Skin Barrier Repair:
Tips on Building Stronger, Healthier Skin

Are you dealing with sensitive, itchy, or dry skin? In this episode of The Skin Report, Dr. Simran Sethi explains everything you need to know about your skin barrier. Learn how this vital layer protects your skin, the common causes of skin barrier damage like acne and melasma, and the best ways to repair it using lipids, retinol, and hydration. Dr. Sethi also reveals what to avoid during repair—like petroleum jelly and high molecular weight oils—and shares actionable tips for healthier, more resilient skin. Don’t miss these expert insights to transform your skincare routine!

0:00 – Introduction to Skin Barrier Health

0:18 – What is the Skin Barrier?

2:08 – Causes of Skin Barrier Breakage

4:09 – Symptoms of a Broken Skin Barrier

5:01 – How to Repair Your Skin Barrier

7:36 – What to Avoid During Skin Barrier Repair

10:03 – Final Thoughts and Skincare Tips

Hello everyone. Welcome to The Skin Report. Today we are going to talk about all things skin barrier. I get a lot of questions about this, and it is a very important topic. We’re going to cover, “What is the skin barrier? What causes skin barrier breakage? How to repair your skin barrier?” And then in the end, I’m going to talk about what things to absolutely avoid when you’re repairing your skin barrier because there are so many recommendations out there and products that you actually should avoid and will worsen your chances of building that barrier. I’m Dr. Simran Sethi internal medicine doctor who specializes in medical aesthetics. Let’s get started.

So let’s start with what is the skin barrier. Our skin is a barrier for us from the environment, and the skin has two layers. The epidermis, which is this more superficial layer, and the dermis, which is a deeper layer, that is where collagen is made and all our skin proteins are. When you think of the epidermis, its job is protection, and the dermis’ job is skin integrity and strength. The epidermis has different components that allow it to give protection. First of all, it fights bacteria. Second, it has melanin; this is a really, really important part of the epidermis because melanin’s job is to create a filter that does not allow the damaging effects of UV rays and prevents UV rays from reaching the dermis, where all of our collagen, our skin proteins live. Anyway, so when we’re thinking of skin barrier, we’re going to be focused on the epidermis because its job is protection, and there are many conditions that cause skin barrier breakage.

And I’m going to list those so that if any of you have those conditions, you know that you are likely going to be more prone to skin barrier breakage, or you may already have the skin barrier breakage and just need to know what are the symptoms of that. Condition number one: acne. Acne is a very inflammatory condition. It’s extremely common, of course, and a lot of times people with acne have a broken skin barrier, not because they have pimples that have left breakage in their skin, but because many times they also tend to over-dry their skin and cause their skin to get even more inflamed in an attempt to repair the skin barrier. So acne is an inflammatory condition, very, very prone to skin barrier breakage. Second: melasma. Melasma is a condition most common in women and women who are close to their perimenopausal years. And melasma is a condition that causes hyperpigmentation, usually in sort of a butterfly pattern, sometimes on the cheeks, nose, upper lip, forehead, and most common in skin of color.

But melasma is a condition that a lot of people don’t realize has skin barrier breakage because all the person is seeing is hyperpigmentation. But that hyperpigmentation is actually also a result of skin barrier breakage. The next condition: dry skin or mature skin. Even though this is not a skin condition or disease per se, it is actually another group of people who experience skin barrier breakage and tend to not sometimes even know it, and then perhaps because of that, they don’t focus on treating it. And then last but not least, conditions like eczema, rosacea. And I put them again into the same kind of bucket because they’re also inflammatory conditions, but also experience small breaks in the skin that then lead to hypersensitivity of the skin. And in skin of color, always, always hyperpigmentation.

