How to care for atopic skin: choosing components for cosmetics
“Atopic” is translated from Greek as strange, inappropriate. And really, what could be more inappropriate than extreme dry skin, constant itching and the likelihood of secondary infections.
Atopic skin requires its owners to be incredibly collected, constantly caring, monitoring their diet, clothing and cosmetics.
What is atopic dermatitis and its symptoms
Atopic dermatitis is often a chronic disease with periodic relapses and the possibility of long-term remission with thoughtful care and timely treatment.
Initially, this disease was considered one of the manifestations of allergies, but then it was identified as a separate skin disease. It always occurs in infancy. Around 5 years of age, with good care, the situation can improve and the skin will go from atopic to very sensitive and dry. However, manifestations of atopic dermatitis also occur in adulthood.
With atopic dermatitis, you can observe the following manifestations on the skin:
- dryness and roughness, usually occurs on the bends of the joints (elbow bend, under the knee, wrists), behind the ears
- spots and redness, most often appear on the cheeks, what was previously called diathesis
- dry dandruff
- itching. It is the constant itching that distinguishes the manifestations of atopic dermatitis from allergies. If the skin regularly itches, your child or adult is definitely an atopic.
Atopic dermatitis: mechanism of occurrence
Atopic dermatitis is classified as a genetic disease. This means that if there were atopic people in the family and you see similar signs on the skin of a child, then with a high probability it will be atopic dermatitis.
In addition to predisposition, atopic dermatitis can be provoked by a decrease in immunity, the barrier function of the skin and environmental factors.
Atopic dermatitis is caused by a mutation in the gene responsible for encoding the protein filargin. This protein is a component of the membrane of the stratum corneum cells of the skin. In other words, in atopic people, the barrier function of the skin is very much reduced or equal to zero. At the same time, the following increases:
- transepidermal moisture loss
- the probability of bacterial and viral skin diseases (secondary infection)
- skin sensitivity to the sun and environmental factors.
Another feature of atopic skin: a significant imbalance of the microbiome and its excessive spread. Recently, the issue of the connection between atopic dermatitis and intestinal microflora has also been raised.
Features of skin care for atopic people
Proper care is especially important for atopic people. It allows you to put the skin into a state of remission and get rid of all visible signs of the disease. It is very important to follow all the steps. The skin of atopic people needs cleansing, moisturizing and protection.
Cleansing atopic skin
What do you need to take a shower and wash your face? It is a well-known fact that tap water and shower gel are good, but not for atopic skin sufferers.
People with atopic skin need to prepare even water. It is better to replace a shower, especially for children, with a bath. Moreover, the water must be left to stand for 1-2 hours to allow the chlorine to evaporate, or passed through osmotic filters. The water temperature should not exceed 37 degrees. It is better to add softening components and special emulsions designed for atopic skin to the water. The skin contact time with water should not exceed 5 minutes.
Cleansers should also be as gentle as possible. You cannot wash atopic skin with soap, as it has too high an alkaline balance. Use detergents with a pH of 5.0 - 5.5, which contain only delicate surfactants.
Atopic skin should not be rubbed with a washcloth, after water procedures, the skin should be very carefully blotted with a soft towel, under no circumstances rubbed.
Scrubs and peels are strictly prohibited. In general, anything that can damage the already weak upper stratum corneum and hydro-lipid balance is prohibited.
Moisturizing atopic skin
Atopic skin constantly loses moisture. And it needs to be moisturized after each contact with water. Moreover, the moisturizer should be applied to still damp skin within literally 1-3 minutes after contact with the towel. If for healthy skin it is enough to moisturize in the morning and evening, then on atopic skin the cream should be applied as needed and at the first feeling of discomfort, dryness, tightness.
Protection of atopic skin
It is important to remember, so we will repeat once again: atopic skin is skin with disturbances in the stratum corneum, which means its protective functions are greatly reduced. This is what causes extreme moisture loss and reaction to environmental factors. Such skin needs to be protected, and the stratum corneum strengthened. We will talk about the components that can be used for this below.
