Daily advices

Hygiene, the first step in caring for sensitive skin

Hygiene is often discounted, as if the choice of a face cleanser doesn’t deserve as much attention as a cream. And yet, it’s the first step in caring for skin, since washing your face can have important consequences on your skin’s balance and on its effectiveness as a barrier… Especially if your skin is sensitive.

Effective cleansing that respects skin balance

The first and most essential step in a skincare routine is cleansing your face. By doing so, you remove all potential pollutants from your skin that contribute to sensitising it. This is so that the cream or care product you then apply can be entirely effective. Indeed, your cleanser and cream work together as a duo: a cream will be that much more beneficial when skin has been properly cleansed to start with.

Good hygiene requires an effective cleansing and to respect the skin’s balance, especially for preserving its barrier function. This is especially the case when skin is sensitive.

The skin’s barrier function helps lock in moisture and protect against external irritants by keeping the skin sealed and resilient.

Sensitive skin in particular, the barrier function is often deficient. It plays an important role, since it is what regulates what penetrates and leaves the skin.

A cleanser for sensitive skin should support the skin’s natural balance to maintain a strong, healthy barrier function.

Understanding the barrier function

The skin’s barrier function is often visualised as a brick wall. Skin cells act as the bricks, while lipids form the ‘cement’ that holds them together. To stay strong and resilient, this structure relies on a balanced microbiome, the community of beneficial micro-organisms on the skin along with a healthy pH level between 4 and 6.

Dr Sandy Skotnicki, Dermatologist - Canada.

Cleansers can alter both the skin’s barrier function and its microbiome, which can sensitise skin. This is why it’s important to pay attention to composition.

Dr Sandy Skotnicki, Dermatologist - Canada.

The Risks of Poor Hygiene for Sensitive Skin

Water alone can’t effectively remove all the impurities that build up on the skin especially oil-based dirt and pollutants. That’s why facial cleansers are formulated with surfactants, cleansing agents that help lift away excess sebum, residue, and impurities.

However, the type of cleanser you choose is critical for every skin type and even more so for sensitive skin.

There are various types of facial cleansers, including soap, foaming gel, micellar water, cleansing oil and more. Surfactants in these products vary in strength. Some are harsh and can strip away essential skin lipids, weakening the skin barrier and triggering irritation.

For sensitive skin, using a cleanser that’s too strong can immediately cause uncomfortable reactions such as redness, stinging, tightness, burning, or tingling. A poorly formulated cleanser can worsen skin sensitivity and lead to a cycle of ongoing inflammation and discomfort.

Choosing a gentle cleanser specifically designed for sensitive skin helps maintain your skin’s natural balance, reinforces the protective barrier and prevents future flare-ups.

Dr Michèle Sayag, Allergist - BIODERMA.

There’s a wide range of surfactants and some can be inappropriate or too harsh. When used, the surfactant interacts with the skin’s own components, and if poorly chosen it can deteriorate the skin’s hydrolipidic film and barrier function. Too much stripping is just as bad as not enough cleansing.

Dr Michèle Sayag, Allergist - BIODERMA.

All over the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has once again made cleanliness a central part of life, the simplest act of hygiene to fight against contagion. Beyond washing hands, cleansing your face also deserves a new look at old. The trouble is that often sensitive skin tolerates cleansers poorly. It needs a gentle and high tolerance cleanser, free of perfume, and preferably one that requires no rinsing. One that is capable of eliminating pollution particles and all residue that is susceptible to provoking a reaction. One that also respects the skin’s pH, to preserve the microbiome. The issue at stake? The skin's barrier, always and forever. Indeed, a facial cleanser’s essential role is to protect the skin's barrier, the foundation of healthy skin.

Dr Sandy Skotnicki, Dermatologist - Canada.
When patients don’t have any other pathology, more and more we suspect that today’s hygiene habits, in particular daily washing with harsh soaps and cleansers, inhibit our skin’s barrier functions, leaving it vulnerable and sensitive to environmental conditions.
My advice for choosing a cleanser for sensitive skin:
- Be sure that it is formulated with a pH similar to that of skin
- It contains a gentle surfactant
- It has no perfume
- It is formulated with a minimum of ingredients, all at the optimum dose
- No harsh surfactants that strip, such as sulphates
- Perfume can be an allergen.
Dr Sandy Skotnicki, Dermatologist - Canada.

Skin is an ecosystem on its own, a sort of dynamic exchange platform that contributes to vital functions and has its own internal biological clock. Day and night, the skin doesn’t have exactly the same role, which affects the cleansing routine.

The skin prepares itself to play a protective role against the environment during the day. For it to be effective, you need to cleanse your face to remove all impurities that accumulated overnight, the moment when cellular activity it as its most intense. The skin will become more resistant and ready to receive cream and care for the day.

To eliminate all of the day’s impurities, the skin activates its renewal, detoxification and regenerative functions. It becomes more permeable and therefore fragile when faced with outside aggressive factors that can penetrate more easily. This is why it is so important to cleanse your face before going to bed.

If it feels tight after you’ve cleansed your face, then the product you’ve used doesn’t work for you.

Morning and night at the least for your face, and more often depending on your lifestyle and needs (sports, climate, activities…). All potential factors of irritation, such as saltwater, sunscreen, perspiration, makeup… should be removed as quickly as possible.