I started my career as a cosmetics consumer advocate by warning women about the damage being done to their skin by using irritating skin-care ingredients that trigger chronic inflammation when used day in and day out. Over the years my fears about irritation and the resulting inflammation it causes have been reconfirmed over and over by numerous scientific studies. Indeed, chronic irritation and the inflammation that results are a bigger problem for the skin than even I had suspected. Irritation immediately causes inflammation whether you can see it or not, and just as quickly can cause an abrupt breakout response. Or it can cause redness, flaky skin (which can clog pores), or rashes, and it can even cause capillaries to surface on the face.
Chronic and even acute irritation and inflammation can destroy the skin’s integrity by breaking down the skin’s protective barrier, and that, over time, damages the skin’s collagen and elastin components. Inside the skin, inflammation impairs the skin’s immune and healing responses. Additionally, breaking down the skin’s protective barrier can allow the introduction of bacteria, thus raising the risk of more breakouts. Any way you look at it, irritating the skin in any manner is almost always not a good idea, and especially not when it happens every day with sun exposure or the skin-care products we use.
(Sources: Inflammation Research, December 2008, pages 558-563; Skin Pharmacology and Physiology, June 2008, pages 124-135 and November-December 2000, pages 358-371; Journal of Investigative Dermatology, April 2008, pages 15-19; Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, March 2008, pages 78-82; Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, January 2007, pages 92-105; and British Journal of Dermatology, December 2005, pages S13-S22.)