Facial Serums and The Skin Barrier

Article Published: 28 January 2023

Discover the importance of the skin moisture barrier and how using a face serum may help to support the skin barrier function for healthier looking skin.

The skin’s moisture barrier is an incredibly important portion of your skin and it can affect the way your skin looks and feels. Beyond understanding your skin barrier and how it works, you may be curious to know what products can you use to help support your skin barrier for healthier skin? A face serum is a good place to start.

What is the Skin’s Moisture Barrier?

The skin’s moisture barrier sounds like a complicated term, and for the most part it is. In the simplest terms we asked Dr. Annie Black, Lancôme’s International Scientific Director to easily explain what exactly the skin barrier is. “The skin barrier is the outer surface of the skin. It acts as a powerful shield to help protect against external aggressors. It works to keep the good stuff in and the bad stuff out. When your skin barrier’s natural balance is compromised it can leave your skin more vulnerable and more sensitive.”

What Are the Benefits of a Strong Skin Moisture Barrier?

A strong skin moisture barrier can be an important part of keeping skin healthy, moisturized, and free from dryness. Dryness of the skin is often linked to a damaged skin barrier or skin barrier with an impaired barrier function₁. Having a damaged skin barrier can also cause inflammation in the skin which overall can result in an increase in the signs of aging, fine lines, wrinkles and saggy skin₂, so having a healthy, hydrated skin barrier can result in visibly healthy-looking skin and improve the look of visible signs of aging. Learn more about the skin barrier with our ultimate guide to your skin barrier.

What Face Serums Can Help with the Skin Barrier?

Although a lot of face serums aren’t specifically designed to help with the skin barrier, adding a face serum with ingredients or science that has been shown to help support a healthy skin barrier is a smart idea.

Moisturizing the skin can help to fortify the skin barrier and as moisturizing the skin helps to keep water in skin and reduce trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL) it can help with the overall health of your skin. TEWL describes the process by which water escapes from skin and evaporates, leaving skin parched and slack; a damaged skin barrier makes this even more likely. This is why using a hydrating or moisturizing face serum can be a great choice when you’re looking to care for the skin barrier. Hyaluronic Acid can help the skin barrier thanks to its ability to bind water — topical application of hyaluronic acid can increase the hydration of the skin barrier thanks to its humectant abilities₃. You can find Hyaluronic Acid in our Advanced Génifique Face Serum.

Our Face Serum for Skin Barrier Support

When it comes to selecting a face serum to help with skin barrier support, we suggest our Advanced Génifique Face Serum – our face serum which helps strengthen the skin moisture barrier in just one drop. Formulated with 10% Bifidus Prebiotic, Hyaluronic Acid, and Vitamin Cg, this anti-aging serum helps to improve the look of dull skin and the signs of aging for visibly glowing skin.

How to Use a Face Serum to Help the Skin Barrier

Adding in a face serum to help support with the skin barrier and skin moisture barrier can be a great option to help with the look and feel of skin, but ultimately you also need to ensure that when including a face serum for this reason to your skincare routine, you should also look to solidify a good skincare routine to serve as a base.

After cleansing and toning the skin it is time to apply Advanced Génifique Face Serum first before other serums. With its silky, light-weight formula the face serum easily and quickly absorbs into the skin. After applying the face serum, follow with your other serum or moisturizer.

For the daytime it’s important to also use sunscreen each day. Using sunscreen in your skincare routine can help to protect the skin against environmental damage and exposure to UVA and UVB rays which can often account for skin damage and damage to the skin moisture barrier₄. For daily SPF protection try out UV Expert Defense SPF 50+ Primer and Moisturizer, with its lightweight gel like consistency it instantly absorbs into the skin without leaving a greasy or sticky look or feel.

Learn more skincare tips on how to keep the skin barrier strong and protected.

1 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14572299/
2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18254816/
3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3050617/
4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3479513/