The way most fragrance ingredients impart scent is through a volatile reaction, which on your skin causes irritation and at least some inflammation. Research has established that fragrant ingredients in skincare products are among the most common cause of sensitizing and allergic reactions.
That means that daily use of products that contain a high amount of fragrance, whether the fragrant ingredients are synthetic or natural, will lead to chronic irritation that can damage healthy collagen production, lead to or worsen dryness, and impair your skin’s ability to heal. Fragrance-free is the best way to go for all skin types. [5,6,10,11,12]
Unfortunately, your nose cannot determine from the smell of a product whether or not it contains irritating fragrant ingredients. Many beneficial skincare ingredients (antioxidants, for example) have a natural fragrance, and some even smell great! However, distinguishing between the potent antioxidants that actually reduce inflammation and the ingredients that are added to make you “shop with your nose” and that can cause irritation, isn’t easy.
Like anything in skincare, the basic information is on the ingredient label, but because those ingredients read like a college chemistry course, they are a challenge to decipher, especially if fragrant plant oils are listed only by their Latin names in place of the more obvious “fragrance.”
Everyone Has Sensitive Skin
Most of us, to one degree or another, have sensitive skin; that is, our skin reacts negatively to the environment and can react negatively to what we put on it. Regardless of your skin type or concerns, irritation inflames the skin, and that’s always damaging, regardless of what the source of the irritation happens to be and whether or not you see a reaction on the surface. [2,5,7] Lots of things irritate our skin; some we can avoid and some we can’t, but we can mitigate much of it by using great skincare products and being smart about avoiding sun damage.
No matter how you think your skin reacts to different aspects of the environment and to the products you use, we are all sensitive to irritation and inflammation, and the resulting damage.
As mentioned above, whether you know it or not, you have sensitive skin. If you are going to take the best possible care of your skin, it’s essential you take the same precautions that someone with more obviously sensitive skin takes: Regardless of your skin type, treat your skin as gently as you possibly can. Whether you think of your facial skin as normal, oily, dry, or acne-prone, you still need to be gentle and avoid things that cause irritation as much as possible. Doing so is a key step to getting and keeping the skin you want!
You Have to Be Gentle
Everyone’s skin will react negatively to irritating skincare ingredients. So, for the overall health of your skin (and because irritation is so terrible for skin), anything you can do to treat yours gently is a very good thing. We mention this many times throughout this book, not to be repetitive, but so it really sinks in—being gentle is truly that important!
Always keep in mind that treating skin gently and using well-formulated, non-irritating skincare products encourages normal collagen production, helps maintain a smooth and radiant surface, helps the skin better protect itself from environmental damage, prevents or reduces excess oil production, and makes enlarged pores smaller. The chapters that follow explain exactly how that works for each skin type and skin concern. In the meantime, we guarantee you will see potentially dramatic improvements to your skin simply by avoiding irritating products and learning to be gentle.
Rules for Skincare Success
One of the most important ways to achieve the best skin of your life is to follow the fundamental rules of great skincare.
Be consistent. For best results, a great skincare routine should be carried out regularly. Some products you’ll use once or twice daily, others every other day, or once a week, but consistency is the key. It’s also important to use products in the right order. For example, sunscreen should be the last skincare product you apply before makeup so as not to dilute it with other skincare products; we explain this more in Chapter 6, Sun Damage and Sunscreen Questions Answered.
Don’t expect instant results. Although there are products that can have dramatic, overnight results, they are the exception; it takes time for most products to really make a difference. Even more important, continued use is necessary to maintain the results. For example, products for skin discolorations take at least three to six weeks to begin showing results assuming, of course, that the product is well-formulated and that you’re using a sunscreen every day. Because sunscreen protects skin every day and prevents damage, you won’t see a dramatic difference in skin discolorations if you don’t apply it daily. Many skincare products are about long-terms benefits and preventing what would happen if you didn’t use the products.
Your skin must be “fed” daily. As you age, and mostly because of sun damage, your skin can’t naturally replenish the substances it needs to be healthy. Great skincare products give those substances back to skin, but they get used up quickly and must be replenished on a constant, daily basis. Don’t cheat your skin by not giving it the ingredients it needs to maintain a beautiful, healthy appearance, now and years from now.
Skin doesn’t repair itself only at night. We hear this repeatedly—“that skin repairs itself only at night”—we discuss it here because it is sheer nonsense! All of our skincare woes are happening all day long, whether from the environment, sunlight, aging, health, or endlessly fluctuating hormones. Skin needs help, day and night, to repair and soothe this damage for it to be healthy and to prevent more damage from taking place. Your skin needs brilliantly formulated products day and night, with the only difference being that for daytime one of those products must be a well-formulated sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher.
One product can’t do it all. All skin types (especially if you have multiple concerns) require a variety of products to give you the best skin of your life. Aside from the basics (such as a cleanser, toner, exfoliant, sunscreen, and moisturizer), if you have breakouts, rosacea, very dry skin, extremely sun-damaged skin, combination skin, skin discolorations, or other concerns, you will need to address those with treatment products designed for that specific problem.
Don’t skip using a leave-on exfoliant. We explain this more in Chapter 4, Which Skincare Products You Need and Which Ones to Avoid, but the gist of it is that the benefit to your skin can be astounding. A leave-on exfoliant is one of the few products that can produce dramatic results overnight, and every night of your life, for that matter. Helping skin shed the excess buildup of accumulated skin cells, caused mostly from sun damage or having oily/combination or breakout-prone skin, can make all the difference in the world. It isn’t a cure; think of it as maintenance that you perform consistently to take excellent care of your skin.
Do consider a retinol product. There are so many reasons to apply a well-formulated retinol product it’s hard to know where to begin. We discuss how retinol relates to specific skin types and concerns in subsequent chapters, but for now, just know that this cell-communicating ingredient helps all skin types generate healthy cells, unclog pores, smooth skin, and reduce wrinkles and breakouts. If there were a single, “miracle” ingredient in skincare, this would be at or near the top of the list. Just to be clear, retinol is not the only ingredient skin needs, but it is one of those ingredients with special properties that work for everyone, and the results can be fairly immediate.
Pay attention when your skin changes. There are all sorts of things that can cause your skin to change seemingly overnight. Many women know what can happen to their skin when they get their period. For others they experience skin changes during perimenopause or menopause. For both genders, seasonal weather shifts, traveling to a different climate, and extreme stress can all change what is happening to your skin. Given that your skin is changing, you may need to adapt your skincare routine accordingly. For example, even though you may never have had a breakout growing up