Join me as my mom and I go through the process of rebuilding her skin's moisture barrier layer.
(Top 3 taken 5/2021 - Bottom 3 taken 1/2022)
My mother has always struggled with keeping her skin balanced, healthy and happy.
Her skin finds every chance to be angry.
From hormone fluctuations, chlorine from swimming or even sweat from working out would make her face sting, burn and blotch up.
It got to the point where she would determine whether or not to do things based on her skin’s reaction.
That’s how painful it was becoming.
The concerns she brought to my attention sounded like her moisture barrier layer had been damaged from years of improper skin care or avoiding skin care all together because of the fear of a painful flare up.
The lack of the barrier layer made it even more difficult for the skin to retain water and produce it’s natural oils (which isn’t a whole lot in my mom’s case).
If the barrier layer is damaged and the skin is already naturally dry, it’s even harder for the sebum (skin’s natural oil) to protect and balance the skin.
It’s like trying to pour water from an empty cup.
After seeing her struggle and be in pain from her skin for all these years, I decided to help start the journey to fix it.
The acid mantle of the skin (or MBL, Moisture Barrier Layer) is extremely important because it keeps the good in and the bad out. Once it gets damaged there is no filter on what enters or leaves the skin.
This can effect your skin’s water balance, it’s hydration and the ability to fight environmental stress. This barrier is made up of fatty acids, ceramides and cholesterol.
Since my mom’s skin was already dry with hardly any natural sebum production to protect her skin from external/internal factors, I knew the first thing to start the healing process would be introducing antioxidants, lipids and Glycosaminoglycans (Huge word I know... most people just say “GAGs”.)
What’re the steps?
The first step is patience. Sometimes just to see a product working could take up to 6-8 weeks. It takes 40-56 days for your body to physically make the new cells, push them all the way to the surface and shed the dead/damaged cells.
Not only do you have to wait for the product to improve the cells, you have to wait for them to travel to the surface to even start to see the improvements.
The second step? Finding the correct problems with the right ingredients to stay repairing the cell damage to the skin.
I knew I would need to trigger cell rejuvenation and replenishing within my mom’s skin. This is called a Fibroblast. It is when the skin is triggered to produce new and healthy cells that travel to the surface to replace the damaged and old cells.
If you don’t get the product right the first time or it just isn’t working, don’t get upset with yourself. Just try again, you deserve it and so does your skin.
Powerhouse ingredients that I decided to focus on:
Antioxidants (to repair damage and protect against future threats)
Ceramides (to restore lipids in the barrier function)
Hyaluronic Acid (to restore skins moisture and ability to retain/attract water)
Collagen and Biotin supplements (to help repair elasticity and proteins in skin)
3 Products that showed up:
(It is important to have a form of exfoliation so that the dead cells can be removed to promote product penetration and absorption)
Butylene Glycol and Mel (honey) are humectants, which means they draw moisture to the skin
Safflower Seed Oil as a fatty acid, primarily Linolenic Acid as a skin conditioner and restoring agent
Papaya, an enzyme exfoliant. Unlike an acid, this form of exfoliation is best for topical exfoliation
Glycerin, skin hydrator and replenisher
Sodium Hyaluronate Crosspolymer, an extended release version of Hyaluronic Acid to extend period of attracting water to skin
Saccharomyces Lysate Extract, a form of yeast and humectant to attract water to skin, also an antioxidant and helps keep microorganisms at bay that can trigger impaired skin
Oligopeptide, a chain peptide to encourage protein and collagen production within skin
Lecithin, a water binding agent to keep skin moisturized. Also fatty acids and triglycerides that can help replenish skin
Propanediol, helps with hydration and product penetration
5 different forms of peptides, aka amino acids, which are protein building blocks and can assist skin in producing more collagen.
Cholesterol, this fatty acid makes up 15% of the skins natural acid barrier
3 Ceramides, improves lipids and barrier strength
Several other humectant and moisture binding ingredients
Product currently in introductory:
Paula’s Choice, Omega+ Complex Serum
Honorable mentions:
Weleda, Skin Food
Jan Marini, Transformation Face Cream
Every week my mom’s skin gets a little more comfortable for her to experience life in, I am very thankful I was able to help.
Since skin is not an overnight repair, I will be updating her progress every 3 months.
Thank you so much for your time!
As always,
Love, Natalie
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