Is Your Skin Looking Scary? How to Solve 8 Common Skin Concerns

Spooky season is upon us! And while scary costumes are part of the fun, your skin shouldn’t make you want to scream.

Put scary skin back in the costume box where it belongs with these helpful tips for solving eight common skin concerns. No matter how ghoulish your Halloween makeup may be, these simple skincare tips will ensure that smooth, radiant, healthy skin is hiding just underneath.

Skin Concern #1: Redness + Irritation

Red, irritated skin is often a sign of a compromised moisture barrier. The moisture barrier is a layer of lipids and skin cells that acts as your skin’s natural defense against environmental stressors such as bacteria and pollution. When your skin isn’t properly moisturized, cracks can form in the moisture barrier, which can lead to dry, irritated, and chapped skin.  Common causes of a compromised moisture barrier include cold, dry air, excessive sun

Cold, dry air, excessive sun exposure, and overusing exfoliants can damage your moisture barrier, sapping your skin of hydration and leading to red, irritated skin.

Using a moisturizer with barrier-replenishing ingredients can restore your skin’s hydration while strengthening its barrier. If you’re on the oily side, we recommend our advanced reformulated Probiotic Gel Moisturizer. Made with revolutionary encapsulated probiotics, this first-of-its-kind formula increases microbiome diversity to support a healthy skin barrier while squalane weightlessly hydrates and nourishes.

If you’re on the dry side or simply prefer a luxe whipped cream texture, reach for our Omega Repair Cream. Plumping, hydrating omega fatty acids similar to what’s in your skin’s moisture barrier work to hydrate and restore your skin’s protective layer while hyaluronic acid deeply hydrates and plumps.

Skin Concern #2: Dehydrated Skin

Contrary to what you may think, dehydrated and dry skin are two different skin concerns. Whereas dehydrated skin refers to a temporary state in which the skin lacks water, dry skin is a type that lacks oil. These two often go hand-in-hand, as lower levels of the skin’s protective oils can compromise the moisture barrier, allowing water to escape and skin to become dehydrated.

Any skin type can become dehydrated when you don’t drink enough water, use harsh skincare ingredients, or even take a hot, steamy shower. You’ll know your skin is dehydrated when it appears wrinkled with a rough, uneven texture, becomes shiny or oily, or appears red and congested.

With water-binding ingredients including ectoin and hyaluronic acid, our Copper Peptide Rapid Plumping Serum is dehydrated skin’s best friend. Hyaluronic acid pulls water from the environment into the skin while ectoin soothes and hydrates,  plumping skin and providing lasting hydration while paracress extract tightens and copper peptides boost elasticity and add bounce.

Follow it with the right moisturizer for your skin type to lock in hydration.

Skin Concern #3: Breakouts

Acne occurs when hair follicles become clogged with your skin’s natural oils – aka sebum — and dead skin cells. Bacteria can also enter the pores, becoming trapped with the sebum and dead skin cells. The skin reacts with inflammation and redness as it tries to rid the clogged pore of bacteria and impurities, manifesting as a pimple.

The key to stopping breakouts is therefore to keep your skin calm and free of excess oil and impurities while encouraging a balanced microbiome, which is your skin’s best defense against acne-causing bacterial invaders.

We recommend a double cleanse that combines an oil-based cleanser with a gentle foaming face wash is like sweeping before you mop. When you skip the sweep, you end up pushing around all that dirt and grime instead of actually getting anything clean.

Our Antioxidant Cleansing Oil and Amino Aloe Gentle Cleanser are the perfect combination for dissolving dirt and makeup, then deep-cleaning pores. Your skin will be left clean, calm, and hydrated.

It’s also important to moisturize while you’re breaking out, as reactive skin often has a compromised moisture barrier. Our advanced reformulated Probiotic Gel Moisturizer strengthens the moisture barrier with its encapsulated probiotics and weightless sugarcane-derived squalane.  In consumer studies, 94 percent of participants reported visibly smaller pores after just one use, and 97 percent reported clearer skin after four weeks of use.

Skin Concern #4: Fine Lines + Wrinkles

Our skin begins slowing its collagen production in our 20s, with production of hydrating and moisturizing factors such as hyaluronic acid and squalene also slowing as we age. The result: fine lines, wrinkles, and crepiness.

The undereye area is often the first place to show signs of aging, as the skin beneath our eyes is naturally thinner than on the rest of our face.

Visibly lift and smooth undereye skin with our Marine Algae Eye Cream. Our award-winning formula instantly lifts on the first application thanks to paracress extract, a medicinal floral extract proven to lift and firm. Meanwhile, peptides signal the skin to produce more collagen, working together with marine algae to visibly improve fine lines and wrinkles and give skin a healthier, bouncier appearance.

