Why is my skin so sensitive

Are you sensitive – specifically, your skin?  If you have sensitivity anywhere, it is frustrating.  You may be wondering, ‘Why is my skin so sensitive’?

Sensitive skin symptoms

If your skin gets irritated easily, you likely have sensitive skin.  Redness and irritation are sure signs.  Your skin may feel raw or even itchy.  It can be so uncomfortable and even embarrassing.  It’s embarrassing because who wants to have red skin?  You may feel like people are staring at your skin and it can be hard to deal with.  Hiding from the world because of your skin sensitivity is debilitating.

Why is my skin so sensitive?

As with everything, there could be several reasons but the two biggest are diet and your skin care regiment, including the products / ingredients.

Let’s look at food first and then we’ll look at the products you are using on your face.

Diet

We don’t want to believe it but what we put in our bodies has a major effect on how we feel and look.  Our skin removes toxins by sweating and if we have an overload of toxins, it can show by acne breakouts and skin redness, irritation, and sensitivity.  You need to take a close look at your diet:

1. How much sugar are you consuming?  You know if it’s too much.
2. What about alcohol?  Are you drinking more than 3 drinks per week?  If so, this needs to change.
3. How about fast food or processed food?  A lot of these choices don’t contain healthful ingredients and you need to start eating a more whole foods diet.
4. Dairy – this one has been up for debate.  What you need to ask yourself is:  ‘how do I feel when I eat dairy?’  If the answer is that you don’t feel well (stomach problems or acne breakouts), you need to stop consuming dairy or change the type of dairy you are eating.

Skin Care products

When I was younger, I had to deal with oily skin and very sensitive skin.  What I noticed was that certain products affected my skin worse than others.  I thought that the expensive products that said they were hypo-allergenic would work for me.  That wasn’t the case.  I learned that everyone was different and that certain ingredients could have an adverse effect on one person whereas another person would have no issues.  It’s important to find the right products for you, whether it’s a moisturizer or even a face scrub sensitive skin.

Fragrance was a huge problem for me – and I mean HUGE.  Any product that contained any fragrance would irritate my skin – not to mention that I would also start sneezing anytime I was around anyone who had used something with a lot of fragrance – and not just perfume or cologne!  Crazy how your body can react to things.   It is telling you something and you just need to listen.  Check the ingredients on your product and make sure it isn’t causing you problems.  This ingredient list might be helpful.

Other products

There are other products that you need to be aware of.  Have you considered your laundry detergent?  Or, what about the dryer sheets you’re using.  All of these may contain chemicals that are irritating your skin.  You can try to make your own versions of these.  See my dryer sheet solution here.

So, to stop skin sensitivity, take a look at what is going in or on your body and start to change things.  I promise you that this can have a dramatic effect on how you feel and look!

If you’re looking for an exfoliator, try our Nutt So Ruff face scrub for sensitive skin.  It’s even a great face scrub for dry skin.  And remember, if your skin tends to be sensitive, you shouldn’t be exfoliating every day.  Check out our article about ‘Can you exfoliate too much‘ for how frequent you should be exfoliating.