By Heather Angelo
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December 2, 2024
Understanding Corneotherapy: The Key to Healthy, Resilient Skin If you’re a skincare enthusiast, you’ve likely heard about everything from exfoliation to resurfacing treatments promising quick results. But have you ever wondered if these approaches could be doing more harm than good? Enter corneotherapy, a skincare philosophy that’s all about nurturing your skin for long-term health. Rather than aggressively stripping or resurfacing, corneotherapy focuses on protecting and supporting the outermost layer of your skin—the skin barrier. This approach promotes sustainable, radiant skin without relying on quick fixes that often come with downsides. The Skin Barrier: Your Skin’s First Line of Defense Let’s start with the basics. The skin barrier is your skin’s protective shield. Its main jobs? 1. Keeping irritants, bacteria, and pollutants out. 2. Locking moisture in. This barrier is made up of flat skin cells called corneocytes , surrounded by a mixture of natural fats and oils called lipids. Together, they form a structure often compared to a brick wall, where the corneocytes are the bricks, and the lipids are the mortar holding everything together. Here’s a fun fact: those corneocytes don’t start out that way. They begin their lives much deeper in the skin as nutrient-rich cells called keratinocytes , which are influenced by your internal health, diet, and hydration levels. As they move to the surface, they transform into corneocytes and form the skin barrier.