A Healthy Skin Barrier for Radiant Skin
Do you struggle with sensitive skin, redness or irritation, dullness or dehydration? Maybe you eat whole foods, drink a lot water, and move your body daily (all the things), but you still have adult acne or premature wrinkling—or both! What if I told you that these common skin issues are often caused or worsened by the skincare products we use to treat them?
I’ve been there. I struggled with cystic acne, dehydrated skin, and hyperpigmentation for years. After changing my diet and lifestyle and still not seeing results, my gut told me something was off. If I was doing everything right internally, and I felt amazing, why wasn’t it showing through my skin? I took a hard look at my natural, multi-step skincare routine.
Over the years I'd tried treatments and products, from dermatologists to facials to expensive natural products, still finding myself with problem skin and completely destroying my skin's protective barrier in the process, ultimately making the problems worse. Even though I was only using natural products, I wasn’t approaching my skin holistically. I thought I needed to target my skin concerns as I layered on products to ‘fix’ them, but they were just symptoms of a weak and damaged skin barrier.
I threw the targeted, multi-step routine away and instead began focusing on nourishing my skin barrier, using only high quality oils, hydrosols, and whole plant ingredients. As my skin’s health improved, I finally began to see clearer, calmer, and more radiant skin in return.
WHAT IS THE SKIN BARRIER?
The skin barrier, also known as the hydrolipidic (oil and water) film, is the skin's outermost layer that protects against environmental stressors such as bacteria, toxins, pollution, and UV rays. It’s also home to the microbiome, the billions of healthy bacteria and microorganisms that maintain the skin's immunity, prevent infective bacteria and inflammation, and support against dehydration and environmental stress.
Maintaining a healthy skin barrier is arguably the most important factor for balanced, radiant skin. A healthy barrier retains water for moisturized and hydrated skin, allowing the skin to remain flexible, smooth, clear, and glowing—naturally achieving what we turn to products for.
WHAT CAUSES DESTRUCTION OF THE SKIN BARRIER?
There are many factors that damage the skin barrier, including diet, environmental factors, age and genetics, and emotional stress. On top of that, using harsh products, chemical ingredients, cleansers, and exfoliators—even just too many natural products and ingredients—strip, stress, and disrupt the skin barrier.
When the skin barrier is weak and damaged, we find ourselves with problems rooted in inflammation and imbalance, like redness, dryness, irritation, dullness, acne, premature wrinkles, eczema, rosacea, psoriasis, and so on.
HOW CAN WE SUPPORT THE SKIN BARRIER TOPICALLY?
The simplest way we can start to rebuild the skin barrier is by doing less to our skin. Cut back on too many products, ingredients, cleansers, and exfoliators, and turn to a simple, nourishing routine instead.
Try paring down to just three products to help restore the skin’s natural balance:
1. Cleanse with a gentle cleansing milk, oil cleanser, or even just raw honey
2. Hydrate & tone with a plant hydrosol
3. Moisturize & repair with high quality oils
Be sure to check out this post on the journal for a detailed, gentle routine.
WHY WHOLE PLANT SKINCARE?
Whole plant skincare is a truly holistic approach to natural skincare. Working with a plant in its whole and natural form offers a perfect and complete balance of plant compounds with a synergistic effect, while remaining gentle and supporting the skin barrier.
While other brands may lean on essential oils, we look to antioxidant rich oils, whole plant infusions, and replenishing hydrosols to drive results. Essential oils are concentrated extracts that may cause more harm than good when overused—not to mention the sustainability issue. We only lightly add essential oils to our products, working with a gentle 1% dilution rate to elevate our products' effects without disrupting the skin barrier.
Our ingredients allow for a simple combination of oil and water—try pairing Floral Serum with one of our hydrosols—to help restore the skin's hydrolipidic (oil and water) film.
Our botanical skincare nurtures the skin barrier and supports the skin's natural process to nourish, repair, and balance the skin for a healthy, renewed glow.
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