What is the skin barrier? Is it different than the moisture barrier? How do I know if it’s damaged?!  If you're into skincare (& even if you're not), you might have noticed there's been *a lot* of chat about having a damaged moisture barrier & the benefits of ceramides for it, but it can be kinda confusing. Got a lot of questions about the skin barrier? Don’t worry…. We’ve got a lotta answers.  

What is the skin barrier / moisture barrier? 

Basically, your skin barrier and moisture barrier are the same thing.  It’s seal that keeps the outermost layers of skin smoothly together. When functioning at its best, your skin barrier acts as the ultimate protection against external aggressors (think heat, pollution, chemicals, irritants) When your skin barrier is healthy skin feels soft, supple, plump + hydrated.

How do I know if my skin barrier is damaged? 

There’s a few ways to tell if your skin barrier is damaged-
*tight feeling after cleansing
*flaking skin
*redness, dryness, dehydration
*more breakouts than usual
* more sensitive than usual
*orrr even the complete opposite with an excess of oil

Got one or a combination of these? Your moisture barrier is damaged. To put it simply, it can feel like your skin is having a mini melt down + nothing seems to be fixing the problem.

What happens when you don’t look after the skin barrier?

 

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A thin, weak or damaged moisture barrier is unable to hold onto the vital building blocks that keeps skin cells intact – ceramides, cholesterol and fatty acids. This means it begins to let irritants in, or simply irritates more easily. A compromised skin barrier doesn’t only feel irritated but looks it too and that presents in a few different ways - think red, tight, flaky, dull, dry, even sometimes more breakout prone. When your skin barrier is damaged, those dermal layers become dehydrated, in turn sending a message to the sebaceous glands to produce more oil, which can then cause an inflammatory response (spots.)

How to repair my skin barrier? What ingredients are good for your moisture barrier?

 Compromised skin needs simplicity – an influx of ceramides, amino acids, fatty acids and a sprinkling of skin comforting ingredients. Which is why we created The Barrier Builder! The Barrier Builder contains a cocktail of essential ceramides, amino + fatty acids (think of them as the building blocks of your skin barrier) to boost resilience & overall health, for strong skin that’s healthy + protected.

 

 Ceramides help protect and regenerate the skin’s natural barrier, made up of varying chain lengths, together they ‘fill the gaps’ of a damaged skin barrier, replacing those that have declined in the cell surface of the skin.

Fatty acids and lipids work in partnership with ceramides, mimicking the skin’s natural building blocks, helping to restore and rebuild the skin’s natural barrier function, whilst locking in and retaining moisture. 

Things to avoid when I've damaged my skin barrier?

More often than not, a damaged skin barrier is caused by over exfoliation, or an excess use of actives. A lot of the time when we get people asking for help with their skin, their issues are down to a damaged moisture barrier - the source too many acids, too much exfoliation and too many actives. Our advice - refrain introducing too many new skincare products all at once and be careful with your frequency of use of stronger actives.

What other Glow Hub products would you recommend using alongside The Barrier Builder? 

When skin is compromised you definitely want to strip your routine back, so keep things simple. From Glow Hub I’d recommend using the Calm & Soothe Gel to Oil Cleanser to clean without stripping, it’s soothing texture and calming ingredients are great for damaged skin. Follow with The Barrier Builder as your serum of course, then keep things simple and follow with the Calm & Soothe Cool Whip Moisturiser, with jojoba extract & omega + linolenic acid rich hemp seed oil to nourish and calm.