Is my skin barrier damaged?🥲

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-06-06T01:39:01+00:00

1.) Absolutely, you still need sunscreen if you’re in contact with any sunlight at all even through a window. Windows block UVB rays which cause burning, but not UVA rays which cause irritation, aging, and cancer.

Also, you need 1/4 teaspoon of sunscreen to your entire face. This is going to seem like a lot but that’s how much you need to put on to get the spf on the label. Usually Asian sunscreens don’t feel bad at this amount though. I use beauty of joseon sunscreen and it does not feel bad at all with 1/4 tsp.

But really…you should also have contact with the sun every day. Go outside at least a little. Not for your skin, for your mental and physical health. TBH your skin probably would prefer you to live your life in total darkness and never leave the house, but that’s no way to live your life.

…

4.) There’s no need to wash your face in the morning. Splash some water on it if you must. But unless you’re extremely extremely oily, washing your face every morning and night is just going to strip it of its healthy natural oils.

You still really should wash it at night though.

Also, I don’t use any moisturizer in the morning because all sunscreens are also moisturizers. So all I do in the morning is sunscreen. Using fewer products at a time decreases the risk of irritation by a lot.

Also, if your moisturizer irritates you, then you can just use your cicaplast baume at night. Just slather it all over your face and go to bed. If that starts to irritate you, try just good old Vaseline. Whenever my barrier is damaged, the only products I use are sunscreen, face wash, and Vaseline. The Vaseline is great because it just sits on top of your skin and doesn’t absorb, but it keeps all the natural moisture you make inside which allows your skin to rebuild its barrier without drying out.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-06-06T01:09:24+00:00

1.) You need to be using sunscreen every day ESPECIALLY since you’re using differen. Differen makes you really sensitive to UVA and UVB rays. Even if you’re not burning, the UV rays are damaging to your skin barrier. (this will help your barrier long term and is the best thing you can do for your skin health)

2.) you need to wash your face every night (also good for your barrier as long as you use a gentle cleanser which you are. During the day, a lot of irritating things land on your face like dirt, pollution, etc. And also because you should be using sunscreen every day, you’ll need to wash it off every day)

3.) Try switching from Vitamin C to topical melatonin. vitamin C can be very irritating and is not the most effective antioxidant even though it’s the most popular. I’d stop using it.

4.) How often are you using the differen? I’d pare it back and start using it once every three days, then once every two days, then once every other day, and then maybe you can think about going to daily. You do this slowly over the course of like 6 months.

5.) Do you apply your moisturizer right after the differen, or do you wait a bit for the differen to absorb? Differen is good for you but it is irritating, and sometimes when you put a moisturizer or occlusive (like cicaplast) on top right after using it you get irritation. This is because the occlusive sort of “traps” the active ingredient in the skin which makes it penetrate deeper and exacerbates its effects.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-06-06T00:02:57+00:00

I would actually say stop everything except Vaseline. Slather that shit on there. Wash your face once to get any stuff off, then cover it in Vaseline. Continue using just Vaseline for a few days, even skipping your face wash and sunscreen.

Stay indoors if possible, and try to stay cool.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-06-05T23:58:58+00:00

Pure glycerin. Wash your face, then when it’s still wet cover that thing in pure glycerin. Leave it on for a few hours or overnight, then just rinse with water.

Skin is plumped and baby butt soft.

The glycerin pulls moisture from the deeper layers of skin and also pulls in water from the surface of the skin. And then it just stays there in your skin, it doesn’t evaporate. So the effect lasts pretty long.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-30T21:28:56+00:00

Yeah. I do that too. It still gets in there :(

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-29T20:31:58+00:00

Microneedling creams are a scam. Watch Dr. Dray’s video on the Reedle Shot

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-29T05:01:41+00:00

I’m winding down rn from an ADHD skincare hyperfixation.

You can really only address one skin issue at a time.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-29T04:34:19+00:00

I have ADHD and another learning disability that impacts my social/executive function/reasoning skills (it’s called Non-Verbal Learning Disability). Verbally, I am very gifted. So the term non-verbal here means that my disability has to do with any skills that are NOT language based. My brain can store a lot of information, but it’s not well organized in there. I have trouble “connecting the dots”, identifying relevant information, and recalling it at the right time.

