Do you have sensitive skin? Me too! Here are all of my holy grail products for sensitive skin that have stood the test of time.
I’ve had super sensitive, reactive skin my entire life. I have mostly struggled with eczema over my whole body, but I also have a touch of rosacea (like most people of English ancestry). This combination makes for a tricky situation when I’m going to purchase products, and not just skin and body care products. All sorts of products affect my sensitive skin that you wouldn’t necessarily think would.
After almost 40 years of testing, I can confidently make a list of my holy grail products for sensitive skin. Many products have worked for a time and then caused a reaction, but these are the consistently gentle products that have stood the test of time for my sensitive skin. If you have sensitive, reactive skin, these are the products for you.
Holy Grail Products for Sensitive Skin
Skincare
In today’s parlance, skincare generally means face care. I’m using the term more broadly here and including all products that I use on my skin. I’ll break it down into face and body specifics, but this is everything I’m applying directly to my skin, no matter where on my body.
As a general rule, the most important thing in these skincare holy grail products for sensitive skin is that they are fragrance free. There are a few other hero ingredients (which I’ll point out), but the lack of fragrance goes a long way to making these products work for sensitive skin folks like me.
Face
First up I’ll cover the typical skincare products, the ones you apply to the face. Facial skin can be even more sensitive than the skin on the rest of your body and it’s hard to cover up, so it’s super important that you find what works for your face. Here are my facial skincare holy grail products for sensitive skin.
Day cream
I cannot live without Vanicream Daily Facial Moisturizer. Most importantly, it’s free of fragrance, dyes, and lanolin (huge triggers for my eczema). It’s also packed with ceramides, hyaluronic acid, squalane, and glycerin – all hero ingredients to repair and maintain your skin barrier. This product has never once bothered my skin or my kids’ skin. The packaging is simple, so you can totally get your whole family on board with using it – even your husband! It sets a high bar and truly belongs on the list of holy grail products for sensitive skin.
Night cream
The Vanicream Daily Facial Moisturizer works great during the day, but my super dry, damaged skin needs something with a little more oomph at night. There is no better option than CeraVe Skin Renewing Night Cream. I have tried many many night creams in my day, and even creams that have extremely similar ingredients (peptides, ceramides) that don’t hold a candle to this product. They will have to rip this night cream from my cold, dead hands to get me to give it up. I promise I’m not over-hyping this product – it’s a must-try!
SPF
My rule for SPF is that I have to wear it on my face every day and it has to be mineral. I have two that I really like (and one I want to try).
Most days, I use Neutrogena Purescreen+, a tinted mineral sunscreen to get the benefits of the mineral filters without the ghostly look you get with a traditional white mineral sunscreen. It’s budget-friendly, matches-ish with my skin tone, and blends into the skin for a natural finish.
When I’m going to be outside for longer than just my typical in and outs of life, I opt for Vanicream Facial Moisturizer with SPF 30. It is the only zinc oxide-based mineral sunscreen that I have found to blend into my skin without leaving a white cast. Now, your mileage with this lack of a white cast may vary if your skin is darker than mine. My natural tone is fairly close to white as it is. I’m interested in trying a new facial sunscreen that looks promising – CeraVe Invisible Mineral Sunscreen. When I run out of my Vanicream, I’ll buy it next and report back!
Oat serum
When I’ve used something on my face that isn’t on this list that doesn’t mix well with my skin, I call in Aveeno Calm + Restore Triple Oat Serum. The magic power of oats accelerates my skin’s healing process caused by my poor decisions. It feel amazing on the skin and really does help heal any issues I’m having within a few nights of use. I highly recommend having a bottle of this stuff on hand at all times, just in case.
Body
The skin on the rest of my body is sensitive too, so I have to treat it with kid gloves just as much as I do the skin on my face. In fact, some of my most reactive areas are the insides of my elbows (weird, I know). Here are the holy grail products for sensitive skin that I use on the rest of my body.
Lotion
I rarely deviate from Vanicream moisturizers when it comes to what I apply to my body. And when I do, I usually regret it. In the Fall and Winter, I opt for Vanicream Moisturizing Skin Cream. Vanicream Moisturizing Lotion gets called up in the Spring and Summer for its lighter feel. Both of these products also work great for my kids, and have since they were babies.
