The term skin barrier or “moisture barrier” is thrown around a lot in mainstream skincare, but it’s highly misunderstood.  

It plays a crucial role in protecting the skin from environmental damage, locking in moisture, and preventing irritation— factors that affect everyone, whether you’re prone to acne, psoriasis, excess oil, or dryness.

Marketing tells us that the key to a healthy skin barrier is a 10-step routine with cleansers, toners, serums, barrier creams, and other potions. We ought to “Cleanse morning and night, exfoliate 3x per week, and --of course– moisturize daily.” 

The reality is that your skin is an extremely capable and dynamic organ that can often take care of itself.  Shocking, we know. 

This explains “husband theory”— you tinker with your skin all morning and night to no avail, while your husband with perfect skin has never even washed his face. This should make us deeply question the narrative we’ve been sold about skincare.

If you are guilty of micromanaging your face, you may notice, despite your best effects, that your skin is now less resilient and more reactive.  As frustrating as this can be, there is a way to break the cycle and bring your skin back to health by minimizing your routine and allowing your skin barrier to rebuild.

Read on to determine if your skin barrier is compromised, how it happened, and what you can do (or stop doing) to repair it— the real secret to effortlessly glowy, unbothered skin.

What is the skin barrier? Why is it so important?

Your skin barrier is the uppermost layer of the epidermis, called the stratum corneum.  It’s essentially a “brick wall” of dead keratin cells (corneocytes) held together by different lipids that act as the “mortar.”  

This outer structure must be robust to do its job of preventing water loss and blocking pathogens— i.e. keeping the good stuff in and the bad stuff out.  

Removing too many corneocytes or having the wrong ratio of cholesterol, triglycerides, ceramides, and free fatty acids can weaken your barrier— making you more vulnerable to inflammation and dullness. This is why stripping your skin of its natural oils can do so much damage. (1)

And let’s not forget our skin’s microbiome also has a hand in how our barrier functions.  Many of the thousands of bacteria living in our sebum produce an enzyme called hydrolase that regulates oil production.  It reacts with the oil in our sebum and the fats we may apply topically to maintain homeostasis.  Since we are all bio-individuals and no two microbiomes are the same, everyone’s skin has a different sebum sweet spot.  While some with drier skin do really well with more oil, others struggle with clogged pores or shine— this is where self-experimentation comes in handy.  (2)

When your barrier has a healthy balance of lipids and bacteria, the skin can self-regulate to resist breakouts, grease, dryness, and irritation— no matter your skin type.

What can damage your skin barrier?

Your skin is durable, but it's also delicate. Certain habits, skincare, and environmental factors can all damage it over time.

Over-cleansing

One of the quickest ways to compromise your barrier is over-cleansing.  Even the prescribed “twice a day” can be too harsh for most, especially when using soaps with ingredients like sulfates or strong acids. 

Too many products

While ingredients like vitamin C, retinol, AHAs, and BHAs all tout promises of clear, ageless skin, all of these ingredients cause some degree of irritation by design. Using too many at once can wear down your barrier and inflame the skin— not to mention the laundry list of “inactive” ingredients in many of these products that add to the burden!  Hence why, 10-step routines, fragrances, and lots of makeup are all so harmful.  It doesn’t even matter if all the products rank low on EWG when you apply upward of 100 ingredients on your face every day— less is always more.

Excessive exfoliation

Gentle exfoliation can be super beneficial once in a while, but overdoing it damages the stratum corneum and disrupts the skin’s natural desquamation process (the shedding of skin cells), which can lead to even more clogged pores, breakouts, or dryness.

Using hot water

Hot showers feel relaxing, but high temperatures can strip away your natural oils and leave your skin dry and vulnerable.  Opt for lukewarm water to cleanse without the irritation.

Toxic load

If you live in the city, odds are you face pollution on a daily basis that can poke holes in your skin barrier. Combine this with the toxic load of modern living, and your body will start to prioritize detoxification over building a robust skin barrier, leaving your skin even more vulnerable to oxidative damage, irritation, and aging. Getting the body out of fight or flight is crucial to repairing the skin barrier.

Poor diet

The food you eat directly impacts the integrity of your skin barrier. Make sure you’re getting enough rich saturated fatty acids from things like tallow, butter, eggs, and full-fat dairy to support your skin from within. Limit ultra-processed foods and opt for ones rich in vitamin A and essential minerals like grassfed organ meats, cod liver oil, and in-season roots and fruits.  Eating more ancestrally is one of the best ways to give your skin the energy and nutrients it needs to repair.

Light imbalances

While too much sun can burn your skin and damage your barrier, too little sun is just as destructive. Our skin craves the balanced spectrum of light from the sun to make vitamin D, regulate skin cell shedding, lower inflammation, and repair the barrier.  On the flip side, artificial blue light should be avoided as much as possible to limit oxidative damage, hyperpigmentation, and accelerated aging.  Though this is easier said than done in the winter, we can help to mitigate this cellular stress with a topical “blue blocker” like Quantum Blue. 

Hint: If you have a healthy lifestyle and have corrected a lot of health markers but are still experiencing skin issues, it’s probably topical irritation.

10 Signs of a Damaged Skin Barrier

Let’s take a closer look at your barrier.  Is it as strong as it needs to be?

While severe damage may trigger a burning rash, the effects are usually much more subtle— which is why it often goes unresolved for months and even years!