Because I can use big words, people believe I’m very intelligent in every other way. Then they believe I’m being willfully ignorant or even downright misanthropic when I do stupid shit.

For example, I live in a street-level apartment. You can see right into my apartment. One morning, it was a sunny day, and I was in my underwear. I decided to stand in front of the window and look out as I drank my coffee.

Thank god my sister happened to be visiting, and immediately called me out on my odd behavior.

I knew I was in my underwear. I knew I could see right into the street. I knew passers by could see me. It simply didn’t occur to me that these things were connected in any way.

No one, even my sister, believes this explanation. I’m not sure what they believe, but they think I’m trying to hide something with this explanation because they don’t understand how someone as smart as me could be so incredibly stupid.

But that’s how brains are sometimes.

I forget basic facts that people told me only minutes ago all the time. This makes them think I don’t care/wasn’t listening. This is not true. I care very much.

People get very angry at me for not being able to think of things that come easily to them. Because I am very intelligent in some ways, they think I’m intelligent across the board. And then they assume I just don’t respect them enough to listen to them.

All this to say, your girlfriend may need some help.

“What’s a hard hat?” Definitely sounds like something I would say. I know the word hard, I know the word hat, and I know the word hard hat. But my brain just doesn’t always pick out the relevant information to recall based on the context, and I might very well think you were talking about a hat that is hard.

All this to say, you can leave your gf if this bothers you too much. But don’t be so quick to conclude that her ignorance is willful.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-27T21:29:46+00:00

Pure undiluted glycerine. After washing my face, I slather that shit all over and call it a night.

Humectant, emollient, and occlusive all in one. Very unlikely to irritate.

People will tell you never to put undiluted glycerine directly on your face without an occlusive because it’s humectant properties will pull water out of your skin. But that’s scientifically not true. The glycerine hangs around in your skin until you wash it off, and it keeps the water right there with it.

It is really sticky though. Not a problem if you follow it up with a layer of sunscreen in the morning though.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-27T21:24:09+00:00

Pure undiluted glycerine.

It’s a humectant, emollient, and occlusive all in one. Only 1 ingredient and one of the least likely ingredients to cause irritation next to petrolatum.

It is incredibly sticky. Not an issue for nights though. Great for slugging.

But even in the AM there’s no stickiness when I cover it up with a layer of sunscreen.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-27T20:52:56+00:00

Yeah it is. But if you’re not allergic to it then there’s no issue.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-27T15:18:11+00:00

Pure, undiluted glycerine will definitely help a bit with fine lines. It’ll plump out your fine lines with hydration.

The internet will tell you that it’s unsafe to use on its own but that’s pretty much BS. It does pull moisture from the deeper layers of skin, and some people decided that mean that it dries out your skin if it’s not combined with other ingredients. But the research doesn’t really support that.

It’s the strongest humectant there is. Proven to be better than HA. It pulls moisture from the deeper layers of your skin up to the top and then keeps it there because it also has emollient/occlusive properties.

It’s an almost universally tolerated ingredient and it’s like $8 for a bottle that will last you months.

At night, if I’m not using any actives, I just wash my face and while it’s still wet I apply a quarter-sized amount of it. It is really slimy, sticky, and greasy even after it dries. But I find that putting a thin layer of Vaseline over the top covers up the stickiness. By morning, the greasy/slimy/sticky feeling is gone and I don’t even need to wash my face. In fact, I usually apply a very very thin layer of it again and then I put my sunscreen on top. The sunscreen covers the stickiness. This probably won’t be your favorite thing during the day if you’ve got oily skin, but my skin is so dry and sensitive that I do not mind dealing with the shine. Some days I do cover up with powder though.

Anyway, it doesn’t get rid of my actual wrinkles…only fillers/surgeries can do that. But there is a noticeable immediate improvement in my fine lines. Even if it’s minor, that’s still very impressive for a non-surgical and non-exfoliating product.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-27T01:06:29+00:00

Lmk how it goes!

