Antibacterial Soap: How to Protect Your Skin Barrier Daily

Your skin has a natural protective shield called the skin moisture barrier. It helps protect the skin from damage and helps in keeping it moisturized. Any damage to the skin barrier could result in skin dryness, itching, sensitivity, breakouts and other skin infections.

This is why the barrier of your skin needs to be protected and balanced. So in order to preserve the barrier you need to select the right kind of skincare products.

Skincare begins with cleansing. It is the base for other steps. Choosing the right kind of soap helps a lot here. If you choose a harsh soap then it could result in damaged skin barrier.

You need to select an antibacterial soap which contains gentle ingredients instead of harsh ones. There are a lot of natural ingredients that perform equally well as compared to the harsh antibacterial agents. The natural ingredients help better in soothing the skin and do not disrupt the skin barrier at all.

What is the skin barrier actually?

The skin barrier is basically the outermost layer of your skin. It is called stratum corneum. This tightly packed cellular layer acts as a protective shield for the skin. It helps in keeping the skin well moisturized and hydrated. It prevents dryness from the skin. It helps in protecting the skin from any kind of damage.

Acts as a defense against harsh environmental and climatic changes. It helps skin from any bacterial infections as well. The barrier layer keeps the skin texture smooth and balanced. The barrier of the skin acts as a shield which prevents any kind of skin irritation, redness, swelling, infection or inflammation.

How antibacterial soaps help in protecting the overall skin barrier?

Antibacterial soaps are not like regular soaps in functioning. Regular soaps are designed for the purpose of surface cleansing only. Whereas antibacterial soaps are used for the purpose of killing the bacterial infections deeply on the skin.

These high efficacy soaps contain ingredients that work by damaging the cell walls of the bacteria and disrupting their cellular membrane. This kills the bacteria at its source.

Using strong antibacterial ingredients could result in total clearance of bacteria from the skin. Not all bacteria are causing skin infections, some of them are good bacteria and are essential for the skin. They act as a shield for the skin. Moreover these harsh ingredients could easily strip the skin moisture barrier. This could result in severe skin damage.

So it is advised to select the ingredients that help in providing barrier protection along with effective antibacterial action. When chosen rightly a soap with antibacterial action could help in protecting the skin barrier and also prevents any bacterial infection that could affect skin moisture layer.

Skin barrier supporting ingredients

Neem

It is the safest natural antibacterial agent. Neem contains active compounds which are nimbin and nimbidin. All these together perform antibacterial action. They perform by killing the bacteria by damaging bacterial cell walls. Neem also acts against fungal infection. It helps in clearing out the impurities without causing any damage to the barrier. It helps in repairing the damaged barrier by reducing inflammation as well as irritation.

Tea tree oil

This is also a great antibacterial agent that totally kills the bacteria from the skin. It has great skin soothing properties which help in soothing the damaged skin due to barrier disruption. It calms the irritated and inflamed skin. It also clears the impurities from the skin without disrupting the barrier.

Turmeric

Turmeric soap has an antibacterial and anti-inflammatory ingredient that helps a lot in soothing the skin whilst controlling bacterial infections. It also helps a lot in fading the stubborn spots from the skin and also brightens the skin naturally without any disruption to the skin layer. This makes a great skin brightening soap.

Glycerin

This is a beneficial activity for the overall skin barrier. It assists in keeping the skin hydrated as well as moisturized deeply. It totally locks in the water and keeps the skin hydrated properly. It does not irritate or damage the skin barrier.

Aloe vera

It is a skin soothing ingredient which soothes and protects the skin barrier. It helps in providing a balanced hydration to the skin without any discomfort.

How to use a soap for protecting skin barrier?

In order to keep using antibacterial soap without damaging the skin barrier you need to be gentle and smart while cleansing. Follow the steps-

• Firstly wash your body with water
• Then take the soap and rub it on hands or loofah to produce lather
• Apply the lather using loofah or hands on the body
• Massage or rub softly without any pressure on the skin for a minute
• Rinse off with water
• Pat dry your body and apply moisturizer in order to lock in the moisture.

Final thoughts

The skin barrier is the essential layer for protecting the skin. It helps in protecting the skin from any kind of damage. So it becomes necessary to keep the skin barrier intact at all times. You require a targeted soap with antibacterial properties that does not damage the skin barrier instead helps in supporting the skin barrier.