How do you know if you have skin barrier breakage? Likely, you are going to feel like your skin feels very sensitive. If you apply anything on the skin, it feels like it’s burning, or you might have some itching on your skin. And third, your skin, especially if you have a darker skin tone, is going to look hyperpigmented or darker in the areas where you experience that burning. If you have a lighter skin tone, the skin will look a little pinker. Skin barrier breakage doesn’t only happen on the face; it can happen on the neck, it can happen on your body, but those are generally the symptoms. How do you repair a broken skin barrier? So, if you think of what the epidermis is made of, it has a lot of fats, and fats are important for the skin because they make the skin more malleable. So think about a piece of paper versus fabric. A piece of paper is very brittle, and if you move it around, you are likely going to tear it at some point, or if you pull on it, it’ll tear versus fabric.

If you took a piece of fabric, and you moved it around, or you pulled on it, it is not going to tear. So our skin barrier is very similar in that sense. And what gives our skin the ability to move around with our expressions and not tear is actually fats. So having lipids in some skincare products is going to be very, very important. And remember, I was going to give you a list of things you should avoid to build your skin barrier. We will get back into the lipid part of this. So after lipids, what’s the next thing? Well, how do you now make your skin barrier or build it back? Retinol. And a lot of people consider retinol something that breaks the skin barrier. And I agree with that. And it is actually, I didn’t mention this earlier, a common cause of skin barrier breakage, but retinol actually increases your skin cell turnover.

It makes your skin make new skin quickly, which is why it would help so much in building the skin barrier back. But you have to use a retinol that also is paired with lipids or pair lipids with your retinol. That’s why I listed lipids first. And then I would also put retinol as an important component of the skin barrier health. And then, after that, is hydration, which means moisturizing or sealing your moisture. And hydration is something that when you have a skin barrier breakage issue, you are likely doing. But what a lot of people are not doing is sealing their moisture. So if you’re using a moisturizer on your skin to build your skin barrier back and noticing that after just a few hours your skin feels dry again, it’s because we are warm-bodied, and we’re constantly losing water to our surrounding air, and we have to essentially seal our moisture so that it remains in our skin. And to do that, you can use hyaluronic acid. So that also means apply your hyaluronic acid on top of your moisturizer.

So summarizing lipids, retinol, and some sort of moisture-sealing mechanism, which is easily done with hyaluronic acid. Okay, so I told you, “What are the things to completely avoid when you’re building your skin barrier?” Number one: Fats that are bigger than the natural fats in your skin. And when I say that, the biggest culprit is Vaseline. A lot of people use Vaseline or Aquaphor on their skin because they feel like their skin is sensitive. It’s itchy, and it’s soothing it; if it’s dry, it’s moisturizing it. The problem with petroleum jelly, which is Vaseline, Aquaphor, is that it’s a sealant, but it’s an excellent trap for dirt and debris. It cannot penetrate into your skin. So it’s not giving you those lipids; remember that have to become a part of your skin so that your skin moves like fabric and doesn’t break.

So it’s not doing any of that. It’s just sealing a layer of fat on top of your skin. So number one thing to avoid: Vaseline, Aquaphor, petroleum jelly. Second: oils. So high molecular weight oils. Oils are great, but if they’re bigger than the natural oils or the lipids that are part of your skin, they’re not going to go into your skin. They’re again going to act like Vaseline and sit on top of your skin and become a trap for dirt and debris. A lot of people who have acne and a broken skin barrier will actually worsen their acne because now they have something trapping more bacteria, more dirt, clogging their pores. So basically, when you’re thinking of what to avoid if I have a broken skin barrier, petroleum jelly, Vaseline, Aquaphor, high molecular weight oils. And generally, in the high molecular weight oil category, a lot of people are using things like coconut oil, almond oil, argan oil, and if you are housing these oils in your kitchen, you should definitely not put them on your face.

That’s a pretty standard rule. But oils can be used in skincare; they have to be formulated to use in skincare for proper penetration. So taking an oil and just applying it to your face, it’s not designed to do that. So don’t do that if you’re trying to build back your skin barrier.

Skin barrier health is a very, very big topic and a very interesting topic. If you have any questions that you have, please leave them in the comments. Or if you are an aesthetic provider, esthetician, medical spa provider and have seen other products that people are commonly using to build back their skin barrier, I would love to hear from you. Remember, we love it if you can leave us a review. Please subscribe. Turn on the little notification bell so that whenever we release new content.