The Skin Nerd: Lockdown is making my skin worse. What’s wrong?
Nicole, you are not alone in this. You would not believe the amount of messages I am receiving on this topic. Why our skin is misbehaving right now does not come down to one factor, but multiple factors leading to breakouts, increased skin irritation, and skin dehydration.
Your skin is in a very different environment, and you’re living a very different life. There are two things we always ask people to consider when they come to the Nerd Network for expert advice on breakouts: stress and sugar.
Chronic stress means an uptick in a hormone called cortisol. That has the short-term benefit of assisting our body in times of stress, but can lead to inflammation long term. When we are inflamed from within, we may see breakouts, dryness, redness, itchiness, and flare-ups of skin conditions such as rosacea, eczema, and psoriasis.
Sugar has a similar effect, with insulin spikes potentially leading to excess oil production, and causing inflammation throughout the body. Pair excess oil with inflammation and you’re looking at sore, red spots. Not a match made in heaven at all.
In times of stress, we often turn to sugar, too, so the cycle continues: more stress, more sugar, breakouts leading to more stress, more sugar, and so on. Try to cut back on stress-eating of sugary foods that have high amounts of saturated fats (saturated fats can also cause spikes in insulin levels), and try to manage your stress. What I mean by manage your stress is you may need extra stress-management techniques, such as facial massage, meditation, yoga, gardening, mindful colouring, mindful baking… Whatever works for you.
Do you know what can cause skin irritation? Dust. I’m not accusing you of having a dusty home, but it is something to consider. Dust mites can irritate sensitive skin and particlarly irritate eczema, so keep your space dust-free.
Speaking of our spaces, humidity can have a huge impact on our skin. Keep heating to a minimum and if you’re really noticing skin dehydration, invest in a humidifier. Low humidity draws moisture out from the skin, so take good care of your skin’s barrier.
The skincare ingredients to reach for to give your barrier a boost include ceramides, fatty-acid-rich plant oils, like sunflower oil or sweet almond oil, plus antioxidants and anti-inflammatory ingredients. Two products I would recommend for this specifically: Skingredients Skin Good Fats (€42, 30ml, skingredients.com and selected online retailers), as we formulated it to feed the skin’s barrier with nourishment; and Codex Beauty Bia Skin Superfood (€55.00, 75ml, theskinnerd.com and selected online retailers), as it is multi-purpose, can be used across the body, and helps the skin to lock in moisture.
In general, ensure that you are double-cleansing, including nooks and crannies, morning and evening (even though you’re not wearing make-up), drink heaps of water, as you may be forgetting this outside of your usual routine, eat a rainbow of fruit and veg, if you can, and get your blood pumping with some exercise. The advice may seem a bit boring, but it’s what will hopefully make the biggest difference.
The Nerdie Pick
This consultation-only treatment masque is great a great shout for tackling congestion if you’ve tried other options in your routine like a salicylic acid cleanser, for example.
It has a combo of debris and sebum-dissolving salicylic acid, hydrating lactic acid plus antibacterial, anti-inflammatory tea tree to bring down redness and swelling in current breakouts and prevent more from occurring.
I am pure nerdie for an air-sealed container, and with this, you press the top down to release product - meaning the ingredients are kept effective as they’re away from light and air.
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