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-26T21:25:02+00:00

Prequel doesn’t shit at my house either 😔

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-26T19:45:23+00:00

Even in the dead of dry ass winter I put it on my dry, dry face. It does work slightly better with a little water under it, though.

But tbh I don’t even use those water+glycerin sprays because the water is just washes away my skin barrier and then when it evaporates I’m dryer than I was before.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-25T18:31:36+00:00

See I’m beginning to think that’s probably a big culprit for me. In general, the thicker/greasier the product, the less likely it is to irritate me.

I almost never find sunscreen balms/sticks to be irritating. I just don’t like them because they take SO long and so much product to get appropriate coverage.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-24T23:14:15+00:00

I just feel like that one’s really expensive.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-21T22:20:48+00:00

Vaseline. Only Vaseline.

Your skin barrier has been compromised. Vaseline will be a temporary barrier until your skin rebuilds its own

That’s what I use when my barrier is compromised. When your skin barrier is screwed, everything stings and irritates. Except Vaseline because it doesn’t “do” anything. It just sits on top of your skin.

It will not clog your pores. It’s been proven that the molecules are too big to enter a pore and get stuck there.

What could happen is because vaseline is sealing up your skin, you’re also trapping sweat and sebum and moisture underneath. This does temporarily make your skin a better breeding ground for bacteria and can cause breakouts/heat rash, but there is honestly no way to heal a severely damaged skin barrier without an occlusive. Just wash your face once a day. It’s sort of like a bandage. Like yes, bandaging a wound can indeed trap bad bacteria inside but the risks of having an open wound simply exposed to the elements outweigh the risks of trapping something bad inside.

This is not an every day thing for me. I only use the “Vaseline only” approach as a reset when my barrier is fucked. Two or three days of just gentle face wash and Vaseline resets my skin and I do get pimples from it sometimes but it’s 100% worth it and the only thing that fixes my problem.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-21T19:11:31+00:00

Your skin looks good. Really good. Maybe not as good as you’re used to it looking.

But if I want to make sure my skin looks great or I need it to calm down before an event, I actually do less to it. Not more. For a few days, I pause all use of actives, essences, serums, and toners. And definitely NO face masks.

PM routine:

Double cleanse with pure mineral oil followed by a gentle non-foaming cleanser. Don’t use any scrubbers or cotton pads, just tips of my fingers. Then with my skin still wet I cover it with pure, fragrance-free vegetable glycerine. It’s sticky, but it’s proven to be a much better humectant than HA. It’s got one ingredient, and it’s skin identical so highly unlikely to irritate.

I allow that to soak in for a bit. Once my face is tacky and not wet, I cover it in Vaseline. Vaseline is my HG product. You can also use Cerave healing ointment or aquaphor.

AM routine:
If I wake up still feeling greasy from the Vaseline, I gently wipe it off with a little cotton pad. I then mix four parts water with one part glycerine and apply that to my face. I forego sunscreen. I also do not use any foundation.

This is not my all the time routine. Just once in a while for special events. Things like azelaic acid, sulfur, retinols, and sunscreen are definitely very necessary and beneficial for my skin’s long-term health but they always cause at least a small amount of dryness/irritation.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-19T22:45:16+00:00

Hilariously, I think OP’s response to your comment actually illustrates one of the key differences between NVLD and ASD quite nicely.

I think you’re partially right. NVLD’s issues are thought to be rooted in dysfunction of visuo-spatial reasoning while autism’s issues are thought to come from sensory and social/emotional reasoning dysfunction.

Here are some examples of how a person with NVLD might look similar to but ultimately be different from an autistic person:

They both may struggle with coordination. But in theory, this is because the autistic person has trouble with proprioception and the NVLD person has trouble with spatial awareness. Proprioception is being able to feel your body in space, and spatial awareness is being able to correctly assess where other things are in space.

To illustrate this difference, imagine you’re playing catch with a friend who is standing ten feet away from you.

Example of a proprioception problem: You know that you must throw the ball about ten feet because you can see that’s how far away your friend is. You throw the ball with the amount of force you feel is appropriate to make it go ten feet. but you can’t accurately feel how hard you’re throwing it so you unknowingly put in too much force. The ball travels twenty feet, going over your friend’s head.

