Skincare for Sensitive Skin

If your skin reacts to things, the answer is almost never a stronger product. It is a shorter ingredient list and fewer variables.

Sensitive skin is not one condition. For some people it means visible redness, for others stinging on application with nothing to see, and for others a barrier that has been worn down until everything is uncomfortable. What the three have in common is that working out the cause requires changing one thing at a time — which is impossible if you cannot tell what is in the products you own.

How we approach it

Short formulas built on ingredients skin recognises. Aloe leaf juice, jojoba oil, sodium PCA, hyaluronic acid, camomile and linden flower extract. Mild surfactants such as coco-glucoside rather than harsh ones. Dermatologically tested formulas throughout.

And a rule we apply without exception: every product declares its fragrance status on the front of the label. Six of our products are genuinely fragrance-free with no parfum, no essential oils and no masking scent. Four are lightly scented and say so, with the scent named. One is flavoured, and says that.

We do this because a great many products sold for sensitive skin are fragranced, including some with “sensitive skin” in the product name. You should be able to tell at a glance, from across a bathroom shelf, without reading a word of small print.

Where to start

If you are currently reacting to things, strip back. A gentle cleanser and one light fragrance-free moisturiser, twice a day, and nothing else for two weeks. Add one product at a time after that, with a week between each, so that if something does not suit you, you know which thing it was.

If your skin is dry as well as reactive, an overnight cream does more than a daytime one, because skin loses most of its water while you sleep.

What we cannot tell you

Whether a product will suit you. Nobody can, and any brand claiming otherwise is guessing. What we can do is print the full ingredient list legibly on the pack, declare the fragrance status on the front, and be specific on every product page about who a product is not for.

If it does not get on with your skin, we will refund you within 30 days and you can keep the bottle.