ARE YOU SECRETLY messing up your skin?

Because you might be damaging your derm without even knowing it.

- ERIN REIMEL

You might want to sit down for this: It's very possible that you're making some serious mistakes with your skin. Nope, we're not talking about all those times you've popped pimples (though, pls, pls, pls resist the urge to pick). We're talking about everyday habits that subtly hurt your skin's outermost layer-aka the skin barrier.

SO, WHAT'S THE SKIN BARRIER?

Let's say your fave water bottle gets a huge crack down the side. You'd end up losing most of your water, and gross bacteria could make its way into the bottle, too. Ew.

Your skin, which is made up of hundreds of millions of tiny cells, kind of works the same way. Lipids, or fatty compounds, hold all those cells together, keeping in moisture and nutrients while keeping out dirt/pollution/bacteria (like, say, what's on your phone and just about every other surface you touch).

Those lipids-combined with your skin cells-make up the skin barrier, explains dermatologist Dr. Audrey Kunin. In short? The barrier is responsible for how great your skin looks (or, if you've been messing with it, not so much).

WHAT YOU MIGHT BE DOING WRONG

We've all spent hours scrolling skincare routines on TikTok and wondering how people with gorgeous skin possibly have the time to layer dozens of products on top of each other on the daily.

Spoiler alert: There are much better things you could be doing with your morning/money-and that influencer is probably using a filter.