Barrier Repair Without the Shopping List

A damaged skin barrier is a lipid problem, and the lipids that fix it are not rare. Ceramides, cholesterol and free fatty acids in roughly a 3:1:1 ratio, plus glycerin to hold water in place, cover the large majority of cases. All four are commodity ingredients.

What the price actually buys

• £8 tub — petrolatum, glycerin, one ceramide. Occlusive, effective, slightly greasy, smells of nothing.
• £28 tub — three ceramides, cholesterol, better emulsifiers, a texture you will actually reapply. This is the band where extra money buys compliance.
• £90 tub — the same lipids, a glass jar, and an extract present at 0.01%. Jars also oxidise anything unstable, which is why the actives are usually inert here.

Fragrance and the flare cycle

Fragrance is the most common cause of the slow, low-grade irritation people diagnose as dryness and then treat with more product. If your skin is reactive, remove every fragranced item for four weeks before adding anything. In our notes that single subtraction resolved more complaints than any addition.

Barrier repair is subtraction first. Most reactive skin is doing too much, not too little.

A routine that holds up

Non-foaming cleanser at night only, water in the morning. One humectant layer while skin is still damp, one occlusive on top. Sunscreen every morning that you can see daylight. Actives, if you want them, on three evenings a week and never on the same night as an exfoliant. That is the whole thing, and it costs under £40 a quarter.