Today I want to provide an overview on how to repair damaged skin barrier after going through the horrifying experience of damaging mine and then having to fix it.
How I damaged my skin
I prided myself on my skincare routine, but as I hit my 30s I started to feel like I was missing some items. I watched several dermatologist and “skinfluencer” videos online that recommended incorporating AHA/BHA peels to help with cell turnover when you’re in your 30s. One dermatologist in particular – Dr. Dray – recommended the Derma E Overnight Peel.
I have always known that my skin is hyper-sensitive to exfoliation, but instead of remembering that skin care is personal and the general recommendations I was watching online needed to be tailored to me, I thought, “I need to incorporate a peel like this,” and bought it.
Now – don’t get me wrong – the Derma E Overnight Peel is a great product. But I have hyper sensitive skin and applied it incorrectly. You should only ever apply this product to clean, dry skin – and I applied it to my damp, serum slathered skin. My face instantly turned bright red and started burning.
I washed it off quickly, but the damage was done. My skin kept flaming up at different times throughout the next two weeks – bright red, with water blisters, itching, and hives. At the same time, it was so dry in spots that actual chunks of my skin were falling off.
At first I didn’t realize that all of the reactions were tied to the Derma E and over-exfoliation. I thought that I was having allergic reactions to something – I looked up the ingredients in everything I was using, from shampoo to makeup to skincare, tried to go back to basics, but nothing worked. I finally connected what happened back to the Derma E and realized that allergies weren’t the problem. I just needed to repair my skin barrier.
There’s a lot of information online about how to repair a damaged skin barrier, and I am adding to it because I wanted to share what I did and try to condense what I learned into one space. Maybe it will help someone else.
Signs of a damaged skin barrier
There are many signs of a damaged skin barrier and over-exfoliation. I’m not going to retype them all here, since there are a multitude of other resources online that explain what it is. The Coveteur site provides a good summary – if you’re not sure that your skin barrier is damaged, pop over and read that or a few others you may find along the way and then feel free to come back.
Products & Routine
This is the routine I followed to heal my skin; I’m obviously not a dermatologist or an aesthetician. Why I used these products and routine specifically will be explained below. This is simply the TL;DR for people who just want to know what I did and what I used, but may not care about the ins and outs.
Avoid These Ingredients
- Any exfoliators. This includes:
- AHA/BHAs
- Vitamin C
- Retinols (Vitamin A)
- Niacinamide
- This ingredient is great when your skin is better, but a lot of people become sensitive to it and it stings them when their skin barrier is damaged.
- Fragrance
- Alcohols
- The stripping kinds, not the good, fatty kinds (more info here from Paula’s Choice on the types of alcohols.)
- Chemical Sunscreens
- I had to avoid all sunscreens during my initial 5 days and just hid from sunlight.
- All essential oils
Days 1-5
I followed this routine for 3-5 days. Obviously this depends on the individual’s skin and how the skin barrier was damaged. This phase could take much longer or even shorter than what it took me to repair.
Morning
- Wash/rinse your face with just water.
- Apply La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Balm B5
- Note – this balm is easier to apply if your skin is damp.
- Apply Aquaphor Advanced Therapy Healing Ointment or Vaseline.
Evening
- Aveeno Calm and Restore Nourishing Oat Cleanser
- La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Balm B5
- Aquaphor Advanced Therapy Healing Ointment or Vaseline.
Days 6-10
My skin was doing really well by this point – most of the damage had been repaired, though I broke out heavily from my skin attempting to repair itself, so at this point I began incorporating a product with ceramides and cholesterol – skin mimicking ingredients.
Morning
- Aveeno Calm and Restore Nourishing Oat Cleanser
- The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5
- I applied this sometimes 1-2 times until my skin felt properly hydrated.
- Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Moisturizer or other ceramides/cholesterol moisturizer of choice
- Zerafite is a golden molar ratio ceramide cream that dermatologists recommend. It does unfortunately have parabens in it, which is why I didn’t list it as a first choice.
- Sunscreen – La Roche-Posay Anthelios Light Fluid Face Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 60
Evening
- Gentle balm cleanser – Sioris Fresh Moment Cleansing Oil is a very gentle, great cleanser.
- This helps break down the sunscreen and the day, as well as gently hydrate the skin.
- Aveeno Calm and Restore Nourishing Oat Cleanser
- The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5
- Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Moisturizer
- Finish with Vanicream instead of straight Vaseline or Aquaphor (though you can continue with those if you choose)
Following Week
After this I slowly reincorporated my normal routine – with no exfoliators still – one and a time to make sure I didn’t have another reaction and all was well. (I waited a month before even attempting to use Retinol again. And no more straight up exfoliators for me.)
Above all, listen to your skin. If I had a reaction at any point during this process, or if you have one during your repair process, you need to immediately stop whatever new thing you incorporated and go back to basics to calm things down.
Why these products?
Since this is anecdotal, let me review why I used what I did and the process/products that I chose so that you can determine whether they work for your situation. I examined all of the ingredients in the products I chose and none of them have the ingredients to avoid. If you want to check your own products, incidecoder.com and cosdna.com are great sites that explain what each ingredient does.
- Morning wash with water or Aveeno Calm and Restore Nourishing Oat Cleanser
- You don’t want to strip your skin while you’re healing. Rinsing with water in the morning is fine at first. I can’t do this long term because I break out, but some people can stick with water rinses in the morning forever with no issues.
- La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Balm B5
- Deep healing ingredients for injured/damaged skin barriers. You shouldn’t use this for more than a week in a row (paraphrased from the bottle I have.)
- Aquaphor/Vaseline
- Strong occlusives to lock in any moisture and prevent it from escaping. Your skin’s barrier is damaged and can’t keep in its moisture on its own, so you need to use occlusives like this to do the job for you until your barrier is healthy once more. This technique recently became popularized as “slugging,” though it’s been around for a while.
- The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5
- Hylauronic Acid is a very quenching and nourishing skincare ingredient. Your skin needs hydration during this time, so when this is applied on damp skin, it can help the hydrating and healing process.
- Paula’s Choice Omega+ Complex Moisturizer
- Your skin needs ceramides and cholesterol – those are the major blocks in your skin that need to be healed. You can help the process along by using products that include those ingredients. There is a golden ratio that makes some moisturizers with these ingredients more effective – if you’re fine with parabens, Zerafite is an amazing option that you can find on websites like SkinTypeSolutions. Other, more expensive options, include SkinCeuticals’ Triple Lipid Restore 2:4:2 and Biossance Squalane + Omega Repair Moisturizer.
- Vanicream
- Very calm, dermatologist recommended moisturizer that contains petrolatum; it’s a good, lighter version of an occlusive that I like to use for locking in moisture. It doesn’t break me out the way Aquaphor/Vaseline does. You can use this as a normal moisturizer but I’ve found that it doesn’t cut it for me at my age with the skin that I have.
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