Combine it with a retinol product — such as our Retinol Night Serum – to visibly improve fine lines and wrinkles all over your face. This dermatologist-beloved ingredient speeds cell turnover to increase collagen production and reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots.

Our Retinol Night Serum includes two powerful retinoids: retinol, which is historically best in class for improving skin tone and texture, and retinaldehyde, the most powerful – and the gentlest – retinoid available without a prescription. We used innovative encapsulation technology to time-release these powerful retinoids while you sleep, minimizing irritation while maximizing your results.

Skin Concern #5: Enlarged Pores

Enlarged pores – or pores that have become stretched out or saggy can occur as the amount of collagen and elastin in your skin decreases with age, or if they become clogged with dead skin cells or excess oil.

Exfoliating regularly can visibly improve enlarged pores by loosening and removing dead skin cells, preventing them from accumulating inside pores. Our BHA Pore-Minimizing Toner t exfoliates using gentle white willowbark extract, a natural source of exfoliating beta hydroxy acids that has the power of salicylic acid without the irritation.

At night, use our 10% Lactic Acid Resurfacing Serum if clogged pores are contributing to rough, bumpy skin. This rapid retexturizing serum uses 10% lactic acid to dissolve dead skin and smooth uneven texture. In consumer studies, 100% of participants showed improvement in the appearance of pores in just one use.

Skin Concern #6: Dark Spots

Retinoids are Vitamin A derivatives beloved by dermatologists for their ability to reduce the look of dark spots as well as fine lines and wrinkles. We recommend using a nighttime retinol treatment – such as our Squalane + Retinol Night Serum – and incorporating Vitamin C during the day.

For daytime, continue to visibly improve dark spots while preventing new ones from occurring with our Squalane + Vitamin C Dark Spot Serum.  This 10% vitamin C serum boosts collagen production for increased elasticity while white shitake mushroom visibly improves uneven skin tone

Layer it with our Squalane + Vitamin C Rose Moisturizer and Squalane + Vitamin C Rose Oil - both of which include an ultra-stable, oil-soluble form of Vitamin C called THD - to further improve the look of uneven skin tone while giving you a lit-from-within glow.

Skin Concern #7: Dark Undereye Circles

The skin beneath our eyes is naturally more delicate than on the rest of our face. So it’s no surprise that stress and lack of sleep can show up in your under-eye area as dark circles and fine lines.

Target both with our Peptide Eye Gel. This lightweight under-eye hydrator visibly reduces the look of dark circles and puffiness using niacinamide, and peptides to improve the look of fine lines and wrinkles while sugarcane-derived squalane boosts hydration and helps active ingredients work 40 times harder.

If you’re on the drier side or experiencing undereye crepiness,, our Marine Algae Eye Cream’s pink marine algae helps to camouflage dark circles while visibly reducing the look of fine lines and wrinkles. With a rich, creamy texture, this luxe eye cream provides all-day hydration alongside an instant lifting effect powered by paracress extract.

Skin Concern #8: Dull, Dry Skin

Whereas dehydrated skin is a temporary state, dry skin is a skin type in which the skin doesn't produce enough oil to stay moisturized on its own. Caring for dry skin therefore means using products that replenish the natural oils the skin lacks on its surface. The best products for dry skin are rich in nourishing fatty acids and ceramides, both of which are naturally found in the skin’s protective moisture barrier.

Our deeply hydrating, ultra-nourishing Omega Repair Cream uses beneficial lipids that mimic and support the skin’s natural moisture barrier. Sugarcane-derived squalane, omega fatty acids, ceramides, and plant sterols nourish, plump, hydrate, and repair your skin’s moisture barrier to keep skin supple, smooth, and deeply moisturized.

Follow your moisturizer with a few drops of our 100% Squalane Oil to instantly hydrate and lock in moisture while soothing irritation associated with dry skin. Our squalane is bioidentical to the moisture naturally found in human skin, making it weightless and easily absorbed. It also promotes microbiome diversity, helping further strengthen the moisture barrier.

The skin on your body can also become rough, dry, and flaky. Instantly smooth and hydrated skin below the neck with our Enzyme Sugar Body Scrub. This customizable, dual-action exfoliating body scrub. Made with sustainably-sourced, biodegradable sugar and powerfully gentle pomegranate enzymes, lab tests suggest that it smooths and hydrates skin in as little as one use.

Follow it with our Caffeine Toning Body Cream to deeply moisturize and create a tightened, lifted look.  In this decadently rich body cream, caffeine sourced from green coffee beans gives the skin a smoother appearance while niacinamide improves  skin texture and barrier function. Use deep, circular massaging motions to apply to thighs, abdomen, or any other areas that need a lift.