It all starts with sensitivity

There are three questions we often ask people when trying to work out what products to recommend.

Is your skin red, inflamed or irritated? Does your skin flush easily? After exercising, do you find you’re still red after 10 mins?

The first question doesn’t seem out of place when talking about skin, but the other two questions seem less natural. So why ask them?

Because sensitivity in skin doesn’t always present as obviously red, inflamed or irritated skin.

Tight skin. Shiny skin. Breakouts. They can also all be signs of sensitive skin. Or more precisely, imbalanced sensitive skin.

And while we know it’s tempting to tackle the visual or obvious skin concerns like breakouts head on and throw everything at them, if we think there may be some sensitivity present, we prefer to treat that first. And here’s why.

We all have a protective outer layer on our skin called the lipid barrier. It has two main jobs – keeping the good things like water and nutrients in and keeping potentially damaging things like pollution and bacteria out. If you have sensitive skin, this barrier is typically weaker, thinner or more easily damaged, making it more susceptible to irritants penetrating the skin and cause inflammation.

When sensitive skin is balanced this barrier is intact, and inflammation and irritation should all be under control. If it becomes compromised, that’s when we start to notice changes - like redness, excess oil or breakouts.

These changes are a consequence of the sensitivity. For example, your skin may have been stripped of its natural protective oils which then in turn causes it to produce more oil and lead to breakouts.

So this is why we prefer to start at the initial issue. The sensitivity. It’s like cooking for people you love. You don’t start with how you’re going to make it look on the plate. Instead, you initially focus on what you’re going to make, getting the base of the meal right and making it taste good.

By treating the sensitivity first and working to get the skin balanced your skin function improves and a lot of these other signs such as breakouts start to reduce in appearance as well.