The skin barrier is a hot buzzword in the skincare world – but what is it, and why should you care about it? In this article, we'll dive deep into the subject and give you expert tips on how to achieve strong, resilient skin!
What is the skin barrier?
The skin barrier is the lipid layer (= fat layer) surrounding the skin cells in the top layer of the skin. Think of the top layer of the skin can as bricks and mortar, where the skin cells are the bricks and the skin barrier the mortar. The skin barrier protects the skin from drying out as well as from external irritants.
What is a healthy skin barrier?
Here's the deal: your skin loses moisture all the time. How quickly this happens is impacted by your environment's humidity and, for example, whether you're awake or not – your skin loses more moisture when you sleep.
A healthy skin barrier slows down the rate of this water loss, meaning it helps prevent moisture loss. The skin can also be hydrated externally and moisturized with a film-forming moisturizer to aid the skin barrier.
What happens when the skin barrier becomes damaged?
When the skin barrier gets impaired, the skin's moisture loss happens a lot quicker.
In addition to keeping water in the skin, the skin barrier also keeps external irritants out of the skin’s deeper layers, where they could cause serious damage. Examples of these irritants include pollution, dirt and allergens. Pollution can cause DNA damage to the skin via oxidation, dirt can cause inflammation and exposure to allergens can cause skin allergies to develop.
How to know if your skin barrier is damaged?
An impaired barrier will often show many symptoms: The skin can be more sensitive and can react to products that it usually doesn’t react to. Also, you might experience more blemishes, uneven skin tone, irritation and visible dryness.
What can cause an impaired skin barrier?
There are a lot of factors that can damage your skin barrier.
🧼 Too harsh or too frequent cleansing
The skin barrier can become impaired from too harsh or too frequent cleansing. High pH and strong surfactants can contribute to an impaired barrier – or even remove the barrier all together! Cleansing will always strip the skin barrier, but minimizing that will let a moisturizer work as the barrier until it has recovered. Sounds like your skin? Skipping morning cleansing can help a lot.
🧪 Overdoing the actives
Another cause can be using too strong active ingredients or, again, too often. Exfoliating acids are a common reason for an impaired skin barrier, as many see good results with them and end up using them too frequently. Strong acids should only be used a couple times a week.
How to support a healthy skin barrier – and what ingredients to look for
A lot of the time, the skin barrier is affected by factors that we cannot control. But there are ways to support it with skincare.
The skin barrier consists of mostly Ceramides, Cholesterol and Fatty Acids. Adding these three to your skincare routine will help repair your barrier and improve your overall skin health.
Ceramides can be found in the ingredient list under the name “Ceramide”. Cholesterol is also just named “Cholesterol” in the INCI. Fatty Acids, however, are either added and named individually or are included in common oils like Shea Butter or Squalane.
How do Smuuti products support the skin barrier? With Ceramides from peaches, of course!
The Smuuti Skin Peach Barrier line has been created with your skin barrier in mind – each product supports healthy, happy and moisturized skin. They're great for all skin types, especially sensitive, dry and barrier-compromized skin.
The products are formulated in Korea with Peach Extract and Ceramides – also derived from peaches. In addition, Vitamins B3 and B5 help repair the skin and aid its barrier-function.
Peach Cleansing Cream is your new go-to cleanser for soft, clean skin without a stripped, tight feeling. Peach Barrier Toner is a milky toner that preps and soothes skin, leaving it baby soft! Layer even more moisture and barrier repair with Peach Barrier Serum – a silky oil serum for strength and glow.
A good example of a barrier supporting moisturizer is the Smuuti Skin Peach Barrier Cream. This moisturizer is packed with Ceramides, Cholesterol and Fatty Acids – all of the building blocks to a healthy barrier.