Sensitive skin defined

What is sensitive skin?

Sensitive skin is a fairly broad description of many different skin conditions that fall under its banner. People with sensitive skin may have a recognised and diagnosed medical condition such as rosacea, eczema, contact dermatitis, allergies, atopic dermatitis. More commonly though sensitive skin is usually characterised by being very easily irritated, prone to redness, inflammation, lumps and reaction to ingredients in skin care products which are irritants.
Sensitive skin is commonly linked to very dry skin but even oily skin can be sensitive. Sometimes this sensitivity comes about from overzealous use of harsh soaps, alcohol based astringents and exfoliators that are used in an effort to reduce the oil production.

Who gets it?

People of all age groups can have sensitive skin. Often babies may have periodic bouts of eczema but these lessen and are finally grown out of. When we grow older, the skin thins and can be more sensitive to touch and certain fabrics can be irritating to the skin.  There is large percentage of the population that list sensitive skin as one of their skin concerns and care must be taken to choose skin care products that won’t make the condition worse.

• Choose sunscreens with a physical blocker like zinc oxide or titanium oxide – it may be less irritating than normal sunscreens.
• Choose skin care products that have no known irritating ingredients.
• Choose a cleanser that is effective but safe and gentle.
• Choose a moisturiser that has no perfumes, colours or ingredients that are known to cause irritation.
• You might like to try the skinsaviour skin care products
• Wear loose clothes made of natural fibres that will not irritate the face and neck area.
• Try to keep the hands away from the face to avoid getting contact dermatitis from something you have touched.
• See a dermatologist or doctor if your skin is really sensitive and causing you discomfort.
  

How to deal with sensitive skin

Why is sensitive skin difficult?

People who have very sensitive skin can often have a very low tolerance level for certain things in their environments, what they eat and drink and also to ingredients in their skin care products. Usually the skin reacts by becoming inflammation that shows as red, blotchy patches and sometimes lumpy swellings. It is difficult for those with sensitive skin as what will be no problem for one person will not suit someone else. Also to establish what it is that actually bothers you can be a time consuming exercise.

How do we deal with sensitive skin?

The more natural a skin care product is the less the chance of them irritating sensitive skin. Having said that, there are many essential oils that are very irritating to the skin or one of their components is. Conversely not all synthetic ingredients are harmful for your skin and may be a suitable alternative to a natural ingredient that can be an irritant. So the best thing is to choose a skin care product range that has been designed to be non-irritating, to calm and soothe a sensitive skin. skinsaviour has designed its cleansers and moisturisers to be very gentle yet effective on a sensitive skin.

What to look for in skin care products?

• Cleansers with no harsh soaps or detergents.

• Skin care products with low levels of preservatives.

• Moisturisers that provide a long lasting barrier to external pollutants.

• Skin care products formulated to avoid ingredients known to irritate sensitive skin.

• Skin care products that come in dispensers to avoid contaminating your skin care products with bacteria from dipping fingers in.

• Skincare products that come in dispensers that block out the light to also avoid spoilage.