Did you know the real reason behind most skin issues including visible fine lines, dry skin, overproduction of sebum, irritation, redness, acne and dull skin tone is stress? But not in a way you used to think. The stress is the trigger for developing Stressed Skin Syndrome.

When we are stressed, the stress hormone, cortisol is produced. The cortisol starts ruining the lipids in our skin, which are an integral part of the skin barrier. Our skin barrier becomes compromised, which in turn leads to trans epidermal water loss (TEWL). Which is basically evaporation of the moisture content from the skin that leads to super dry skin.

Then our skin starts responding to that by overproducing sebum to compensate for the loss of water, which leads to oily skin as you can guess. You probably have  experienced that: increased oiliness, sometimes combined with dry patches in some areas.

This all leads to compromising of the acid mantle, which is the hospitable environment for our microbiome, basically all those microorganisms that live in our skin, including enzymes needed for desquamation (natural exfoliation), peptides and other microorganisms needed for healthy functioning of the skin. When we have a compromised acid mantle, the good bacteria starts dying and bad bacteria starts growing instead.

This is the way nature works, if there is some emptiness somewhere, then something will appear instead. So when we have the good bacteria dying, instead, bad bacteria starts growing.

On its turn this leads to acne, rashes, redness, irritation and inflammation.

On top of that, stress and damaged skin barrier lead to production and activity of free radicals that destroy skin cells, elastin and collagen. This might lead to skin cancer, fine lines, acne and other serious skin conditions. When the skin barrier is damaged, free radicals feel themselves as home as there is no first line of defense.

And with the dry skin all our fine lines become more visible, because of the reduced skin elasticity due to low moisture levels. Also, if the water content of the skin falls below 10-20% (which happens because of TEWL), then the activity of the enzymes that are responsible for the degradation of the dead cells decreases, leading to an excess of dead cells on the surface, which leads to dull skin tone and excess build up of dead skin cells on the surface.

So having all of those skin issues, like dry skin, oily areas, redness, rashes, visible fine lines, acne and basically having not really healthy looking skin this is what we normally do in our modern society:  

• We run and start grabbing every single product that promises us to reduce fine lines, dullness or dryness of the skin. And the quicker results it promises the better. 
• Even better if it has trendy ingredients such as retinol, acids, Vitamin C, benzoyl peroxide and other “active ingredients”. 
• We, for sure, start exfoliating because we believe our skin needs to renew the skin layer. 

But the unfortunate truth is that all those ingredients will lead to degrading the skin barrier even more. So instead of taking care of our skin barrier, we start putting even more stress on it.

This is when Stressed Skin Syndrome happens: when we aggravate our already compromised skin from outside.  

All those ingredients, although might be good on their own, don`t work on the skin with a damaged skin barrier and worsens the situation further, as active ingredients such as retinol or benzoyl peroxide damage the skin barrier even more, and exfoliators degrade and thin out the barrier. 

Those are cures for the symptoms. Not the cure for the real cause. 

We might notice some visible results in a short run (mostly because of aesthetic ingredients in the cream that mask the skin issues, such as silicones), but then the situation normally worsens and we start searching for the next holy-grail of the cosmetic industry. This is a Vicious Cycle of Modern Skincare.

The Vicious Cycle is when 1) symptoms are treated, not a real cause, 2) short-term visible results (masking, not curing) 3) the skin gets worse, because the skin barrier is damaged 4) we run for next heavily advertised or beauty-guru advised product and get back to step 1. 

But on top of that we put hundreds of questionable chemicals on our skin as we go through this Vicious Cycle. As a result, increased skin sensitivity, inflammations and in the worst case the negative impact on our health. 

Not to mention the negative impact of the Vicious Cycle on the environment caused by countless packaging, bio-accumulative questionable ingredients, micro-plastic.  

All of this could be avoided if we cure the reason (e.g. repair the skin barrier damage and other damage caused by cortisol) and stop stressing the skin out! 

First thing first, stop all the practices that are damaging your skin barrier, such as harsh cleansers, physical exfoliation, chemical exfoliation, ingredients that can potentially irritate your skin, such as retinol, benzoyl peroxide, fragrances.

2. repair the skin barrier by rebuilding the lipids that were destroyed with cortisol 

3. Introduce antioxidants to combat free radicals. 

Best components to rebuild the skin barrier are fatty acids. Fatty acids are natural chemical compounds found in plants and animals, including us. They are vital for our survival and health. There are also so-called essential fatty acids. These are fatty acids that our body needs, but don't produce, so they need to come from external sources. Linoleic and linolenic fatty acid (Omega-3, 6 and 9) are examples of essential fatty acids.  

We need fatty acids to ensure the health of the skin barrier. Not any, but specific ones. The best source of fatty acids are plant oils, that when chosen and used correctly can do wonders for your skin!