A Guide to Choosing Skincare for Sensitive Skin

Building a skincare routine that encourages glowing, hydrated skin can feel like an arduous task if you have sensitive skin. Adverse effects to new products can be disheartening (not to mention expensive) and the trial-and-error phase can be tricky to overcome.

The key to finding the best sensitive skincare is in understanding what your unique skin type needs are. The payoff is worth it because the right skincare routine for sensitive skin can actually help alleviate your sensitivity.

Along with the help of our skincare experts, we have put together this comprehensive guide so you can better understand the causes and characteristics of skin sensitivity, the main ingredients to use and avoid, and the best skincare products for sensitive skin.

What is sensitive skin?

Let's start with the source. Sensitive skin is defined by a responsive nature to external factors such as topical products, environmental changes or contact with certain fabrics.

“This is basically your skin ‘overreacting’ to outside triggers,” explains Brittany Hanchard, Lancôme Australia’s national skincare expert. “Skin sensitivity is a large spectrum, so it presents in a number of different ways. Often, how your skin behaves to external stressors can be linked to the strength of your skin moisture barrier.”

What causes sensitive skin?

Your skin moisture barrier is housed within the stratum corneum (the uppermost layers of skin)¹ and has the pivotal role of preventing water loss and keeping out harmful stressors.² Sensitive skin types tend to have fewer lipids (natural oils) in the stratum corneum³, which reduces the function of the skin moisture barrier. When this function is compromised, external aggressors can penetrate more easily – exacerbating skin sensitivity.²

When a response in sensitive skin occurs, it can be the result of contact with a variety of stimuli, such as:

Harsh skincare products
Cosmetics
Soaps
Astringents (like alcohol or witch hazel)
Laundry detergent
Fragrances
Fabrics (such as wool or nylon)
Cold or dry weather
Humidity
Extreme weather changes (like wind)
UV rays
Pollution²

Given the prevalence of these common triggers in our day-to-day lives, the demand for skincare for sensitive skin remains high.

Sensitive skin characteristics

Knowing the specific ways your skin reacts to aggressors will help you to build a skincare routine that works for you. By watching how your skin behaves, you’ll be able to better understand your skin’s unique type – and give it the specific care it requires.

Signs of sensitive skin can include:

Bumps or roughness
Blemishes
Redness
Dryness
Flakiness
Tightness
Tingling or itching sensations

If you experience these hallmarks of sensitivity as a response to external products, you probably have sensitive skin. However, it’s possible to experience sensitivity as a skin concern in conjunction with your skin type. Brittany breaks it down for us:

“We tend to talk about sensitive skin as a skin type – but it’s a little more complicated than that. Sensitivity is more of a barometer for how reactive your skin is, so you can have dry, sensitive skin or even oily, sensitive skin. In these cases, the best face care products for sensitive skin would also be tailored to your needs as a dry or oily skin type.”

Ingredients to use and avoid for sensitive skin

If you have sensitive skin, we suggest getting up close and personal with the ingredients on the back of skincare products. While every complexion is different, some ingredients are more volatile than others, drying out the skin and heightening sensitivity. Below are some common ingredients you might avoid in your skincare for sensitive skin regime:

Alcohol
Fragrances
Essential oils like lavender or frankincense oil
Benzoyl peroxide
Sulfates
Retinoids
Chemical exfoliants (this is largely down to the individual; you might find you can gradually incorporate some AHAs or BHAs into your skincare ritual)

When it comes to supporting sensitive skin, you can focus on comforting ingredients that boost hydration and support the skin moisture barrier. Here are some hero ingredients to include in your sensitive skincare routine:

Ceramides
Niacinamide
Hyaluronic acid
Squalane
Vitamin E
Aloe vera
Glycerin
Bisabolol
Probiotics

How to build a skincare routine for sensitive skin

The best skincare products for sensitive skin utilise gentle, hydrating ingredients that comfort your skin and fortify the skin moisture barrier. You don't need an exhaustive list of products to keep sensitivity at bay. Generally, a less-is-more approach works well for a sensitive skin routine – so feel free to skip the exfoliants and active ingredients.

Your skincare regime can include a cleanser, serum, moisturiser and SPF (morning only). The goal is to nourish and protect the skin, keeping out harmful external stressors.

Read on as we guide you through our simple, four-step skincare routine for sensitive skin.

Step 1: Use a gentle cleanser morning and night

A cleanser plays a vital role in a skincare routine for sensitive skin since it works to remove dead skin cells and impurities on the skin surface that can induce sensitivity. You’ll want to look out for gentle cleansers that won’t rob the skin of essential moisture, such as our Crème Mousse Confort Face Cleanser. This creamy, non-drying formula perfectly balances cleansing with comfort – encouraging softer, more nourished skin.

Step 2: Apply a face serum with strengthening ingredients

Think of the serum step as your sensitive skin routine's deep dive. The potent ingredients in serums penetrate into the skin’s deeper layers and build up moisture and brightness. Potency can sometimes have a negative effect, however, so make sure your serum contains ingredients that nurture the skin moisture barrier. Our top pick is the Advanced Génifique Sensitive Serum, a serum formulated to reduce signs of sensitivity like dryness, redness and itching sensations with 98% pure antioxidants and probiotic extracts. Advanced Génifique Sensitive Serum is also enriched with hyaluronic acid for dry and sensitive skin support.

Step 3: Use a targeted moisturiser

When determining the best face care products for sensitive skin, it doesn’t get more important than moisturiser. Moisturisers hydrate the skin by creating a barrier between your top layer of skin and external stressors. When your skin is properly hydrated it can better defend itself from said stressors, and also appears softer and brighter.

For your sensitive skin, use a day cream like the Hydra Zen Gel Cream, which is formulated to comfort skin and reduce redness with a combination of centifolia rose extract, biotech hyaluronic acid and biotech bisabolol. Skin is most permeable at night, so applying an evening cream like the Hydra Zen Neurocalm Night Cream will rejuvenate your skin for the next day. You might also pair your moisturiser with a nourishing eye cream suitable for sensitive skin. Our Advanced Génifique Eye Cream helps strengthen the skin moisture barrier and shield your delicate eye contour area from external aggressors.

Step 4: Always use SPF in the morning

Your morning skincare routine for sensitive skin should finish with SPF, which is going to help shield your skin from harmful UV rays that damage and prematurely age the skin.

Sun damage can also threaten the integrity of your skin moisture barrier, which we know exacerbates skin sensitivity. So after moisturising, finish with a sunscreen or our UV Expert BB Cream Complete SPF 50+, which brightens skin tone and protects your sensitive skin against pollution, as well as UVA and UVB rays.

If you want to learn more about the hero ingredients making up your skincare for sensitive skin routine, explore the top benefits of niacinamide for your skin.

¹https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513299/
²Barel, André O., et al. “Handbook of Cosmetic Science and Technology.” CRC Press eBooks, 2014, https://doi.org/10.1201/b16716.
³https://academic.oup.com/bjd/article/186/5/875/6705669
⁴https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5595600/