensely chlorinated water, and when I started to break out, I threw the proverbial kitchen sink at it. BHAs, AHAs, Vitamin C, retinoids – you name it, I used it. And that’s a bad idea. The second time was when I just started with Tretinoin, and realized that with Tret, I couldn’t just go on with my regular routine and just add Tret.

Both occurrences are actually the most likely that happened when you wreck your barrier – first option, you used too many actives at once. Second one, you used a too high dose of one active, very likely an acid or a retinoid.

(You can, of course, also wreck your skin barrier without any fault on your side: maybe you had a cold and your nose is red, or it’s very cold where you live and the super dry and cold weather puts a toll on your skin.)

Signs are often outbreaks, red skin, itchy or stinging skin, shininess, dryness and flakiness.

If your skin barrier ISN’T compromised, you obviously also don’t need barrier repairing skincare products!

But how?! Understand your skin

Here’s the cliff notes version what has happened. The upper layer of your skin is called the Stratum Corneum. It has two functions: keeping things (aka water) in, and keeping stuff (bacteria, viruses etc.) out. It prevents transepidermal water loss, and if there’s too little water, the skin appears dry and flaky. The Stratum Corneum is mostly made up of keratin and lipids. The outer cells shed, and are replaced by cells in the lower epidermis constantly.

There’re three main players in the Stratum Corneum, which you can picture as a wall:

• The bricks. They’re called corneocytes and are mostly made up of keratin.
• The bolts. They’re called desmosomes and connect the bricks by joining corneocytes together. They’re made out of proteins.
• The mortar. Keeping everything in place are lipids that float between the spaces of the bricks. (Now you know why harsh soaps makes your skin feel dry: it dissolves those lipids.) Also in there: ceramides, cholesterol, fatty acids and a protein called filaggrin, which helps make natural moisturizing factors (NMF) for the skin.

What to do

Here’s what helps the most, best, and quickest (also cheapest): stop. Stop everything but cleansing, moisturizing and using a sunscreen your skin tolerates. Magazines like Allure, Byrdie and co. often tell you to use product x instead of y, and I can tell you from experience: don’t rush out and buy a new product.

• Use the blandest one you already have, and don’t introduce a new, potentially sensitizing thing to your skin in its weakened state.
• Don’t wash your face with hot water or towel it vigorously.
• Use the gentlest cleanser you own.
• Step away from ALL actives.

Keep that up for about two weeks, and that should do the trick.

And here’s what I learned from Michelle at Labmuffin: because a wrecked skin barrier is more permeable, water-based, hydrating products like toners and serums can be irritating and sting. So, use oil-based products like balms and oils at first and use your hydrating serums later when your barrier is a bit more robust again.

Product recommendations

I also want to add a variety of repairing ingredients into my routine when my skin barrier acts up. IMO, there’s not the one ‘repairing’ ingredient. I use a mix of them to reap the biggest benefits.

I personally like panthenol because of its soothing properties. A low-percentage niacinamide product might also help. When it comes to hydrators, I like to use a mix of them and not only rely on hyaluronic acid – add glycerin and sugar alcohols also into the mix! Oh, and if you’re wondering why you can’t find a single Cerave product – well, that’s because I haven’t found one (yet) that I like. But here’re some products I really like and which made a difference for me.

Serums

PSA The Most is the best hyaluronic acid serum out there for me, but also has panthenol and other skin soothers. I love it.

Theramid’s Ceramide Treatment promises to protect the skin barrier by hydrating it. That’s great, because nothing is worse for your skin barrier than moisture loss. That makes it permeable, and we don’t want that. Centella Asiatica is supposed to work as an anti-inflammatory ingredient here, which is great, because a lot of people react with outbreaks when their skin barrier is compromised. Same with Ectoin.

The Ordinary’s Soothing & Barrier Support Serum is a bit cheaper, pink, a bit thinner, and comes with additional ingredients that promise to actively soothe an uncomfortable skin feel. Does it? Not on me, sadly.

Beyer & Söhne’s Hautgel comes with antioxidants, ceramides, Vitamin C and hyaluronic acid. I like it a bit less for barrier repair than the other ones because it relies mostly on hyaluronic acid for hydration.

Moisturizers

Paula’s Choice’s Barrier Repair Moisturizer (review) has a wonderful texture – soft and pillowy. Hydrates and soothes.

Stratia Liquid Gold (now called Lipid Gold) is great, but for me, it only works as a serum step. The hero ingredients are a complex made out of ceramides, fatty acids and cholesterol that mimics and strengthens the skin barrier. On top of that there’s buckthorn oil (which tints the moisturiser yellow) that’s able to heal and strengthen, Niacinamide, Panthenol and green tea to calm and soothe.

Paula’s Choice Omega Moisturizer feels the heaviest of them all. It’s official description says that it’s for normal/dry skin (dehydrated, in fact), and that it ‘strengthens skin’s ability to retain moisture’. It has the texture of clotted cream, and a palatable price. Its whipped mousse-y feeling comes from a variety of oils, but it doesn’t feel suffocating on the skin.

Beyer & Söhne Moisturizer: It boasts a mix of antioxidants, ceramides, hyaluronic acid, panthenol, squalan and even a tiny smidge of Vitamin A (retinyl palmitate). It’s rather light on occlusives, but heavy on humectants and emollients, with a lot of skincare goodies packed into the mix. I’ve used it since 2012.

Balms

Pyunkang Yul Calming Moisture Barrier Balm: a heavy-duty balm with squalene, shea butter and oils that’s super rich, and still sinks in quickly. (It OBVIOUSLY also has panthenol and some peptides.) It also has some fragrance, so heads-up. I still like it, and haven’t seen a negative reaction to my skin.

La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5+: the OG heavy balm. A lot of occlusives, panthenol and Centella Asiatica. You can’t go wrong with it. (Pyunkang Yul feels more like a proper balm of those two. This one feels like a very, very rich and somewhat sticky moisturizer.)

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