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Some skin disorders can also resemble irritated skin. Rosacea, psoriasis and eczema sufferers also have the same skin reactions as folks with sensitive skin. Even people with normal skin can develop sensitive skin if they use the wrong skin care products, eat the wrong foods or treat their skin the wrong way. Sensitive skin is defined by skin irritation that results in either redness, rashes, itches, swelling, stinging sensation, bumps, flaking or a combination of these symptoms. Fragrance I get really concerned when people judge a moisturiser or any other skin care product’s effectiveness by the scent of the product. Women in particular make purchases based on the scents they like and marketers know this. This is why over 90% of skin care products are fragranced. Just because a product smells like a flower, fruit or perfume, that's no indication of it’s effectiveness, irritancy potential, or whether it’s good for your skin. Pretty much all fragranced products have a good chance of irritating the skin. Fragrance is used by cosmetic chemists to mask the smell of the product or used as a selling point to get people to buy based on smell. I hope you’ll realise that fragrance -- particularly the synthetic forms -- offers no benefit to the product or the skin. People don't buy a car based on how it smells, neither do they buy a home or mobile phone that way. When buying skin care, look at the ingredients, not how it smells. If you have sensitive skin, fragranced skin care products should be the first to go. If you can’t bear to part with them, at least get non-fragranced products for the face. Also “natural” fragrances from essential oils can also cause irritation to the skin that’s parallel to the reactions from artificial fragrances. Eucalyptus, peppermint or mint, lemon, thyme, linalool, lemongrass and sandalwood are just some examples of essential oils that can irritate skin. I remember accidentally knocking a bottle of diluted eucalyptus oil and only a few drops landed on my skin, but I could feel the sting for hours afterwards. Sometimes, even natural products, with the wrong type of ingredients added can also be bad for sensitive skin. A friend showed me a product he was using to cleanse his face and I was shocked to see “peppermint oil” on the ingredient list, the product described itself as “An invigorating cleanser that wakes up your skin. You can feel the fresh sensation every morning” -- of course it will wake up your skin, your skin is being attacked by peppermint oil stinging the nerves near the surface. Next time you head out to buy skin care products, check the ingredient listing for fragrance, parfume / perfume, and the essential oils I’ve just listed. Buy fragrance free products and save your face. Colours Colourants are the second culprits that can cause skin irritation. Adding artificial colour and even natural colouring agents to skin care can also invoke a skin reaction. Both artificial and some natural colourants are known to cause the skin to be sensitive to sunlight. Chlorophyll and paprika plant derived colours are just two examples of natural colours that can irritate the skin. Particularly paprika! Again, colour is not required for a skin care product to function and provides no benefits to the skin. Avoid creams, lotions and cleansers with brilliant artificial looking colours. With natural products, look at the ingredient listing to see if they’ve added colourants. Alcohol We all know alcohol isn’t good for the body, but it’s also bad for the skin. You skin is the body’s largest organ! I use to think alcohol was a staple ingredient in toners and astringents but now it’s become mainstream in natural and even organic skin care products! Why the certifying bodies allow organic products to have alcohol is beyond me. Why do they use alcohol? We all know alcohol preserves things and it can be used as a solvent, so when companies claim that their skin care products are “preservative free”, it’s not a truthful claim. They do use preservatives (they have to or their products will go rancid and you don’t want that on your skin) and alcohol is that preservative. To utilise alcohol as a preservative, you actually have to use quite a lot of it to be effective (6 - 12%) whereas most other preservatives are used in the ranges of 1-2%. How does alcohol in skin care damage and irritate sensitive skin? Alcohol kills skin cells and also makes the skin barrier more penetrable by damaging it. It can cause dermatitis and inflammation (not good for skin health). Alcohol has also been implicated in causing wrinkles. Any substance that promotes inflammation in the skin will accelerate aging of the skin. Some companies use alcohol to temporarily swell fine lines on the face so it appears “filled”. However, long term, it can add more wrinkles and fine lines. For sufferers of dry, sensitive skin, it’s imperative that you avoid alcohol in skin care (find toners with no alcohol) or the alcohol in these products will continue to dry and irritate. Alcohol can be listed as alcohol, ethyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, SD alcohol, denatured alcohol and grain alcohol. But don’t get scared if you see the word “alcohol”, some ingredients such as cetyl alcohol, cetearyl alcohol and stearyl alcohol are NOT alcohol but are actually waxes which don’t harm the skin. Steam, Saunas & Hot Water I know how much women love getting facials, it’s nice to be pampered. But that doesn’t mean it should be at a cost to your skin. Avoid spas or beauty parlours that have to use steam in their facials. Using heat / steam / hot water on the skin is equivalent to cooking the skin cells and making the skin drier over time. If you have rosacea it’s even more important that you avoid steaming the face or using hot water when showering or washing the face. Steaming the skin or using hot water will damage the top layer of skin and make capillaries rise to the surface. Over time, it thins the skin and the capillaries underneath will become more prominent. Frequent use of saunas and hot tubs will do the same thing. It is such a myth that using steam will improve the appearance of skin. Yes you temporarily come out plump but what you don’t see is your skin becoming drier the more you do it. Damage from steaming and hot water accumulates. You don’t need steam to purge anything from the face. If there are any toxins in the skin, you’re better off exercising and drinking water than to steam the toxins out. And remember, steaming also causes redness -- not a pretty sight on sensitive skin. Scrubs Exfoliating the skin is great to keep skin smooth and renewed, however, if you have sensitive skin, abrasive or physical scrubs (the grainy, gritty scrubs that you can feel) should be avoided, particularly on the face! If you want to exfoliate dead skin off, use a very mild AHA (alpha hydroxy acid) or BHA (beta hydroxy acid) product to get rid of dead skin. But if your skin is really really sensitive, even those should be avoided. Chemical exfoliators are actually more beneficial to the skin than physical scrubs are. Physical scrubs damage the skin as the size isn’t uniform and they exfoliate by scraping randomly on the surface of the skin (it makes me cringe just thinking about it). Depending on the material, they can range from bamboo powder, walnut shell granules (scary), almond meal to sandalwood. Whatever they’re made from, there is a better way to exfoliate the skin on the face and body. Even if your body can’t feel the damage when you use it on yourself, it’s happening. The only place that these physical scrubs should be used for are your heels. Even then, a pumice stone works better there than scrubs. AHA’s work well if you want younger looking skin with a softer texture and fine lines temporarily smoothed. BHA’s work well if you have rosacea or acne and want to exfoliate your skin and deep inside the pores. It will also smooth the skin and helps reduce redness in rosacea sufferers. BHA’s will clean the pores deeper and much better than any physical scrubs can. Save your skin and invest in a good AHA or BHA product. Bar Soaps A whole article was dedicated to why bar soaps are bad for the skin and this applies even more to sensitive skin. It doesn’t matter whether the bar soap is synthetic, made from tallow (lard) or vegetable oils, they’re too alkaline which can irritate sensitive skin even more. They strip moisture from the skin and leave its pH so high that it’s vulnerable to attack by bad bacteria. Soap bars are also a perfect breeding ground for bacteria if they're not left to dry after use. Bar soaps leave the skin dry and tight (it's especially obvious when used on the face) which can encourage flaking. Other irritating ingredients to look out for:
How to look after sensitive skin:
Copyright Cyren Organics 
BBC documentary on allergies & sensitivities to chemicals: "Allergy Planet"
Articles You May Like: Skin Foods, Recessionista Beauty
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