Strategic Skincare Product Layering For Dry, Sensitive Skin

Developing a skincare routine with sensitive, irritated skin has been quite the journey for me over the past 35 years of living with eczema. I went from purely getting all of my skincare products at chain stores and medications at pharmacies to going super vegan, green, and eco-friendly and experimenting with Western and Chinese herbalism. Now, I feel like I've developed quite a holistic view of my skincare routine. In this blog, I will share what I do for my skincare these days.

What is my current eczema skincare routine?

Before I used to only use lotion on my face and body with something labeled “hypoallergenic” on the bottle or tube. But after becoming an eco-friendly and cruelty-free makeup artist in the 2010s, I started incorporating more specific products for my facial skin care and developed the following daily routine:

Layer 1

First, I apply a hyaluronic acid or water-based facial serum to pull in more hydration for my dry skin.

Layer 2

Then, I put on an eye cream instead of using my face cream for both my eyelids and facial skin because if I used the face cream on my eyelids, I noticed that I would get these hard, white milia bumps around my eyes. In makeup school, I learned that those bumps developed because the pores in the eyelids are smaller and get clogged more easily.

I find that I like to have both my eye cream and face cream have either a 50/50 ratio of water to oil or a higher ratio of water to oil. This is because I find that if I use skincare products on my face that are high in oil content and are very thick – like almost body butter or balm-like consistency — I will start to break out in pimples and not feel hydrated. I will feel lubricated, but I won't really feel moisturized and moisture requires a certain amount of water for the moistness to exist.

When I use skincare products on my face, I like for them to have a higher water content because when they do, I feel like my skin feels more smooth, supple and soft. If I use products with very high oil content, I will feel lubricated on the surface, but I won't feel a deeper sense of moisture or hydration which is what I crave with my dry sensitive skin.

Layer 3

After I apply the products with higher water content, if I'm feeling extra dry, I will top it off with a very thin layer of an oil-based product like a balm or salve to seal in all that hydration. I find that that is a really good technique and strategy for me to get the deeper water-based hydration that I want with the oil-based protection on the top layer of my skin.

Why do I layer with water-based products first?

I'm sure there are many other people who have thought of this method and process or literature that are in scientific studies that have been done about doing this method of layering skincare products with more water-based products at first and then covering it and then topping it off with an oil-based layer. For me and my thinking process at the time, I was remembering my biology classes and how in the cells of the body, there's more water content inside of the cell and a thin layer of lipids or fats on the outside of the cell membrane to protect it. At the time I was developing my skincare routine, I just randomly thought to myself that if that's how a basic cell in the body is structured, then maybe that is a good technique strategy of layering skincare products for me to use in my skincare routine. So far, it has worked very well for me.

Does this routine work for my body too?

I pretty much do the same sort of technique for the skin on my body. My body’s skin is a lot thicker and seems to retain moisture on the deeper layers a lot better than the skin on my face. So sometimes for my body, I will only use an oil like an extra virgin organic coconut oil or organic avocado oil and sometimes that's enough. I feel like because my body feels a lot more like it holds hydration a lot better, I tend to gravitate to more oil-based or thicker creams, butters, and oils to keep the top layer of my skin lubricated and smooth.

I hope this blog has some information that will help someone out there trying to figure out what they could do for their sensitive skin routine. Curious to hear what you use for your skincare routine and what has worked for you over the years? Please share any tips or insights in the comments down below!