Your healthy skin barrier.

We all know what healthy skin looks like - skin that is in tact, seemingly glowing, smooth, and moisturized. Our skin is designed to keep moisture in, while keeping out dirt, debris, pollutants, and micro-organisms that can harm our bodies.

But what happens when our skin barrier becomes compromised? You may experience a number of symptoms: dryness, irritation, itchiness, redness, flakiness, inflammation, infections, rough patches, dermatitis, rosacea, eczema or psoriasis.

What causes our skin barrier to break down?

There are many reasons, and often it is a combination of factors: exposure to pollution, chemicals, and harsh detergents, too much sun exposure, stress, steroids and other medications, and even some common skincare ingredients like retinoids and glycolic acid can weaken the skin barrier. (We will talk about all of these in time!)

So how to we help our bodies repair our skin barrier if it has become comprised? We need to know how our skin works!

The external layer of our skin - the outer layer of the epidermis - is often compared to a brick wall. The bricks and mortar are made up of lipids, ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids. Exposure to harmful aggressors described above, along with poor nutrients, will cause the "mortar" to break down and our "bricks" to weaken - allowing the damaging environmental factors to access and harm our skin.

So what can we do?

Aside from minimizing exposure to the harmful environmental factors (including stress), we can feed our skin the best ingredients to cleanse, nourish and protect our skin barrier.

 What does our skin need?

To keep this as simple as possible, the skin barrier needs to be clear of debris and environmental pollutants, it needs nutrients to repair the "bricks and mortar," and it needs moisture protection.

Here are the most important ingredients your skin needs:

1. Humectants help your skin retain water.
2. Emollients coats the skin to prevent further water loss.
3. Ceramides are fatty molecules our epidermis needs.
4. Antioxidants such as vitamins C and E repair damage and defend against UV exposure and pollution.

The best part? All of these ingredients can be found in nature! And all of our healing body butters have these ingredients.

THIS IS WHY BRANCH & VINE HEALING BODY BUTTERS WORK.

We encourage you to read about the ingredients in each blend. Your skin will love you for feeding and protecting it. SOOTHE is one of our favorites for helping your body heal your skin!