When you’re having a bad skin day, do you have a backup routine to turn to? It’s helpful to have a set of products that you can rely on to get you through those days.

The topic of this post is preparing a backup routine. The inspiration for it came from my own experience recently (my skin felt raw), and a number of emails from people asking for help with stressed skin. In all cases, the skin was stressed by products or stress in their personal life. They needed a temporary routine to get them through that hump.

WHEN DO YOU NEED A BACKUP ROUTINE?

Before I go into what’s helpful in a backup routine, let’s go over cases where you might need one.

When do you need a backup routine?

  • When your skin is in pain or feels uncomfortable
  • When your skin is red, flaky, or itchy (and this is not normal for you)
  • When your skin has reacted badly and immediately to a product
  • When your skin has been irritated by exposure outdoors (sun, wind, dry air)
  • When a bug or something else has bitten you
  • When you’ve been scratched or hit by an object
  • When you’re sick with a cold or flu

 

PREPARE NOW FOR LATER

If you don’t have a set of backup products, now’s a good time to think about it. You want to look for products when you’re NOT having a bad skin day. The last thing you want to do is experiment with products when your skin is distressed.

The first thing you should do is inventory your current set of products and identify which ones are ‘SAFE.’

 

By safe, I’m NOT referring to toxicity of ingredients, a topic which constantly galls me because nearly all ingredients you will find in skincare are safe, but some are nevertheless tagged unjustly as unsafe by misinformed people.

By safe, I mean you can use it on your face without any risk of your skin reacting to it. In other words, it’s reliable at all times, especially in times of need.

How do you know which ones are reliable? Simply by experience.

These are products you have used before that have not bothered you on bad days. They also feel good when your skin is healthy. You will find yourself unconsciously gravitating toward them because we tend to follow what’s “tried and true.”

GO MINIMAL

When my skin is feeling irritated, I go into MINIMAL MODE. This means my routine gets stripped down to the absolute bare bones.

My idea of bare bones is Cleanse and Moisturize. That’s it. Number one, get the skin clean. Number two, put something on it to nourish it.

BACKUP CLEANSING

While you may be tempted to skip cleansing in the morning or altogether if your skin is not well, you still need to cleanse morning and night – just differently.

The evening cleanse is more important, so let’s start with that first. In the evening, I use only one cleanser – either a cleansing oil or milky cleanser.

Cleansing Oil vs Cleansing Balm

Now here’s a key distinction that is subtle but will prove helpful – I choose a cleansing oil as opposed to a cleansing balm (something solid or creamy that melts into a liquid). An oil in liquid form is better than an oil in solid form because it requires less rubbing.

An oil in solid form needs an external force to transform its state from a solid to liquid. This could be rubbing or heat.

Most cleansing balms require you to work the balm into skin – you have to rub it with some pressure over skin for it to melt into an oil.

Compare this with a liquid oil, which only needs gentle maneuvering to glide over skin. A liquid simply travels more readily over skin, assuming it’s not a high-friction, viscous oil.

Occasionally, you will come across some liquid cleansing oils that are very hard to move – they are terrible formulations. Avoid them by always trying a sample before you buy. Even testing it on your hand will tell you right away how easy it is to move across skin.

So why no rubbing? When your skin is irritated, you don’t want to touch or move it around. Rubbing generates friction and heat, which can inflame skin that is in all likelihood already inflamed (even if it’s not visible). If you’re breaking out, rubbing can of course disturb pores and spread pus.

Be very gentle with your movements when you’re cleansing. Light pressure, light stroking.

Cleansing Oil vs Milky Cleanser

Whether I use a cleansing oil or milky cleanser depends on three factors:

  1. Am I wearing makeup?
  2. Am I wearing a thick layer of mineral sunscreen?
  3. How dry or chafed does my skin feel?

If I am wearing makeup, the cleansing oil is the definitive choice, because it does a MUCH better job of thoroughly removing makeup. Read this article on Double Cleansing for a refresher on oil cleansing. If you still think cleansing oil is bad for oily or acneic skin, this is a must read.

If my skin has a thick layer of mineral sunscreen that has remained on my face (not rubbed off during the day), then the cleansing oil wins too.

im-a-cleansing-oilIf my skin is particularly dry, chafed, or raw, the cleansing oil again wins.

