What exactly is sensitive skin?

Tightness, inflammation, redness. Sensitive skin is above all reactive. It needs special care and attention to avoid damage. Discover the right gestures to adopt to care for sensitive skin with delicacy.

Sensitive or intolerantskin is not a skin type, but rather a type of skin. A person with oily or dry skin may also have sensitized skin at some point in their life.

Sensitive skin is hyper-reactive skin that is accustomed to tingling, heating, tingling and itching, sometimes accompanied by redness. These sensations of discomfort appear exacerbated in response to stimuli that would not trigger irritation in normal skin.

Which products are right for reactive skin?

The ideal is to respect the hyper-sensitivity of reactive epidermis by choosing hypoallergenic, high-tolerance formulas that will relieve irritation and calm over-reactivity.

Oatmeal is particularly well-suited to soothe itching and eczema, and is incorporated into a wide range of skin care products, from skincare and hair care products to bath water for a moisturizing and regenerating dip.

What factors sensitize the skin?

Does our skin react instantly (and disproportionately) to certain products or situations? It may be sensitive. So we need to treat it with skin care products that respect its sensitivity, and be extremely gentle so as not to damage it further.

This hyper-sensitivity is due to a reduction in the skin's tolerance threshold. The more sensitive the skin becomes, the lower its tolerance threshold.

It can be explained by various factors:

  • An inflammatory reaction that develops on contact with irritating chemical particles such as certain soaps, household detergents or pollution.
  • Barrier dysfunction of the epidermis. This phenomenon promotes skin dehydration and, above all, the penetration of potentially irritating agents.
  • Psychological factors such as stress.
  • Hormonal factors (menstrual cycle, menopause).
  • Physical factors: sun, temperature changes (hot/cold), wind, air conditioning, heating, hard water.