All clothing that comes into contact with the skin should be natural; nothing has been invented that is better than cotton underwear. Clothing should not fit tightly to the skin, and seams facing outward also help avoid excessive friction. These recommendations apply to infant atopic skin or the skin of adult atopic patients during an exacerbation.
But even during the period of remission, you should exclude synthetic clothing and clothing containing wool.
Cosmetics for atopic patients: components, recipes, recommendations for formulating
Hyperhydration, protection of the stratum corneum, normalization of the skin microbiome, elimination of itching and allergic reactions - these should be the properties of cosmetics intended for atopic skin. Is it possible to make a cream for atopic patients at home, or is it necessary to buy pharmacy products? Here the choice is yours. But in our experience, properly formulated home care with a selection of high-quality components has a beneficial effect on the condition of atopic skin.
But industrial formulations sometimes contain irritating components: mineral oil, fragrances and even alcohol.
What should not be added to cream for atopic skin
The first thing to do is to cross out all fragrances, essential oils, aggressive surfactants, acids and some preservatives from the recipe for cosmetics for atopic patients. If the description of a component mentions a possible allergic reaction, then atopic skin may react badly to such a component, so do not forget about the patch test of ingredients in a mono version before using them in a cosmetic formula. Also, do not forget that natural essential oils and some extracts can cause a negative reaction due to their rich composition.
Moisturizing actives for atopic skin
If you are going to make a cream for atopic people, you should know about skin moisturizing and the different effects of moisturizing components. We wrote about this in the article “How to choose components for moisturizing”. So, in cosmetics for atopic patients, it is worth using a combination of four types of moisturizing components in a complex:
- creating occlusion (lanolin, squalane, base oils, especially butters, emollients)
- retaining moisture on the skin surface (glycerin, hydrolysates, hyaluronic acid, chitosan, konjac mannan, Fucogel)
- moisturizing moisture from the inside (Aquaxyl, Aqua Shuttle, NUF, Prodew)
- osmotic moisturizing components (Betaine, Oligoceane, Sepitonic M4, atomized sea water).
Soothing ingredients
The skin of atopic patients is very reactive and soothing components are simply a must for it. Such innovative actives as Modukine based on milk peptides and AnnonaSens based on cherimoya extract have proven themselves very well. These actives are specially designed for reactive skin with various types of inflammatory reactions and are suitable for atopic skin.
- Modukine - reduces inflammation in the skin at the cellular level, soothes it and restores the skin barrier, in addition, it reduces the level of transepidermal moisture loss.
- Annonasens - an active that eliminates hypersensitivity, itching and redness and also reduces inflammation.
- Another very useful ingredient for atopic skin is Beta-glucan. It has an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and moisturizing effect on the skin. Suitable for very sensitive, atopic skin and skin after stressful situations, such as peeling or other skin-damaging cosmetic procedures.
Ingredients for the skin microbiome
Disturbances in the skin microbiome, that is, the balance of bacteria living on it, greatly complicates the situation for atopic skin. Therefore, in addition to moisturizing and protection, you need to pay attention to the microbiome, the importance of which we wrote about in the article “Microbiome: how to restore facial skin”. Therefore, when developing a formula for cosmetics for atopic skin, do not forget about such components as Biolin P, Inulin, Oxy skin.
Protective components
The barrier function of atopic skin is either completely absent or greatly reduced. That is why components aimed at improving the condition of the stratum corneum are essential in the composition of cosmetic recipes for atopic skin.
In addition to occlusive actives, the so-called DMS actives and phospholipids will help restore the barrier functions of the skin. In general, the principles of corneocosmetics are simply created for atopic skin. We wrote about this in more detail in the article “Phospholipids in cosmetics: benefits and applications”.
Membrane-lipid complex Amisol Trio, Phytostecol, emulsifier Amisol Soft, ceramide complex Ceramide CLR or Ceramide lll - all these components will help strengthen the stratum corneum, reduce trans-epidermal moisture loss and improve the condition of atopic skin.
If you still find it difficult to create a recipe for atopic cream on your own, you can use the recipes on the YouTube channel Cosmetic Kitchen Beurre as a basis. All the recipes we publish are tested and work great.
