Skin-Barrier Repair Creams Are Everywhere, but Shoppers Call This Top- Rated One the "Holy Grail"

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Over the last year, something funny happened. All at once, the people in my orbit could not get enough of astringent, sometimes harsh, active ingredients like vitamin C and retinol. It was like there was a sudden, overnight awareness of the benefits of these products causing skyrocketing interest and use.

But this wasn't something unique to the people I know, it was an overarching trend I came to find out during conversations with dermatologists. "I've received more requests from patients for prescription retinoid products… anti-aging desires are at an all-time high and people want to use products that can cause irritation while they're trying to fight off the aging process," Dr. Kenneth Mark, cosmetic dermatologist, said.

Your skin barrier is the outer layer of your skin that protects it from environmental aggressors and water loss. When it's compromised, your skin may be and feel dry, tight, painful, and inflamed, which many people are experiencing as a result of over-exfoliating and sensitizing skin — thus an uptick in barrier repair creams. A popular one of these products is Skinfix's Barrier+ Triple-Lipid Peptide Face Cream, which has nearly 2,000 five-star ratings at Sephora.

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Shop now: $52; sephora.com

A barrier cream, according to Dr. Mark, is a skincare product "used to protect the outer layers of the skin from things like physical irritants, allergic substances, and even infectious diseases, such as bacteria." This type of product will seal and cover the cracks in the skin that allow germs and infections to penetrate the skin.

A five-star reviewer who works in a "healthcare setting" wrote that even while wearing a mask constantly, this cream didn't clog their pores. Another shopper wrote, "I wish this moisturizer wasn't this good… I see almost an immediate change in my skin after applying this product. I only wish that it was cheaper because I can't live without it."

A different five-star shopper shared that they experience skin sensitivity because of consistent prescription retinol use, "this is by far the only moisturizer out of like the 50 I've tried over the last two years that calms and heals my skin; it's now a holy grail for me."

Shoppers report going through tubs of this stuff, so it's handy and environmentally conscious that the Skinfix Barrier+'s core formula is available as a refill for $10 less than the full packaged option. If your skin could use some nourishment and healing, head to Sephora and check out Skinfix.