SPF
I keep trying to find a more cosmetically elegant chemical sunscreen that works for my body, and I keep failing. At almost 40, I think I’m finally ready to concede that I must use mineral sunscreen on my arms and legs too. Fair warning, most of the mineral sunscreens I have tried are horrible. The best one I’ve tried is Blue Lizard Sensitive because it rubs in better than any other mineral sunscreen lotion over a large surface area. This is one area of skincare that could definitely be improved, though. Sunscreen companies, I’m begging you to come up with a better solution!
Oatmeal bath
When I’m really having a flare up of my eczema, nothing works quite as well to calm my skin as an oatmeal bath. I simply dump a packet of Aveeno Soothing Bath Treatment under the running tap of lukewarm water and submerge myself for as long as I can stand it. Then I pat to dry and enjoy the relief.
Body wash
The word soap makes me shudder. My skin hates soap. Especially smelly soap. That means all the delicious smelling body washes are off the table for me. Instead, I keep it simple with Dove Ultra Gentle Body Wash. It only has 10 ingredients (none of which are fragrance or soap), so it’s a pretty safe bet.
Aquaphor
I rarely wear any makeup because so much of it bothers my skin. This includes lipstick. To keep my lips supple and shiny, I simply add a layer of Aquaphor Healing Ointment to my lips when they’re feeling dry or chapped. It’s not sexy, but it works.
Hand cream
I’m sure you’ll all be shocked to learn that I swear by a small tube of Vanicream Moisturizing Cream as my hand lotion. I have a tube on my desk, one in my purse, another in my car, and a fourth at my kitchen sink. Every time I wash my hands, I lather some of this cream onto my hands (front and back). It’s the only hand cream that has consistently provided relief.
Home products
The skincare products are probably the obvious products to focus on if you have sensitive skin. They aren’t the only ones, though. I use a ton of home products that I have specifically chosen because they’re gentle on my skin. If you haven’t thought about home products possibly being the cause of your skin issues, you might want to swap in some of these home holy grail products for sensitive skin.
Laundry detergent
My skin reacts most violently to laundry detergent that it doesn’t like. Tide is the actual devil according to my epidermis. Once my future mother-in-law washed my bathing suit cover-up with Tide and my then-boyfriend had to prescribe actual pharmaceuticals to calm down my skin reaction. I had hives for a week! Because my reaction to laundry detergent is so strong, I use only one laundry detergent – All Free & Clear. It’s an absolute must in my house (and everywhere else I go). I travel with laundry pods, so I don’t chance being without it!
Sheets
It’s getting so hard to find 100% cotton sheets. Unfortunately, cotton sheets are one of my sneaky holy grail products for sensitive skin. If my skin can’t breathe at night (which would be the case in polyester-based sheets), my eczema really gets angry. I look for 100% cotton percale sheets for maximum skin happiness. They’re soft, cool, and lightweight, my perfect recipe for good sheets.
Humidifier
My dry, damaged skin needs moisture! This isn’t a problem during some parts of the year when it’s humid outside but becomes a major problem during the winter. The air outside is drier and the air inside is much drier, sucking the life out of my skin. To combat these drier conditions, I run a cool mist humidifier during the winter. When I don’t have it, the difference is amazing (and not in a good way). I have been pleased with our current bedroom humidifier, which retails for under $50. You don’t have to spend a ton to get relief!
Fashion
I’m no fashion plate, so I don’t have much to say about fashion on a normal day. When it comes to fashion items that are suitable for sensitive skin, though, I have something to say. Here are two fashion-related holy grail products for sensitive skin that you shouldn’t overlook.
Cotton clothing
Much like I opt for cotton bedsheets, I also opt for cotton clothing as much as I can. I’ve tried many other clothing fabrics in my time, and cotton garments are really the only ones that never cause a problem. They’re never itchy, sweaty, or scratchy, so they don’t cause a flare up of my eczema or exacerbate one that was caused by something else. It’s really worth the extra few dollars to buy cotton clothing instead of polyester clothing if you have sensitive skin.
Jewelry
Fashion jewelry is so cute! Unfortunately, fashion jewelry is usually nickel-plated, which can cause real issues when you put it in contact with your sensitive skin. Save the cute costume jewelry for your friends with heartier skin and choose real precious metal pieces for yourself. These 14K Gold Everyday Hoops from Quince come in both white and yellow gold for less than $100 and go with absolutely every outfit in your closet.
Other posts
Looking for more skin-related posts? I have a weirdly large number of them for only having been doing this for a few years.
I sure do hope that my list of holy grail products for sensitive skin has helped you find your ideal products. Is there something that isn’t on this list that you swear by? Share down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason to help you fellow sensitive skin girlies out!