in what is going wrong. Skincare products can cause irritation, which in turn produces inflammation, resulting in problems—problems that you’ll try to fix with skincare products and cosmetic corrective procedures. [1]
Understanding what your skin needs for your skin type and skin concerns is vital, but it’s equally important to know what your skin doesn’t need. That’s critical because the very skincare products you are using may, in fact, be exacerbating the problems you’re trying to fix.
Given our cumulative years of looking at skincare formulations, it still shocks us that many of the products people buy to treat a specific skin condition actually make it worse. For example, products you’ve purchased claiming to control oily skin often contain ingredients that make the skin even more oily. Products claiming to be oil-free often contain ingredients that nonetheless make the skin feel greasy. Products claiming they won’t cause breakouts may contain pore-clogging, emollient ingredients that don’t sound like they would be a problem because we don’t recognize the names on the ingredient label. Countless skincare products contain irritating ingredients that further damage your skin with each use. Those are the sorts of things we address in this chapter.
Irritation Is Your Skin’s Worst Enemy
We cannot stress this enough: Irritation and inflammation are bad for skin—really, really bad! Daily assaults from unprotected sun exposure, splashing the face with hot water, and applying skincare products that contain irritating ingredients have a harsh and inflammatory effect. These types of attacks reduce the skin’s ability to heal, break down the skin’s chief support substances (collagen and elastin), weaken skin’s outer protective layer, and can cause many other complications. [2,3]
For those with oily skin, it’s especially important to know that irritation triggers the nerve endings in the pore that, in turn, trigger the production of androgens, hormones that increase oil production and make pores bigger! [3,4] That is not good for any skin type!
It turns out that much of what we know about skin aging, wrinkles, brown spots, skin healing, and acne has evolved from our increased understanding of skin’s inflammatory reaction to sun exposure (UV radiation), pollution, cigarette smoke, and even irritation from skincare products. These all trigger an inflammatory process that leads to cumulative damage within skin, resulting in the deterioration of collagen and elastin, depletion of disease-fighting cells, and out-of-control free-radical damage. [5,6,7]
Skin’s Silent Killer
It would probably be easier for those who smoke cigarettes to stop smoking if the damage it was causing on the inside showed itself instantly on the outside. Regrettably, that isn’t the case; as we now know, it can take years for the damage to show up. Interestingly, the same can be said for skin damage.
People often assume their skincare products aren’t hurting their skin because they don’t feel or see any negative reactions. BUT, although we may not see or feel anything, the damage is taking place beneath the surface of the skin, from things we apply to it or do to it; eventually (perhaps years from now), it will show up on the surface, and it won’t be pretty. [2]
You can get a clearer idea of how this hidden, underlying damage from irritating skincare routines or from specific products takes place by imagining what happens to the skin in reaction to unprotected sun exposure. The sun is a major cause of free-radical damage and inflammation. These effects cause brown spots, wrinkling, skin cancer, and other degenerative issues. Yet, other than the (hopefully) rare occasion when you get sunburned, you don’t feel or even see the damage done to your skin from the sun, until—you guessed it—years later. Even more shocking is that the most damaging rays of the sun can penetrate windows—now that really is a silent killer! [8,9]
Fragrance: Smells Like Trouble for Your Skin
We are all attracted to a pleasing fragrance. In fact, the first thing most people do when considering just about any skincare product is smell it. As nice as it is to have a product with a wonderful aroma, it just doesn’t make sense for good skincare. Whether the fragrance in the product is from a plant or a synthetic source, with very few exceptions what pleases your nose is a problem for your skin.
The way most fragrance ingredients impart scent is through a volatile reaction, which on your skin causes irritation and at least some inflammation. Research has established that fragrant ingredients in skincare products are among the most common cause of sensitizing and allergic reactions.
That means that daily use of products that contain a high amount of fragrance, whether the fragrant ingredients are synthetic or natural, will lead to chronic irritation that can damage healthy collagen production, lead to or worsen dryness, and impair your skin’s ability to heal. Fragrance-free is the best way to go for all skin types. [5,6,10,11,12]
Unfortunately, your nose cannot determine from the smell of a product whether or not it contains irritating fragrant ingredients. Many beneficial skincare ingredients (antioxidants, for example) have a natural fragrance, and some even smell great! However, distinguishing between the potent antioxidants that actually reduce inflammation and the ingredients that are added to make you “shop with your nose” and that can cause irritation, isn’t easy.
Like anything in skincare, the basic information is on the ingredient label, but because those ingredients read like a college chemistry course, they are a challenge to decipher, especially if fragrant plant oils are listed only by their Latin names in place of the more obvious “fragrance.”
Everyone Has Sensitive Skin
Most of us, to one degree or another, have sensitive skin; that is, our skin reacts negatively to the environment and can react negatively to what we put on it. Regardless of your skin type or concerns, irritation inflames the skin, and that’s always damaging, regardless of what the source of the irritation happens to be and whether or not you see a reaction on the surface. [2,5,7] Lots of things irritate our skin; some we can avoid and some we can’t, but we can mitigate much of it by using great skincare products and being smart about avoiding sun damage.
No matter how you think your skin reacts to different aspects of the environment and to the products you use, we are all sensitive to irritation and inflammation, and the resulting damage.
As mentioned above, whether you know it or not, you have sensitive skin. If you are going to take the best possible care of your skin, it’s essential you take the same precautions that someone with more obviously sensitive skin takes: Regardless of your skin type, treat your skin as gently as you possibly can. Whether you think of your facial skin as normal, oily, dry, or acne-prone, you still need to be gentle and avoid things that cause irritation as much as possible. Doing so is a key step to getting and keeping the skin you want!
You Have to Be Gentle
Everyone’s skin will react negatively to irritating skincare ingredients. So, for the overall health of your skin (and because irritation is so terrible for skin), anything you can do to treat yours gently is a very good thing. We mention this many times throughout this book, not to be repetitive, but so it really sinks in—being gentle is truly that important!
Always keep in mind that treating skin gently and using well-formulated, non-irritating skincare products encourages normal collagen production, helps maintain a smooth and radiant surface, helps the skin better protect itself from environmental damage, prevents or reduces excess oil production, and makes enlarged pores smaller. The chapters that follow explain exactly how that works for each skin type and skin concern. In the meantime, we guarantee you will see potentially dramatic improvements to your skin simply by avoiding irritating products and learning to be gentle.
Rules for Skincare Success
One
