Your Dynamic Skin Barrier: How It Works + How To Support It
Have you ever thought about how amazing your skin really is? How it functions, how it communicates with you, or how it protects and nourishes you? If not, you might look at your skin in a whole new light after reading this article. Until somewhat recently, talk around the skin barrier topic has been pretty minimal. As research continues to build about the importance of the skin barrier for healthy skin and how skin conditions can be related to immune health, we can start to treat and look at our skin in a new way.
To understand what constitutes healthy, luminous skin it’s vital to understand the importance of your skin barrier and its layers. As your largest organ, your skin is your unique shield to the world and its elements. It is the first line of defense against harm as it also helps keep good things like water and oil in. But in a way, this barrier is more than just a shield. The way in which the skin barrier actually functions makes it more of a dynamic, actively working system. Without a healthy skin barrier, your overall skin health can become extremely difficult to maintain, both short and long term.
Of course, there are many internal and lifestyle factors that contribute to healthy skin but in many ways your skin’s barrier is the external key to healthy skin. A compromised or weakened barrier can lead to a variety of conditions like accelerated aging, sensitivity, rosacea, eczema, inflammation, dryness, flakiness and even excess bacteria growth. Having been through barrier disfunction myself, working with the skin’s natural functions and protecting the barrier is the foundation of all of my facials. The most common cause of barrier damage and disruption that I see with clients is the use of harsh or stripping skincare products that aren’t suitable for someone’s specific skin as well as over-exfoliation. This combined with the idea that squeaky clean skin is healthy skin can be a perfect recipe for barrier damage. Keeping your barrier nourished and protected will keep your skin healthy and happy.
If you’re ready to get nerdy with me, let’s break down the structure of the skin barrier into its 3 layers: your microbiome, acid mantle, and lipid layer.
THE MICROBIOME
ARTWORK BY ERIN MCINTOSH
Did you know your skin has its own microbiome just like your gut does? In fact, the skin microbiome is just as crucial to skin health as your gut microbiome is to your general health. You might already be aware that supporting your gut means you’re supporting your immune system as 70-80% of the immune system is located in your gut.
Your gut health is also connected to your skin health (what researchers are calling the ‘gut-skin axis’). If you think of your skin’s microbiome in the same way, like the immune system for your skin, you can imagine how important it is to have a balance of the good and the bad to keep this environment thriving.
Your skin microbiome, or skin flora, is composed of trillions of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungi and viruses. This diverse ecosystem acts as an immunological response, knowing when to react to potential invaders and when not to react. It’s in constant communication with your immune system. Sitting right above your acid mantle, your microbiome is your skin’s very first layer of defense and keeps you protected from many types of skin conditions, like eczema and acne.
The skin microbiome changes between different areas of your body, depending on where it’s more oily, dry or moist. For example, oilier parts like your face and scalp will have a different level of microbes than where your skin is dry, like your forearms. Your skin’s ideal natural state is slightly acidic which = cool and dry. If it were mostly warm and moist it would create the perfect environment for bacteria overgrowth - hellooo maskne! This is why certain areas around your body, especially oily and moist/warm areas, are more prone to inflammatory conditions.
THE ACID MANTLE
The acid mantle is a slightly acidic film (which gives it its name) located in the top layer of your skin, aka the stratum corneum. It’s a very thin layer made of sebum (your skin’s natural oils) and sweat. With these components your acid mantle works to keep your skin hydrated and maintain its health. As simple as that sounds, this part of your skin actually works in complex ways to keep pathogens out and water in.
Within your acid mantle, sebum (oil) gets secreted by your sebaceous (sweat) glands. When that protective oily substance is mixed with water, that becomes your acid mantle. Sebum also plays an incredibly important role in keeping your skin hydrated. As it protects you, it also prevents the evaporation of water from within your skin, something known as transepidermal water loss (aka TEWL). It would not be able to hold in moisture if your acid mantle was off balance. This is one of the reasons a disrupted barrier can lead to dehydration and dryness.
Combined with your microbiome and lipid layer, your acid mantle creates an environment that keeps invaders out, water in, and aids in supporting the growth of healthy microflora. Before we jump into the microbiome and lipid layer, let’s take a look at what pH is and why it’s such an important piece of the acid mantle.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PH
Ahh the potential of hydrogen, one of my favorite topics - truly. PH refers to how acidic or alkaline something is. The pH scale is a scale of acidity vs alkalinity, ranging from 0-14. Something that is highly acidic sits low on the pH scale between 0-7, where something that is more alkaline sits high on the scale between 7-14. On average, healthy skin resides at a 5.5 on the pH scale, which is slightly acidic.
*One thing to note: On the pH scale it’s not just a one degree difference from 0-14. The difference of one number is actually 10x the power from one number to the next. For example, lemon juice is a 2 on the scale and vinegar is a 3. But the lemon juice is actually 10 times more acidic than the vinegar!
If we want to compare the lemon to our skin (at 5.5 on the scale), the lemon is about 1000 times more acidic than our skin! Although this is probably more than you need to know, it can be helpful to see how easy it is to throw off the skin’s pH.
Your skin’s pH is an important factor as maintaining proper pH levels help with protection and regulation. If your skin gets exposed to one extreme or the other on the pH scale, it can become dry, inflamed, and prone to bacteria. Although not always visible at first, over time it can lead to inflammation, dryness, acne, and eczema.
The goal is to keep your skin in the range of 5-6 pH. Carefully choosing the correct skincare products and practices that won’t compromise your skin’s barrier is one of the best ways to maintain your skin’s pH. If you care to test the pH of your products to see how they measure on the scale, you can purchase pH litmus paper testing strips.
