One of the key things you can do to have healthier, happier skin is learn how to support your skin barrier. Your skin barrier is the outermost layer of the epidermis and acts as a protective shield that locks in moisture and keeps out environmental toxins, pollutants and bacteria. If you don’t have a happy skin barrier, it can cause a domino effect, which is why you may experience irritation, sensitivity and rosacea – the list goes on.
Since introducing the scanner people have come into the skin clinic for analysis thinking pigmentation or sun damage will be a potential issue but the most common area of concern we see come up for my patients is redness.
Often this redness can’t be seen on the surface, or if it is seen on the surface it may seem minor or only appear on occasion. What the skin analyser allows us to do is see what’s going on beneath the surface and therefore what’s coming our way in the future.
How To Know Your Skin Barrier Is Damaged
When you experience redness in your skin, whether that’s on the surface or identified at deeper levels using skin analysis technology, this is a sign that your skin barrier is unhappy and potentially damaged.
Redness is your skin’s way of asking for help and a sign that you need to support your skin in the right way, so the skin barrier can start to repair itself and become stronger – resulting in healthier, calmer looking skin.
What Can Cause Damage to Your Skin Barrier?
One of the key things I see in the skin clinic which is causing damage to my patients’ skin barriers is overlapping products and using products which are too harsh for their skin. I totally get it – there are so many products out there that can target all different kinds of concerns. Sometimes layering these up and using certain products can really make the problem worse rather than better. Some of the key products you need to be careful of are things like retinoids, exfoliating acids such as AHA and BHA, Vitamin C and products with high alcohol or fragrance content.
How To Support Your Skin Barrier to Heal
The first thing I suggest to support your skin barrier to heal is stripping back your skin care routine to the basics – no double cleansing, no retinol, being careful with acids and being mindful of the other products you use. I’m all about keeping things simple, starting off with maybe one or two products and then slowly building on that and seeing how your skin settles.
The Alumier MD skincare I recommend are medical grade products, so not only are they more effective at treating your concerns, they’re also free from lots of the nasties you find in high-street products – such as parabens, sulphates and perfumes. Artificial fragrances are one of the most common causes of skin irritation.
If you’d like to find out which products would be suitable for your skin or just feel like something isn’t right with your skin, please book a skin consultation with a skin analysis scan and we’ll discover the best products to support your skin.
