You may remember that after the birth of my second child, I battled highly textured and extremely dry skin. After I would wash my face, my skin would immediately turn to leather and later begin to peel.

My doctor told me that a big part of my dry, scaly skin was my then fluctuating hormones. She told me to just continue on with my normal skincare routine, and that my skin should go back to normal once my hormones had balanced themselves out. While I believe that it was mostly a post-partum situation, once I was almost 2 years post-partum and still struggling I knew that something else was up. My once extremely dry, flaky skin has simply become more combination; oily T-zone with flaky cheeks. After about a year, my skin was better… but still not back to normal. After about a year and a half, my skin was still… blah!

I did a little research (of course!) and I found that our skin (and hair) changes throughout our lifetime. And while my teenage acne didn’t disappear once I hit adulthood, some of my skin’s moisture sure did once I hit motherhood. My hormones (post partum and otherwise) had definitely changed my skin, but I hadn’t really changed my skincare routine. More research later, I happened on a few articles about skin barriers, their function, and how we damage them. I learned that we all have a skin barrier, called a stratum corneum, that is a permeable barrier and an antimicrobial barrier that relies heavily on adequate hydration to maintain its integrity (source). Our skin barrier can be rather easily damaged from doing things like over exfoliating, overexposure to the sun, or disrupting the pH levels of our skin.

Then it dawned on me; I had probably damaged my skin barrier by continuing with my same acne-focused skin care routine, and exfoliating more to slough off the dry, flaky skin that I was experiencing. That’s why my skin was uncomfortably tight, textured, and dry, yet I was still breaking out.

My T-zone was oily, but the rest of my face was still scattered with tight, rough, flaky skin. Because of this, I decided to take my skincare routine up a notch and that’s when I came up with a routine to repair my skin barrier and combat my dry, flaky skin.

My Skincare Routine to Combat Dry, Flaky Skin.

Please note that this is not my full skincare routine, just the steps I incorporated to heal my skin barrier and hydrate my skin while fighting off acne. It does not include some of the other steps I take such as exfoliation, masks, etc.

Oil Cleanse with a Non-Comedogenic Oil

This step has been crucial for not only my dry skin, but also for my acne. By cleansing with an oil as my first step, it allowed me to pull even more acne causing dirt and oil from my pores, without stripping my drier areas. I like to oil cleanse with jojoba oil, which is an oil that is high in wax esters (source). These wax esters are shown to be beneficial for those with altered skin barriers and those with acne because of its anti-inflammatory effect (source). With jojoba oil, I am getting rid of dirt and oil, moisturizing my dry skin and helping to treat my acne.

Wash with a Moisturizing (Non-Stripping) Facial Cleanser

Because I have acne, I would always want to use a face wash that I know would get my skin as clean as possible. While the facial cleansers that I use aren’t “bad”, I learned that I needed to switch it up. I continued to use my acne facial cleansers (one that contained salicylic acid) 3-4 days a week both night and day, but the other days I would use something less stripping. Some of my favorite moisturizing/cream cleansers are Philosophy Purity Cleanser, or the Origins Checks and Balances Cleanser. Both of these cleansers get my skin nice and clean without drying it out.

Spritz (of Pat) a Moisturizing Toner on Your Face

This step is crucial, and it’s very important that you use a toner that is moisturizing and doesn’t contain drying or acidic agents like witch hazel or an apple cider vinegar (ACV) dilution. Immediately after washing my face, I like to spritz a toner such as rose water, or aloe vera (the juice or the gel) on my face and allow it to soak in or pat it into my skin with my clean hands. Once that has soaked in a bit, I spritz lightly once more and then…

Apply a Moisturizer

This is something that everyone, no matter your skin type or woes, should be doing. The key to really helping to heal my dry skin has been to apply my moisturizer to damp skin! Applying my moisturizer to damp skin really created the moisture bomb that my dry skin needed. Once I thought about it, it truly did seem a bit counter-intuitive: to wait on my face to dry before then putting a moisturizer on it. That’s not what I do to moisturize my hair, so why would I do that to moisturize my skin?

More Toner…

After thoroughly massaging my moisturizer in, I give myself yet another dose of toner. This time, I don’t use as much toner (I go kind of crazy with the first layer of toner) but enough to dampen the skin once more before…

Apply a “sealant”

Much like my hair care routine, I realized that I needed to lock in all of my previous efforts. With a re-dampened face, I then apply a “sealant” type of product such as jojoba oil, shea butter, or a thick moisturizer. For my morning skin care routine, I opt to the thicker moisturizer so that I can lock it all in without any oily residue under my makeup. For my night time routine, I like to use either jojoba, shea butter, or my special oil blend. Sometimes I will also use my Origins Night-A-Mins that I love so much. Regardless of which sealant I use, my skin always stays moisturized and supple.

Conclusion

With following this routine, I saw dramatic results in less than a week. After months of using this routine, I can honestly say that my skin is completely renewed. Keeping my skin hydrated has helped not only with dryness, but also my acne breakouts, the size of my pores, and my skins glow.

Have you ever ever damaged your skin barrier? How did you repair it? How do you maintain it?