6 Ingredients to Strengthen Your Skin Barrier This Winter

Your skin’s moisture barrier is your body’s first line of defense against the world, which means that it bears the brunt of seasonal shifts, changes in climate, and your skin-care habits (like excessive exfoliation). That makes skin barrier repair an essential step in any regimen, even if you don’t have genetically sensitive skin.

That’s because the skin barrier needs to be healthy in order to carry out its all-important duties, which include “helping the skin hold onto moisture and protecting itself from outside stress, irritants, and infections,” says Y. Claire Chang, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York. And conversely, a damaged skin barrier “can lead to dryness, sensitivity, inflammation and irritation,” she says. “Supporting the skin barrier with effective skin-care ingredients is the simplest and most effective way to maintain skin health.”

Active ingredients like ceramides, cholesterol, and other lipids are staples among face moisturizers and balms, since they simply supplement and replenish the compounds that already exist in the moisture barrier. But others, such as panthenol and natural moisturizing factors, play a lesser known (but still vital) role in restoring the skin barrier—making them worth seeking out in products as well.

Also worth keeping in mind: As important as what you use to repair the skin barrier is what you don’t use. To that end, “avoid components that can dry out or damage the skin barrier, such as alcohol, abrasive mechanical exfoliators, or just over-exfoliating in general,” says Carmen Castilla, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York.

With all this in mind, consider these the ingredients worth adding to your routine to keep your skin happy and healthy all winter and beyond.

In This Story:

Ceramides

Ceramides may arguably be the best known ingredient for skin-barrier repair, and understandably—since they’re a natural component of the moisture barrier. In fact, these lipids account for roughly 50% of the skin barrier, according to Dr. Chang. While she explains that “they act as the glue between skin cells to prevent water loss and maintain skin integrity,” their supply isn’t constant. Their levels can drop as we age, as well as from skin-care habits (like cleansing too often or by harsh surfactants and exfoliants) and environmental factors (such as dry winter weather).

Fortunately, it’s not especially difficult to replenish their levels with a dedicated ceramide moisturizer. “Topical ceramides help replace this natural lipid, restore barrier integrity, and improve hydration,” says Dr. Chang. She’s especially fond of the Aestura Atobarrier365 Cream, as “it uses a biomimetic ceramide complex that closely mirrors the skin’s natural lipid structure, making it incredibly effective yet gentle,” she says.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is an unsung hero in skin care. While it garners attention in other areas of health—usually negative—that’s not the case in skin, where cholesterol serves as a critical component of the skin barrier. However, ceramides, cholesterol, and other lipids (namely, free fatty acids) “need to exist in the right ratio to truly repair barrier damage,” says Dr. Chang. That’s because they all work in coordination: “Cholesterol helps organize the ceramides appropriately and helps improve the flexibility of the skin barrier, while free fatty acids help seal cells together,” says Dr. Castilla.

In these optimized proportions, they can normalize barrier function and improve hydration in the skin. SkinCeuticals Triple Lipid Restore 2:4:2 is a gold standard among these formulations, since it delivers cholesterol, fatty acids, and ceramides in this ideal ratio; Dr. Castilla recommends it not only for those with dry skin, but also for anyone using harsh, barrier-compromising ingredients like retinoids.

Panthenol

Dr. Chang calls panthenol a “quiet hero” for skin-barrier repair. (You may recognize it as provitamin B5, a longtime staple in hair-care products to soften and strengthen strands.) But for your skin, it serves as both a humectant—meaning it attracts water into skin—as well as a soothing agent. And, as the latter, “it has skin-healing and anti-inflammatory properties that reduces redness, irritation, and sensitivity,” says Dr. Chang. She particularly likes it in La Roche-Posay’s Cicaplast Baume B5. “It’s a soothing healing cream that helps protect and repair dry skin, formulated with shea butter, glycerin, and panthenol,” she says.

Niacinamide

You may already know and appreciate niacinamide for its versatile skin-care benefits. After all, “niacinamide is a strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ingredient known for its ability to repair oxidative damage and fight skin aging,” says Dr. Chang. But it also actively strengthens the skin barrier, too, “by supporting production of ceramides and balancing oil production,” she says. (One recent study actually found that it penetrates the skin barrier and alters its structure to make it more flexible in dry conditions.)