Oils are very nourishing, which means they feed the skin with essential fatty acids. Oils are made of fatty acids. Your skin is partially made of fatty acids. Oils give your skin more of what it needs.

Many cleansing oils leave a tiny little bit of oil behind. You can’t see this oil, but the evidence of it is softer feeling skin.

When choosing a cleansing oil for aggravated skin, try to find one that doesn’t leave your skin squeaky. (You can feel or hear the squeak.) There’s quite a range of outcomes in terms of how much “residue” is left behind. A few cleansing oils are a bit stripping, while others will leave you wanting for another rinse.

So when do I reach for the milky cleanser?

  • If I am not wearing makeup and I am in the mood for it (preferring a milky texture over an oil that day).
  • If I am short on time. The milky cleanser can do its job very quickly. Spread, stroke a few times, rinse.
  • In the morning.

A good morning cleanser is a milky cleanser or very gentle, non-foaming gel cleanser. The latter is not easy to find because most gel cleansers have some foam. (People love foam! I am in the minority who does not.)

An example of a gentle, non-foaming cleanser is Dermalogica Ultracalming Cleanser. This is an excellent cleanser for a backup routine or chronically sensitive skin.

For a morning cleanse, you only need a small amount of cleanser. Just enough for you to feel it, but not enough for you to see it, i.e. no visible foam or suds.

Why even bother with the AM cleanse if you’re using so little cleanser? Because skin secretes sweat and oil overnight. If clogged pores or breakouts is an ongoing issue for you, this morning cleanse will be important. If you’re paper dry all the time and suffer no congestion, or it’s the middle of winter (cold and dry), you can skip the morning cleanse.

 

BACKUP MOISTURIZING

The second thing you need is a moisturizer that will alleviate any discomfort you have and nourish the skin. Your choice of moisturizer will depend on what’s happening to your skin.

When skin is under siege, it’s because one or more of these things is happening:

1). Something which does not belong is getting through or into skin – THE INTRUDER

  • An intruder could be a skincare or cosmetic ingredient, household chemical, pollutant particle, sand/soot, bug (bacteria, fungus, virus), UV radiation, wind.

2). Something which you need is getting out of skin – THE ESCAPEE

  • An escapee could be water, lipids (fatty acids), and natural moisturizing factors (molecules naturally present in skin that keep it hydrated and plump).

3) An inflammatory process has been triggered and is escalating – THE WOUND

  • The inflammation process typically occurs in response to an intruder, physical wound (e.g. a scrape, cut, or large opening caused by an accident), or brute mechanical force (e.g. a severe blow or fall).

    DEALING WITH THE INTRUDER OR ESCAPEE

    In either of these cases, your skin barrier has been compromised. It’s leaky. Things are getting in and out. To stop the flow of things going in and out, you need to do this:

    1. Patch up and strengthen the skin barrier (the technical term for this is Barrier Function). This will slow down the flows going both ways.

    First, you can strengthen the barrier by feeding it with what it needs and craves – fatty acids (lipids).

    The best source of fatty acids is oils. All oils are nourishing and highly reparative.

    The key is to find an oil that doesn’t make your skin react or break out. This is a challenge for those of you with sensitive or acneic skin, whether skin is under duress or not. So start searching now. Those of you with normal or dry skin will have many more options.

    Second, you can artificially create a temporary film over skin with occlusive ingredients. Occlusive means a temporary film that blocks or slows down the passage of ingredients. A temporary film slows down water loss, for example.

    Moisturizers are occlusive to some extent. Some more than others. They create a temporary layer. This is the reason you have to moisturize daily. The temporary layer created by a moisturizer doesn’t last more than a day.

    To find a highly occlusive moisturizer, look for a product with “barrier repair” somewhere in its product name or description. Professional skincare offers more barrier repair products. They’re typically marketed as post-procedure treatments.

    Another good option is a silicone-based moisturizer without any water. These are great at protecting the skin barrier while still allowing your skin to ‘breathe.’ Again, not that easy to find, but a good one is Dermalogica Barrier Repair. If you want to buy skin care products then I would highly recommend Ayurveda Experience where you can buy all skin care products at affordable prices and get huge discounts while shopping.

     

 

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