THE LIPID LAYER
Lipids are your skin’s natural fats that play a big role in preventing moisture loss from your skin. Sitting right under the acid mantle, your lipid layer is composed of ceramides, fatty acids, and cholesterol. These components are crucial in helping your skin retain both water and nutrients and preventing pathogens from getting through that structure. They can help to improve hydration, smoothness, and plumpness of the skin as well as make the skin more resistant to irritation.
Lipids fill in the space between cells. A common analogy used often to describe lipids is that they’re like the mortar that fills in the space between bricks. If the mortar is leaky or loosened for whatever reason - pollution, exfoliation, etc. - the bricks become unstable and the structure becomes compromised. This is similar to how lipids work within your skin barrier. Imagine little holes in your lipid layer - water would escape and pathogens would have easy access. The structure becomes more permeable and acts like less of barrier.
Skincare products use different forms of lipids because they can help stabilize that wall. Utilizing them can greatly improve the barrier function of your skin. Look for ingredients that contain plant-derived fatty acids like omegas and phenolic acid.
HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR SKIN BARRIER
Your skin barrier function can be affected by factors out of your control like UV rays, pollution, and your genetic makeup, but there are many ways that you can help keep your barrier functioning optimally, making way for your skin to be in its best state. In order to support the health of your skin barrier you have to treat it like the delicate living, breathing organ that it is.
Below are some ways to help repair and restore your complex barrier:
Treat your skin delicately:
Your skin is an an incredibly intelligent organ with specific jobs that it knows how to do, including self exfoliation (a topic for another time). Often I hear these ideas of ‘I probably don’t exfoliate enough’ or in relation to products, ‘if it’s burning then it’s working’. Your skin actually needs dead skin cells to protect the new cells that aren’t mature enough to surface. There is a reason for them after all!
Another common theme is the feeling that someone doesn’t feel ‘clean’ after cleansing. This burning sensation and/or super clean feeling from a product probably means that product or way of treating your skin is damaging your barrier. To build up and maintain your barrier, focus on keeping it soothed and hydrated over squeaky clean.
Avoid harsh ingredients and heavy use of active ingredients:
Common ingredients that compromise your skin barrier are alcohols (although not all are created equally - I’m referring to the drying alcohols, not the fatty alcohols which can be good for dry skin), sulfates, and fragrance. If you see these in the ingredient list, it could potentially cause harm to your barrier, not to mention your endocrine system. You may have already noticed changes occurring with your hands after using so much hand sanitizer this past year.
Active ingredients like vitamin C products, retinol or vitamin A derived products, and the use of multiple acids can be very sensitizing to the skin. All of these are essentially exfoliating your skin, so if you’re using them constantly or in conjunction with the others, proceed with extreme caution or discontinue them altogether.
Nourish with nutrient rich ingredients instead:
Using ingredients that help to maintain your skin’s barrier function include things like squalane, aloe, shea butter and hyaluronic acid. Plant oils like jojoba, sea buckthorn, rosehip, and calendula are all amazing for their nutrient dense properties and their ability to help heal various types of skin conditions.
Antioxidant rich ingredients are also important as they help to stabilize free radicals from UV
Follow your cleanser with a toner:
Toners aren’t just an extra step in your skincare ritual. Toners are meant to balance and restore your skin’s pH after cleansing. Even the most gentle cleanser should be followed up with a hydrating toner. This is especially important if you have a compromised barrier, have hard water at home, or if you’ve been using a harsh cleanser. If your skin barrier is very compromised, an oil cleanser followed by a hydrosol would be your best bet to transition to right now.
Nourish internally and stay hydrated:
Incorporating the good fats like walnuts, avocado, and olive oil into your diet is a great way to increase moisture in your skin and get a boost of vitamins and omegas. It’s also important to incorporate those nutrient rich colorful veggies, protein, complex carbohydrates and WATER.
Often times dairy, gluten, and processed sugar can contribute to inflammation in the body and therefore the skin. If you know one of these triggers inflammation in your skin try to limit your intake, if possible. If you need ideas for recipes check out my Pinterest Skin Food board.
Reset your ritual with an esthetician:
If you’re not sure whether your skin barrier is compromised or if I’ve overloaded technical info on you, get set up with your local holistic esthetician who can take a look at your skin and your products to see what might need to be adjusted. Even a virtual consultation can be helpful to go through your product lineup with them just to see if anything stands out as red flag. There are a whole lot of options as far as products, treatments, and at-home practices go, so if you feel overwhelmed seek out an esthetician! If you’re in Orange County I’d love to have you in for a consultation and facial.
Below are my go-to products for restoring a compromised skin barrier:
Keeping the multifaceted layers of your skin’s barrier protected, nourished, and restored is the basis of all of my facial treatments. As someone who has gone through skin barrier disfunction before, I have a lot of passion for the subject and how I can help you get to the root of the cause. If you’d like guidance on your skin, I would be honored to be your skin guide! You can reach out to me here.
If you could hold onto one piece of information from this skin barrier 101 article, I hope that it’s this: your skin is an incredible smart organ that knows how to carry out its functions, that is - if you let it. It knows how to stay hydrated, exfoliate itself, ward off pathogens and viruses, keep a balance of good and bad bacteria, and communicate with your immune system. The more you nourish it and keep it balanced, the better it will be able to do its jobs. Be gentle with it and you’ll be so grateful in the long run.
Have any questions about your skin barrier and how it works? Leave a question in the comment section below!