The low down on what happens and how to combat the effect. [Brought to you by Placecol and Skinderm]

Our skin is a living and breathing organ. In fact, it is our first line of defense against the world. Keeping our skin strong and healthy helps us to ultimately be strong and healthy too.

Our skin can’t breathe as the mask forms a barrier to free movement of air. In addition, when we exhale our breath is made up of various gases one of the highest concentrations is nitrogen gas.

Excess exposure to nitrogen leads to unhappy skin as nitrogen is an irritant and is corrosive, leading to sensitivity and skin irritation.

Sweating releases toxins onto the skin and with nowhere to go they interact with the biome creating imbalance on the skin and causing skin irritation and breakouts. That is why PH balancing our skins is more important than ever.

Breakouts have become common for many, due to unhealthy environment created on the skin. Altered PH, high toxicity and sweating are a few of the culprits.

Sensitivity for many is also evident, partly due to the basic fact that the environment under the mask is not ideal, some masks are treated with antiviral/antibacterial components which can create sensitivity.

Barrier impairment is also evident due to constant friction of the mask against the skin as well as the general change to the skin’s homeostasis.

Touching the face to adjust the mask leads to exposure to the virus and other bacteria as well as day to day dirt and impurities. People are touching their faces more and more which is completely against protocol but they are often not cognoscente of the risk and it becomes a habit we consciously have to break.

The Placecol and Skinderm Solution

1. PH balancing the skin is more important now than ever. Our skins PH is optimum at a ph of 5.5. This is in fact acidic and is part of our skins natural defense mechanism.
   When the homeostasis of our skin is disrupted ad our ph is altered it leads to a cascade of problems on our skins as the biomes [present on our skins to protect us die off and harmful ones grow due to the change in environment. Placecol Calming Mist/ Illumine Anti-oxidant mist/Skinderm Pure Toner
2. Effective cleansing is imperative: The way we cleanse our skin is essential. We must use a good quality cleanser that is PH balance and gentle and non-stripping. Our cleansers should be part of the skin’s recovery process. Clean start facial wash/clean start facial milk Skinderm Pure cleansing milk /Skinderm pure cleansing gel
3. Double cleansing in the evenings is recommended
4. Anti-oxidant power
   Placecol and Skinderm are full of powerful botanicals delivering exceptionally high levels of anti-oxidants to boost skins immunity
5. Desensitizing serums are necessary to reduce the irritation we are all experiencing on our skins. Placecol Rescue therapy and Skinderm Calming Elixir refresh and calm the skin with anti-inflammatory and refreshing menthol as one of the key ingredients.
6. Hydrating serums and masks replace hydration lost by revolumising the skin. Placecol Optimum hydration mask or Skinderm hydrating repair mask. Use this as a nigh-time sleep mask
7. Clay masks help to deep clean the impurities from the pores so as to minimize breakout. Try Placecol’s 2 in one clearing clay mask which is a 2 in 1 product combining dep cleaning clay with spherical exfoliation beads or our Skinderm pure clarifying mask.
8. Gentle exfoliation helps the skin however over exfoliation or aggressive exfoliation damages the skins barrier function and will make it more susceptible to sensitivity and breakouts. Our gentle exfoliating refiner from Placecol or Skinderm’s Glo pads are gentle exfoliators with no aggressive granules but rather harnessing the natural acids from nature.
9. High quality masks from breathable fabrics as natural as possible with minimal synthetics as the more synthetic the more irritation and sweating.
10. Give sufficient time when safe to do so to remove the mask and breath in oxygen rich air
11. Make sure mask fits comfortably