The Most Effective Skin Guide for Sensitive Skin
Sensitive skin reacts quickly with redness, tightness, itching and flaking. Because it is easily irritable, she needs a lot of care.
Sensitive skin: How to recognize this skin type
Caution is required. Sensitive skin is resentful. The wrong care can irritate it, spicy food makes it blush and it does not like hot or cold temperatures.
Sensitive skin reacts quickly with irritation and redness. Sun and new cosmetics are often not well tolerated, and stress also quickly affects the appearance of the skin.
If it comes into contact with synthetic fragrances, essential oils, preservatives and other skin irritants, it reacts and retaliates with redness, pimples, wheals, burns, tightens, itches and flakes. Sensitive skin must be treated with care – the care strategy is therefore: Less is more. Anything that could irritate sensitive skin should therefore be avoided if possible. And: the right care must be taken.
Skin care for sensitive skin
Soothing irritated skin is the top priority of the daily beauty routine, the natural skin protection barrier should be strengthened permanently. In principle, the skin should not be burdened with too many ingredients from products; the following applies: the shorter the INCI list (indication of ingredients, “International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients”) on a product, the better. Then a close look should be taken at the ingredients. Products specially designed for sensitive skin often contain soothing active ingredients such as panthenol, calendula, aloe vera, witch hazel, evening primrose oil, liquorice root, calcium, magnesium or zinc. Skin types such as impure skin or combination skin, which are somewhat less sensitive than sensitive skin, in turn need different care. The best thing to do for sensitive skin is to stick to a product series that contains all the cleansing and care products, once their compatibility has been tested.
Sensitive + dry – a difficult combination: Sensitive skin is often dry at the same time. Since its natural protective shield is no longer intact, the skin’s own moisture is lost and pollutants can penetrate the sensitive skin more easily. This leads to reddening and the skin becomes rough, dry and flaky. Hyaluronic acid, for example, is an active ingredient that supplies the skin with moisture and is very well tolerated as it is a substance produced naturally in the body.
Many ingredients used in cosmetics are often not tolerated by sensitive skin, for example perfume additives or alcohols. But also anti-aging ingredients such as retinol. Care products for sensitive skin therefore avoid everything that could unnecessarily stress or irritate the skin; they contain only selected mild, highly pure ingredients. By the way, sensitive skin is not uncommon: almost 40% of Americans consider their skin to be sensitive. Cosmetic manufacturers also respond to this: care series for dry skin, flaky skin, itchy skin all have the goal of strengthening the skin barrier, alleviating redness and preventing itching.
Our tips: How to find the right care for sensitive skin
- Pay attention to the INCI lists of care products. The fewer ingredients, the better.
- Be careful with peelings, if you want to get rid of skin flakes, choose an enzyme-based peeling.
- Particularly high demands are placed on the ingredients of baby care products. These products are therefore also suitable for the sensitive skin of adults.
- Those who want to be on the safe side choose products that are explicitly declared for sensitive skin. The products should be free of fragrances, preservatives and colorants and avoid PEG emulsifiers. Some skin care products do not manage completely without preservatives. If these substances are required, they must be kept to a minimum.
SOS Tip for at home
Acutely irritated skin can be soothed by black tea. It contains tanning agents and, when used externally, can reduce bacterial attack on the skin and accelerate wound healing. Cold compresses also have a good cooling effect. For this purpose, let the tea steep for ten minutes and then place it in the refrigerator. When it is cold, compresses can be applied to the irritated skin.
Sun protection for sensitive skin
People with sensitive skin should choose a sunscreen without parabens and fragrances. Since this skin type often reacts irritated to chemical light protection filters, mineral sunscreen is ideal. These are now so good that they are in no way inferior in performance to conventional chemical filters and shimmer on the skin like the first mineral sun protection products some years ago. And of course, this applies to all skin types: Apply plenty of sun protection and reapply every two hours. And always choose sunscreen products with a high sun protection factor (preferably SPF 50) or sunblocker.
Sensitive skin is prone to couperose
The red veins that shimmer through the skin are usually most evident on the cheeks and around the nose. This is called couperose. The causes are considered to be genetic predisposition, sun, high blood pressure, alcohol or as a consequence of rosacea. This is an inflammatory skin disease whose trigger has not yet been sufficiently clarified, but which unfortunately occurs frequently (even more often than neurodermatitis).
To soothe sensitive skin, you can make compresses with black tea – daily – which also makes the veins contract a little. Meanwhile there are many care products for couperose skin. Creams with horsetail, horse chestnut or arnica strengthen the connective tissue in the face and thus prevent the further spread of couperose. Anything that promotes blood circulation and thus reddening of the face should be avoided (spicy food, coffee, tea, alcohol, nicotine, sauna visits, steam baths and brush massages).
To cover the redness, there are products with green pigmentation (concealer sticks or care creams). These take away the redness from the face and are often ideal bases for preparing the skin for make-up afterwards.
Intensive care for sensitive skin: Does a serum help?
Due to the particularly high concentration of active ingredients, serums have an intensive effect on the one hand and a more direct effect on the other. They are characterized by a light texture, which allows the concentrate to penetrate even into the deeper skin layers. Ideal for soothing sensitive skin with active ingredients and providing it with moisture. Feelings of tension, heat or tingling are alleviated with special serums for sensitive skin. It is important to use a serum without an alcoholic base and, if possible, without parabens, synthetic colorants and fragrances. Stressed skin areas (such as reddened cheeks) can also be treated well with a serum. Many companies now offer oil-free serums for hypersensitive skin, which strengthen the skin barrier.
Anti-wrinkle skin care for sensitive skin
Sensitive skin is often delicate, thin and dry and therefore tends to wrinkle more quickly than normal or oily skin types. Moisture binders help the skin to optimize its water balance, which is why anti-aging skin care creams contain substances such as glycerin, algae extract, hyaluronic acid, urea, lactic acid and panthenol.
Plant estrogens such as soy, green tea or ginseng are also found in many products, as are minerals such as zinc, copper and magnesium. They are all compatible with sensitive skin. Sensitive skin should be cautious with retinol, although it is considered one of the best anti-ageing active ingredients confirmed by studies, but it easily dries the skin out and provokes small skin blemishes. If you still want to use retinol as an anti-aging weapon, start with a low concentration of the substance and cream only at intervals of a few days in the evening.