While there are many tips and tricks to keep your sensitive skin calm and under control, ultimately they all serve one common purpose – achieving skin balance.
For me, achieving skin balance and identifying the factors that throw it out of balance was the epiphany in my sensitive skin journey.
There are many aspects to skin balance: balanced diet, balanced oil production and balanced pH.
It can be difficult to get them all working together – but when they do the result is clear, healthy and confident skin.
Here are my 5 top tips for achieving and maintaining skin balance:
- Avoid detergents & alcohol in skincare products
Detergents and alcohol cause havoc for sensitive skin sufferers as they strip away the skin’s natural protective oils, leaving it exposed and prone to reaction.
The main detergents to look out for (and avoid) are Sodium Lauryl Sulphate and Cocamidopropyl Betaine, which tend to be found in foaming products and facial Cleansers.
- Select pH balancing products
Despite the 5.5 myth, the pH level of the skin is actually only slightly above 5.
Maintaining this “acid mantle” is essential for all round skin health, so try and avoid products that disrupt it (soaps, for example are alkaline).
Our BioAffinity Toners are unique in the fact that they have the exact pH of healthy skin.
They also contain no alcohol, so are great for step 1 too!
- Avoid refined sugar
Everything in moderation, but do avoid excessive consumption of refined sugars – found in cakes, biscuits and bread.
Our bodies require extra insulin to break refined sugars down. In turn, insulin causes excess sebum production, and more often than not excess sebum means spots!
- Keep hydrated
Dehydration is a problem for all skin types, but in sensitive types already prone to dryness it can leave skin itchy and flaky.
Water hydrates the skin from the inside out, so aim for 1.5 litres a day.
- Embrace anti-inflammatories
Products rich in natural anti-inflammatory properties calm reactivity and restore a comfortable balance to the look and feel of the skin.
Superior CO2 extracts of German Chamomile and Rosehip in our Pai Chamomile & Rosehip Sensitive Skin Cream deliver the maximum anti-inflammatory effect of both super-calming ingredients.
- Consider other factors
Sticking to these rules will help keep skin in balance on a day to day basis.
If you’re doing all of these things and your skin still doesn’t feel quite right, consider whether any of these balance disruptors may be the cause.
This includes the contraceptive pill, pregnancy, illness or medication and environmental factors such as weather.
Receive other tips & news like it…