 

1. Dryness or dehydration

No matter how much moisturizer you use, you’re still dry. That chronic tight or rough feeling is a common symptom of a barrier in need of repair.

2. Increased sensitivity

You’re reacting to everything under the sun when your skin was previously low-maintenance. If, seemingly out of nowhere, you’re burning more easily, flushing or itching with temperature change, and flaring up constantly, check your barrier.

3. Redness and irritation

Inflammation is a telltale sign of a compromised skin barrier. Blotchy skin may become the norm, and you’ll see more signs of rosacea or eczema flares.

4. Breakouts and acne

When the skin barrier is broken down, it can lead to an overgrowth of harmful bacteria that trigger breakouts, especially if you’re already prone to acne.  You may even feel stuck using harsh actives like benzoyl peroxide or acids to “keep your acne at bay.”  But this may be the very thing that’s preventing your skin from recovering! 

5. Excess oil production

This may seem counterintuitive, but your skin may overcompensate for a weak moisture barrier by producing too much oil that leaves a greasy film or clogs pores.

6. Flakes or peeling skin

If you notice flaking skin, your barrier may not be functioning correctly, and it's throwing off your ability to shed skin cells in a healthy way.

7. Dullness or hyperpigmentation

Prolonged irritation can drain ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids from the skin barrier, leaving you with an uneven skin tone and even dark spots.

8. Delayed wound healing

A weak barrier may slow down your skin’s ability to regenerate new cells, prevent infection, stay moisturized, and repair damage— all prolonging the healing process.

9. Fine lines or wrinkles

The more water your skin loses, the less elastic it will be— exaggerating lines and surface imperfections.

10. Stubborn skin conditions

Your chronic skin inflammation –eczema, psoriasis, or rosacea— worsens when your barrier is weak because of the inevitable jump in sensitivity, impaired regeneration, water loss, microbial imbalance, and increased inflammation. This cycle of disruption not only makes symptoms more glaring but hinders the skin's ability to recover.

 

How To Rebuild A Damaged Skin Barrier

Think your barrier is compromised?  It’s time to set aside the 10-step routine and start listening to what your skin actually needs.  Rather than following the directions for daily use, see what your skin is asking for at that moment in time.

 

Let go of the skincare dogma.

P.S. This also goes for tallow skincare. Using it here and there may work better for you than every day.  Natural rhythms aren’t so rigid, we shouldn’t be either.

Your healing approach will depend on where you’re starting from. If you react to literally everything you put on your skin, you may need to take some time (maybe two weeks) with absolutely no products. This may sound scary if you come from a strict regime mindset, but it's necessary to give your skin time and space to “come back to life.”   Once your barrier is rebuilt, you’ll start to benefit from ingredients instead of just reacting.

8 HABITS TO CONSIDER FOR SKIN BARRIER SUPPORT 👇

 

1. Ditch the harsh soaps and chemical exfoliants.  Switch to honey, full-fat yogurt, or hydrosol to cleanse the skin without stripping.
2. Skip the SPF.  Piling on more unnecessary ingredients to block the sun will only further suppress your skin’s ability to heal. Try to let your skin breathe and absorb the vital quantum effects of sunlight daily, wear a hat or more clothes when you’ve had enough.
3. Keep dialing back your routine (less cleansing, less moisturizing) until your skin can stand on its own more often than not. 
4. Start with a simple, non-irritating moisturizer only if your skin asks for it.  You can use a thermal water spray as a source of hydration and Fatskn Face or Whipped Body Butter to lock in moisture. Tallow is incredibly healing because it has a fatty acid profile almost identical to the skin that quickly repairs a damaged moisture barrier and soothes inflammation.  
5. Don’t avoid eggs and dairy just because they’ve been blamed for causing acne or flare-ups. The evidence suggests that avoiding industrial seed oils is far more beneficial than staying away from nourishing ancestral foods— we tend to agree.
6. Address your stress.  Excess cortisol can rev up inflammation and contribute to skin barrier damage from within.  Something as simple as trading your morning coffee for an adrenal cocktail can make a world of difference in how your skin looks and feels.
7. As your skin recovers, you can start to introduce products that offer more benefits, like Frankincense Face to clarify pores, Quantum Blue for mitochondrial support, or Copper Peptide Salve for antiaging.
8. If your skin starts to crave exfoliation, reach for a mild physical exfoliant like our Whipped Sugar Scrub as needed.  **Exfoliating is best reserved for nighttime as this gives your skin plenty of pause to rebuild protection before facing environmental stressors.

 

At the end of the day, your skin does better when you do less. 

 

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As always, while we hope to be a no-nonsense resource for you, we encourage you to do your own research to find the healthiest options for you and your family. Don’t forget to check out our entire collection of tallow-based skin care products by clicking the link below.  We hope to see you there!

 

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REFERENCES:

1. Cork, Michael J., et al. “Epidermal Barrier Dysfunction in Atopic Dermatitis.” Journal of Investigative Dermatology, vol. 129, no. 8, Aug. 2009, pp. 1892–1908, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022202X15344420, https://doi.org/10.1038/jid.2009.133. 
2. Flowers, Laurice , and Elizabeth Grice. “The Skin Microbiota: Balancing Risk and Reward.” Cell Host & Microbe, vol. 28, no. 2, 12 Aug. 2020, pp. 190–200, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1931312820303589, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2020.06.017.
3. Sumic, Sara . The Skin Barrier Fix. Sara Sumic, 26 Feb. 2023.