Wealden Times | WT264 | May 2024 | Love Your Home Supplement inside

Why so
sensitive?
Josephine Fairley explores
reactive skin and how
our product-packed
skincare regimes could
be part of the problem
istockphoto.com/ anneleven
Once upon a time, I wrote a whole
book about sensitive skin. 200
odd pages. But in truth (maybe
don’t tell the publishers), the skin wisdom
in that book can be distilled into the
amount of space that this magazine gives
over to me each month. So, here goes.
Now, I know of what I write, because since
childhood I’ve had touchy skin – exacerbated
in adult years by having to try myriad products
for a living. Red, inflamed, itchy, sore, flaky –
you name it. But over the years, I’ve learned
to deal with it and rarely have
a flare-up on my face, now.
The reality is that our
beauty regimes have, in many
cases, become too harsh and
complicated for our complexions, which
haven’t evolved to be assaulted by acids,
peels, scrubs, microdermabrasion, etc.
They’ve rebelled (understandably), and the
result is reactive skin. As many as 40% of
women who apply to become testers for our
Beauty Bible Awards, when we run them,
self-identified as having sensitive skin.
So it’s no wonder, really, that ‘barrier
function’ is such a buzzword, in the beauty
media. As skin wizard Dr. Barbara Sturhnam
observes, “The strategy to treat sensitive
skin should be based around protection of
your barriers, while hydrating and calming
priceless-magazines.com 98