We all get a little sensitive sometimes. It’s natural! It’s to be embraced! Sensitive is the new strong! That said, sensitivity can be frustrating—when it comes to your skin, that is.
Sensitive skin is easily irritated, prone to acting up when introduced to new foods, products, climates, and more. And once irritated, it can be tricky to calm down.
Thankfully, sensitive skincare exists. From cleansers and serums to moisturisers and masks, they’re specially designed to help sensitive skin chill the hell out. Whether you have sensitive or sensitised skin (there’s a difference, and we can explain it to you here!), sensitive skincare can help sort out your itchy, red, dry and irritated woes.
But how exactly does it work? What makes sensitive skincare—well, sensitive?
The secret is a precise approach that revolves around soothing inflammation, boosting hydration and strengthening the skin barrier. Let’s dive into it.
1. Reducing And Soothing Inflammation
The right sensitive skincare products can help build up your skin’s defences to make it less susceptible to future irritations. But they’re also usually formulated to reduce inflammation and soothe angry skin right now.
That means if you’ve got skin that’s already angry, they can help to reduce the symptoms of sensitivity—think dryness, redness, itchiness and stinging—so you can feel more comfortable.
The key to this is using calming, soothing, and restorative ingredients in product formulations. Some of the most popular soothing skin ingredients include:
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Colloidal oatmeal: A heavyweight champ in the soothing skincare game. Calms cytokines (inflammatory proteins that cause itchiness and redness), moisturises the skin, and contains antioxidants to protect it from further damage.
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Sea buckthorn extract: Contains natural anti-inflammatory plant compounds to soothe, hydrates deeply, and contains fatty acids to restore the lipid barrier.
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Centella: A plant extract which reduces inflammation, accelerates healing (it even has proven uses in wound care!) and strengthens skin.
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Gentle oils like jojoba, avocado and squalane: Contain fatty acids that soothe redness and itchiness. Plus, they lock in moisture to reduce discomfort caused by dryness.
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Humectants (like glycerin), ceramides, and panthenol: More on these below, but they’re helpful in hydrating the skin to reduce dryness and itchiness, as well as boosting the skin barrier.
2. Avoiding Irritating Ingredients
Sensitive skincare products are made up of ingredients that soothe and protect the skin, like we’ve outlined above. But an equally important part of the formulation is what’s left out.
There’s plenty of amazing skincare out there, but we all have different faces—and for sensitive ones, there are a few ingredients that it’s really important to avoid, even if they can work wonders for other skin types or have harmless uses in other products.
A few ingredients to steer clear of in particular are:
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Alcohol: Often included in skincare products to make them dry quicker or improve penetration, but can be drying and stripping on sensitive skin.
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Synthetic fragrance: These boast small molecules that can penetrate the skin barrier and become ‘haptens’ which attach to proteins and cause an immune reaction. Yowch!
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Harsh preservatives including parabens: Known to worsen flare-ups for people with eczema and psoriasis, and further irritate already sensitised skin.
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Sulfates, soap, and strong detergents: Found in cleansers, these can strip away natural lipids that keep your skin happy, increase skin sensitivity, and slow down the skin’s repair process.
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Chemical sunscreen: While they’re fabulous for some of us, they work by using chemicals that absorb into the skin which can trigger an allergic reaction or irritation in sensitive skin. But worry not—physical (AKA mineral) sunscreens sit atop the skin and are therefore sensitive-friendly!
By avoiding the inclusion of these kinds of ingredients, sensitive products can avoid causing further irritation so your skin can stay calm, cool and collected.
3. Strengthening The Skin Barrier
Let’s get nerdy for a hot sec. To speak in scientific terms, sensitive skin often involves a compromised stratum corneum. That’s the topmost layer of your epidermis, which in turn is the outermost layer of your skin.
The stratum corneum is made up of hardened, dead skin cells (freaky!) which act like bricks, and which are held together by a matrix of lipids, which act like mortar. Together, they make a fortified outer layer—a brick wall!—to keep good stuff in and bad stuff out.
When the stratum corneum is compromised, it basically means your skin’s defences are low—the walls are crumbling. That means moisture escapes easily, and irritants enter easily, which is a nasty one-two combo that combines to create dryness, inflammation, and—you guessed it—overall sensitivity.
Naturally, that means strengthening the skin barrier is a big feature of many sensitive skincare products. They do this by reducing transepidermal water loss, improving moisture retention, and using antioxidants to protect against environmental stressors. With certain ingredients are known to help get your barrier back on track.
- Ceramides have a proven track record for strengthening the skin barrier. That’s because they’re actually a naturally occurring part of a healthily functioning stratum corneum—they make up the majority of the lipids in that matrix that acts as your skin’s mortar! So it’s helpful to replenish your supply of ceramides to fortify your skin’s defences—patching up the mortar, so to speak.
- Humectants are also helpful here. They’re ingredients that attract and retain water, and include actives like hyaluronic acid, panthenol (AKA vitamin B5), and glycerin. They help to hydrate the skin, which makes it more resilient and replenishes any of that water loss.
- Antioxidants (including niacinamide and vitamins C and E) are another strong fighter on the skin barrier front. Consider these guys extra defence to the bricks-and-mortar of your skin barrier. They can neutralise environmental aggressors, free radicals, and other nasties that want to compromise it and cause trouble. Huzzah!
Sensitive-Safe Skincare
Sensitive skincare products are made up of a clever blend of ingredients which soothe, hydrate, nourish, and fortify the skin—while avoiding any ingredients which may further irritate angry skin.
It’s a careful balance, but when done right, it helps keep symptoms of sensitivity at bay—so your life isn't overrun by redness, itchiness, dryness, or any of those usual suspects.
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