I want to start out with the caveat that I don’t think these products are bad (in the same way I don’t think facial retinol serums are an issue). In fact, these ingredients can do wonders for the appearance of the skin: BHAs can help improve acne, retinols can boost collagen production, and AHAs can help brighten tone and fade dark spots. All things I can get behind.
However, I become weary when these powerful actives aren’t paired with the right recovery products—or that people aren’t being mindful of the ways in which they’re using them. Just like I would never encourage someone to use a BHA cleanser, followed by a retinol serum, and wrapped up with an AHA cream all in one go—folks need to pare back their body care routines before they trigger damage.
My TikTok feed is inundated with folk’s “getting ready for summer” routines that contain multiple exfoliating steps. These are routines that are ripe for irritation and barrier impairment, leading to damaged and sensitized skin.
See, acting as a barrier is your skin’s most important function. “It protects us from mechanical injury, low humidity, cold, heat, sun, wind, chemical exposure, bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other pathogens,” explains board-certified dermatologist Hadley King, M.D., stating that, “a healthy barrier is critical to normal skin function.”
When we get in the way of that function, our skin won’t be able to keep water trapped in, protect us from free radical damage, and may even lead to chronic skin diseases like eczema.
It’s not just the mechanical and physiological concerns to worry about: Long-term, chronic inflammation from a weakened skin barrier can lead to signs of premature aging over time. It’s a concept called inflammaging, and it affects your body just as it can affect your face. Inflammaging on the body may look like dark spots, loss of elasticity, fine lines, and crepines—yes, in the hopes of solving a skin concern, you can make it worse by overdoing it.
