10 Tips for Treating Skin Inflammation When Your Skin Reacts to Everything

You finally did it; you went all out on your skin.

You’ve layered on every product you can find to diffuse the inflammation.

Then why is your face still reacting to everything you put on it?

Why has your foolproof 10-step skincare routine let you down?

The reason is that sensitive skin is a highly complex condition.

So, if you genuinely want to understand why your skin is inflamed.

You first need to understand the underlying issues before treating them effectively.

Why do I Have Sensitive Skin?

Your skin inflammation is a defence mechanism; it is your skin’s natural way of protecting itself against injury and infection.

It can become sensitive after trauma because of irritation from harsh products, stress, and even poor lifestyle habits such as smoking and repeated exposure to UV rays or pollution, all contributing factors to why your skin may be sensitive.

Understanding Inflammation

To truly understand what triggers your skin to become inflamed, we need to delve into some skin science, so please bear with us.

If you bump your knee, you usually feel immediate pain. Over the next few hours, your knee becomes red, swollen, and painful as your body sends white blood cells and fluid to the area to heal the injury.

This typically has a fast onset and can last a few days before normalising; it is your body’s immediate response to harmful stimuli.

Usually, within a few days, the swelling and inflammation will subside.

My Skin is Not Calming Down.

Inflammation begins as your body’s response to keep out infection.

When your skin is damaged, it sets off several biological events involving the blood vessels, cells, and the immune system.

Imagine a foreign body, like pollen, enters the bloodstream; this impairs your immune system, and this starts a cycle of inflammation referred to as immunogenic inflammation:

1. Your skin cells are killed off in the wounded area, and the surrounding cells register this as a danger signal.
2. In response, your immune cells come rushing in, sending out chemical messages that mean danger; this action attracts WHITE BLOOD CELLS, as this research found (1). They are your warrior cells and the primary agents for fighting off intruders.
3. They put up a great fight, releasing a toxic mixture of hydrogen peroxide and other chemicals to destroy unwelcome foreign bodies, such as viruses, cellular debris, and bacteria.
4. This process results in pain, redness, swelling, and heat, all of which are associated with inflammation.

If you continue to do things that harm your skin or use the wrong ingredients, your white blood cells keep fighting, causing inflammation. It’s a vicious cycle.

Treating Inflammation 

The first step in tackling inflammation is to minimise the triggers.

One of the best ways to do this is with a skin detox, just like you would do a regular detox; this helps to clear the inflammation-causing impurities and environmental irritants that can build up on your skin over time:

Next, follow these steps in this order:

1. In the first instance, if your skin is hard, sore, stinging and inflamed, we recommend simply treating it with water and an ice compress
2. Use only very gentle products; whilst this doesn’t necessarily guarantee you won’t have an adverse reaction, it does mean your product may not contain common allergens.
3. Check to see if alcohol ingredients aren’t lurking in your products, especially your toner. These are far too astringent for sensitive skin.
4. Ensure your cleansers are sulfate-free; harsh, irritating detergents such as sodium laureth sulfate, sodium lauryl sulfate, and ammonium lauryl sulfate should be avoided at all costs. Opt instead for a very gentle yet protective cleanser like our Miracle Cleanse.
5. The next step would be to layer with a gentle, naturally low-weight hyaluronic acid product, such as H20 Skin Shot.
6. Our Fortify barrier repair cream and Xcell Barrier repair oil will help rebuild a barrier function that has been undermined by inflammation.
7. When considering moisturisers, opt for intelligently formulated products containing skin-identical ingredients that replenish your skin due to trauma or age.
8. Avoid using steroids; instead, use anti-inflammatory botanicals or nonsteroidal ingredients.
9. If you have acute inflammation, apply layer Nectar balm all over your skin; it is nature’s answer to Vaseline, as it creates an occlusive film on your skin’s surface, locking in moisture and calming even the most inflamed skin.
10. Use only fragrance-free products, as synthetic perfumes are the leading cause of allergic skin reactions.
11. Essential oils have their place in skin healing, but they should be used sparingly. We only use blue tansy in our Barrier Repair Balm for its highly calming and healing properties.

Your Sensitivity May Be Due to This Enzyme

Recent research has identified an enzyme called COX-2, which may be a contributing factor to your skin inflammation.

External stressors, such as pollution, chemicals, UV radiation, and fragrances, can trigger the expression of a crucial enzyme in your skin called COX-2, as this study found (2).

It is an enzyme that acts as an alarm system to detect a threat and trigger an inflammatory response in your skin; usually, the threat subsides, and the alarm shuts off.

However, the alarm is triggered repeatedly if the inflammation is not treated early enough.

This is the case with chronic inflammation, which, as we have discussed, exhausts your skin’s defence system, weakening its structure and degrading collagen and elastin, thereby impairing your barrier function.

All of this leaves your skin in a constant state of low-grade inflammation, which continues to damage your skin cells and cause premature ageing; it is a vicious cycle.

To conclude. The naked truth

So, to recap, this is the process your skin goes through when it becomes inflamed:

1. Some of the chemicals released by the hero white cells reach the dermis.
2. Once there, they engorge blood vessels, creating a histamine action.
3. This raises the temperature of the wounded site, killing the invading foreign bodies.
4. This, in turn, creates inflammation, making skin appear sensitised and irritated.

Fortunately, the inflammation is usually not acute; in most cases, your body returns to its natural homeostatic state.

However, chronic inflammation that persists can cause negative stimuli to linger, setting off an unhealthy cycle of inflammation that can go largely undetected beneath the surface.

This can result in inflammation and granulomatous infections, causing severe damage if not detected early enough.

One of the most impactful things you can do is recognise the type of inflammation you have and then eliminate the potential triggers from the list above, literally becoming your own label detective.

It would be best to stimulate a healthier environment for your skin, repair and balance the delicate microflora that makes up the acid mantle, and encourage the production of collagen and elastin.

These changes will also increase cellular turnover and improve the skin barrier, preventing infections and slowing the damaging effects of premature ageing.

Your skin is the largest organ on your body and one of the first things people notice about you, so we think you’d agree it deserves some TLC.

References

1. Research in skin inflammation

2. New insights into the functions of Cox-2 in the skin