Strengthen your skin barrier

A strong skin barrier helps your skin retain moisture and protects against irritating influences from outside. Want to strengthen your skin barrier? Then start with gentle cleansing, hydrating care and protection from the sun. Also avoid over-exfoliating and products your skin reacts to with irritation.

At Food for Skin, we believe in a simple routine that truly supports your skin. That's why we work with natural bioactives from vegetables, fruit, plants and seeds. Without added microplastics, parabens, synthetic fragrance, unnecessary fillers or water as a base. Our products are developed according to a barrier-first philosophy: they nourish and support the skin barrier instead of throwing it off balance.

What is your skin barrier?

Your skin barrier is the outer protective layer of your skin (the stratum corneum). It consists of skin cells and fats, such as ceramides, fatty acids and cholesterol. Think of it as a wall: the skin cells are the bricks and the fats the mortar. Together they help retain moisture and protect your skin against irritants from outside.

Want to know more? Read what the skin barrier is and how it works.

How do you strengthen your skin barrier?

You don't need a complicated routine. A few basic principles already help enormously.

1. Cleanse gently

Use a gentle cleanser that doesn't dry out your skin. Harsh cleansers strip the natural fats from your skin, exactly the mortar that holds your barrier together.

2. Don't overdo exfoliation

A peel can be nice, but scrubbing daily or using acids every day is too much for most skin types. You literally wear your protective layer thinner and increase the risk of damage. Read more about the difference between a scrub, a peel and an exfoliant.

3. Hydrate

Keep moisture in the skin with a good cream. That way you support the barrier instead of working against it.

4. Protect against the sun

UV radiation is one of the biggest enemies of your skin barrier. Use an SPF daily when the UV index is 3 or higher, and in any case when you spend a long time in the sun.

Want a complete step-by-step plan? Then read our blog on how to restore your skin barrier.

Which ingredients support your skin barrier?

Ingredients that help your skin barrier fall into three groups:

• Humectants, such as glycerin, hyaluronic acid or ectoin (help retain moisture)
• Emollients, such as plant oils and squalane (soften the skin)
• Occlusives, such as shea butter (protect the skin barrier)

The Tomato Base Cream is rich in antioxidants from tomato (provitamin A) and vitamin E. It nourishes the skin and helps retain moisture, for soft, supple skin. Calming ingredients such as oat oil and bisabolol also help irritated skin settle down. Bisabolol is in all our serums and in the sunscreen, oat oil in the Cucumber Serum and Avocado Serum, among others.

Want to dive deeper into the fats your skin makes itself? Read more about ceramides and natural lipids for your skin barrier.

A simple skincare routine, without twelve steps

Over the past decades, the cosmetics industry has 'taught' us that we need to do more for our skin ("of course you need 12 products! Ka-ching!"). As a result, more and more products have come onto the market that are supposed to fix the downsides of one product with another. And so we end up with an extensive skincare routine that does our skin barrier more harm than good.

At Food for Skin we like to keep it simple: cleanse, a serum that suits your skin's needs, and finish with a nourishing cream. That's why our basic routine consists of the Carrot Cleanser, a matching serum and the Tomato Base Cream. During the day, sun protection remains an important extra step.

Which routine suits your skin?

• Cucumber: for sensitive, easily irritated skin that reacts with redness or restlessness, also in combination with blemishes.
• Pumpkin: for skin that could use more firmness and resilience. The routine supports firmness and helps strengthen the skin barrier.
• Avocado: for dry to very dry, dehydrated skin. The products nourish the skin and help retain moisture for longer, especially pleasant in cold, dry months when the skin feels rough more quickly.

Discover which skincare routine suits you