5 ways to Repair and Defend your Skin Barrier Function
It can be a bummer to deal with a damaged skin barrier.
Your skin can feel dry and flaky . You'll also find it's more prone to inflammation, irritation, redness, (thinking your skin is sensitive anyone?) or even infection.
Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to repair your skin barrier and defend it from further damage!
1. Moisturize well
This first thing you want to do is hydrate the skin well.
Look for ingredients like glycerin, (<- find it in this and many of the other cleansers I sell on the site!), jojoba oil (which let me just be clear isn't truly hydration, but helps to keep moisture in the skin), as well as ingredients that are naturally occurring in the skin's barrier like phospolipids and hyaluronic acid.
Moisturize your skin morning and night daily. It's important to replenish your skin twice daily. Especially when you are dealing with a damaged skin barrier.
And don't forget to masque up! Use hydrating masks at least once or twice a week for an additional hydration boost.
2. Exfoliate Gently
Exoliating is necessary for the skin, but be sure you do it gently. Harsh exfoliants can cause further damage to the skin's barrier.
For example, never, ever, ever use something like St. Ive's apricot scrub on your face. Under a microscope, the grains used in the product look like little shards of glass and can cause micro-tears in your skin. No bueno.
You can use a chemical exfoliant or a gentle manual exfoliant and only exfoliate around twice a week in the evening.
3. Replenish your skin barrier using Jojoba oil
Jojoba Oil is systemically made up just like your skin's natural oil. Molecularly, it's almost identical, so your skin just gets it. It absorbs quickly, doesn't cause breakouts, and helps hold in the moisture.
It's also incredibly anti-inflammatory and has high levels of vitamin e, so it helps calm any irritation or inflammation in the skin's barrier.
Additionally, it's anti-microbial and helps promote the healing of wounds and (although it may seem counter intuitive) acneic lesions.
Jojoba oil is one of the best skincare ingredients out there. It has incredible healing properties and does more positive things for the skin than almost any other oil... at least that we know of at this time.
4. Mind your pH
Your skin’s delicate acid mantle hovers around a pH of 5.7. But the pH of some skin products can range from 3.7, all the way up to 8.2.
Although it's not always necessary, cleanse using a product like the Clarity Cleanse that’s close to your skin’s natural pH when you are dealing with damage to the skin barrier.
Keeping your skin’s pH at a healthy level may help protect you from skin conditions such as ichthyosis, dermatitis, acne, and candida infections.
Plus, it's a cream cleanser, so it won't strip away of your skin's natural oils.
5. Wear sunscreen daily
Sunscreen inhibits, not only the sun's rays from causing damage to your skin, but it also helps to ensure the microbiota in your skin remain in symbiosis (balanced). A balanced microbiome is imperative to good skin health.
Take care to wear sunscreen daily. Use a great SPF 30 like the Earth Harbor SPF 30. Not only is it broad spectrum, protecting you from both UVA and UVB rays, it also is a non-nano zinc oxide, which doesn't cause damage to your lungs and it's reef safe.
Following these tips may help you to repair the damage done to your skin's barrier and get your skin back to a place where you can work on tackling your skin conditions for good!
Want to start your skin health journey? Book a Skin Health Transformation Session here!
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