This Is The Year You'll Focus On Your Skin Health

Protecting and respecting your skin barrier is a trend that isn't going anywhere. It's time to focus on what matters to get your skin in the pink of health

- Vanessa Chia

In the past year, viral skincare trends like skin cycling, skin flooding, skin slugging and skinimalism have taken over social media. And at the heart of all these viral skincare trends is the focus on repairing our skin barrier, and in turn, restoring our skin health.

After all, healthy skin is beautiful skin.

Protecting our skin barrier is not a new concept. It’s what doctors and skin experts have been talking about for years. But thanks to the pandemic, the focus on our skin’s health has been thrusted into the limelight more than ever. And this year, we’re prioritising how we care for our skin’s health, and not just its aesthetics.

So if you’re breaking out, combating dryness or dealing with hyper-sensitive and reactive skin, it might be time to refocus on what truly matters — your skin barrier.

We get two skin experts to shed light on how our skin barrier protects us and what we can do to get our skin in the pink of health for 2023.

1 Your skin barrier is the first line of defence against external aggressors

Essentially, the skin barrier is the outermost layer, the stratum corneum, of the skin. “As its name suggests, the skin barrier has an important role in protecting against moisture loss and keeping the skin pH balanced so that it remains plump and in optimal health,” says Dr Rachel Ho, medical director of LA Clinic.

Think of it as a ‘brick wall ’, says Dr Lynn Chiam, a dermatologist at Children & Adult Skin Hair Laser Clinic, consisting of “tough skin cells called corneocytes (the bricks) that are bound together by mortar-like lipids”. It is “the first line of defence between us and the external environment”.