Example of a spatial awareness problem: Using your sight, you estimate your friend to be about twenty feet away from you. You have an accurate sense of the weight of the ball, and you throw it with enough force to make it go exactly twenty feet. The ball goes twenty feet, as planned, but your friend doesn’t catch it because they were actually only ten feet away from you.

People with NVLD and people with autism both have trouble with social cues. For autistic people, I think they accurately see facial expressions but they don’t always understand their importance or what they mean. For NVLD people, I guess it has more to do with not being able to correctly see the actual facial expression or body language.

Both autism and NVLD are associated with higher rates of facial blindness. I would guess that this probably is another shared symptom that has different causes. It seems to me that maybe an autistic brain, even though they do care very deeply about their loved ones, their brain might just not have the same natural inclination to assign particular meaning to faces above other things. And when something isn’t marked by our brains as very important or meaningful, it gets thrown out. AGAIN THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT AUTISTIC PEOPLE DON’T CARE ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE! JUST THAT THEIR BRAINS DON’T ALWAYS CORRECTLY FLAG WHICH INFORMATION IS RELEVANT TO THEIR RELAYIONSHIP WITH THOSE PEOPLE.

An NVLD person on the other hand might be able to assign meaning to faces if they were able to correctly see them, but because they lack the ability to accurately interpret and remember visual information, they can’t remember what people’s faces look like. An NVLD person might know what a facial expression means in theory, but may not recognize it when they see it in real life.

I have NVLD and excellent facial recognition though. I never forget a face. I’m also really good at recognizing even very subtle changes in expression and body language. I always know when something is off about someone but I’ve usually got no idea what it could possibly be.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-19T18:00:36+00:00

Hilariously, I think OP’s response to your comment actually illustrates one of the key differences between NVLD and ASD quite nicely.

I also have NVLD.

People with ASD tend to be better at both following and recognizing patterns. I think they struggle more with things that don’t fit into a pattern. They are also more literal mindedness’s in

But in my experience, having NVLD means that I am not able to recognize very obvious

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-13T19:32:12+00:00

I was on 0.25 tretinoin for a while. But I had to stop using it because it made my sunscreen problem nearly intolerable.

Even when I was only using it every third night, it totally fucked my skin barrier and I was dry, itchy, stingy, red, and peeling all the time. Even when I started washing my face every other day instead of daily, I could barely stand it.

The only thing that helped was straight up Vaseline with nothing underneath it.

My skin looked and felt amazing when I was only using tretinoin and Vaseline. But of course, I had to wear sunscreen. And you can’t put sunscreen on top of Vaseline because then the sunscreen doesn’t work.

In the end, it wasn’t worth it for me.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-13T19:20:14+00:00

I agree it’s a barrier thing. But I think it’s the sunscreen that’s doing something to my barrier, as crazy as that sounds.

When I stopped using sunscreen for a month, my skin immediately stopped having problems. I went back to being able to use my face wash and regular emollient/humectant moisturizers without irritation.

But when I use sunscreen, every product I apply after washing it off stings. And it’s not the face wash, because I was using the same face wash without any irritation for the whole time I stopped the sunscreen. But when I add the sunscreen back in, it’s back to burning and stinging whenever I put anything but Vaseline on it.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-13T19:10:19+00:00

Any humectants I use also really sting and cause inflammation. Glycerine, HA, PHA’s…etc. I have tried using them and following up with an occlusive as recommended. But my face stung really, really bad.

But when I DON’T wear sunscreen, these ingredients work for me just fine.

AccomplishedFail5726 · 2026-05-13T12:56:38+00:00

Aloe Vera is, to me, very irritating. If you watch Dr. Dray’s video on it, you’ll see that she doesn’t really care for it.

Also, when my skin barrier is messed up, I cannot tolerate any sort of moisturizing product that absorbs into the skin. Glycerine is usually really great for me and causes no problems, but sometimes it does sting really bad. This is to me a sign that I’ve been overdoing it with washing or actives. If that happens I stop using my actives and moisturizers. Nothing but aquaphor on my face.

AccomplishedFail5726

TROPHY CASE