Sensitive Skin: The Ultimate Guide
Sensitive skin can manifest itself as irritation, redness, dryness or tightness. Shaving in particular can cause additional stress to men’s skin. So it’s important to make sure that you’re kind to your skin from skincare to grooming to shaving. You don’t want to undo all the hard work of the perfect face moisturiser for sensitive skin by using a shave gel that triggers a reaction.
What is Sensitive Skin?
Sensitive skin is a broad name that is given to skin that negatively reacts with products.
Unfortunately, reactions can occur at any time with any substance. Most allergies are totally harmless to the majority of people and these can include any component ranging from food and plants to medication and chemicals.
Here at Bulldog we take the utmost care in the formulations of our products. Each product and its ingredients are subjected to thorough and rigorous testing before being released onto the market, ensuring safety and quality standards are met. However, there is always the possibility of an individual being sensitive to one or several ingredients within the product.
It’s important to remember that sensitivities are very much a personal condition and do not in any way indicate a fault with the substance involved. But that shouldn’t mean that you can’t use any grooming products, you just have to be careful and choose the best one’s for your skin.
Have a think about some of the reactions you’ve experienced, do they fall into any of these tell-tale signs of sensitive skin?
- Your skin flushes or goes red
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have sensitive skin but does indicate that you’ve used a product that’s caused irritation.
- Products sting or burn
Sometimes using a product can cause a tingling sensation but you should never feel discomfort.
- Your skin feels itchy
This is another sign of discomfort that can be caused by irritation.
- You’re prone to dry patches
This can be a sign of the skin not effectively trapping moisture
- You break out easily
If you’ve avoided using products because of discomfort
- Prone to rashes and bumps
Another tell-tale sign of sensitivity
- You react to extreme weather
That can be during the hot summer months, cold, windy days or simply as a result of over air conned environments.
The best way to approach sensitive skin is to make sure you’ve armed (or faced) yourself with the right products that are purpose built for the job in hand. In the case of sensitive skin one of the best things you can do is opt for fragrance free as natural essential oils can sometimes be an irritant.
For the Face
If you’ve got sensitive skin and you may be looking at men who can easily keep up a daily skincare regime with some envy. It’s understandable, using a face wash followed by a moisturiser twice a day (morning and evening) makes a huge difference to the look and feel of the skin. Just because you’ve got sensitive skin, why should you be left out?
According to some epidemiological studies (that’s a fancy name for skin studies, not your regular option for A Level) around 30% of men in the UK have experienced sensitive skin at some point in their lives. To put that in context… That’s a lot of blokes in the UK.
Here at Bulldog we like to think of ourselves as man’s best friend. There’s no way we would let millions of men down by not making products to help them look and feel there best just because they have sensitive skin. That’s why we have a tailor-made range of our everyday skincare heroes with selected ingredients, totally fragrance free.
So from your daily grooming essentials such as our Sensitive Face Wash and Sensitive Moisturiser you’ll be able to find products that are gentle enough to be used every day and will help with your skincare challenges (hello face moisturizer for dry skin, don’t mind if I do!).
If you’re the short of chap that likes to keep things looking sharp (or you just don’t suit the bearded look) we have a selection of shaving products that are the ideal daily sensitive skin companions.
Whether you prefer a rich shaving foam, a translucent gel for precision shaving, or a traditional barber shop style cream, you can find our always popular Shave Range in a sensitive fragrance-free format. We believe that shaving is all down to personal preference which it’s why it’s important to us to offer the shavers out there all the essential options.
Remember that shaving with a dull blade isn’t going to do you any favours at all. If you’re looking to up your razor game, our Original Bamboo Razor is made with less plastic than the traditional “system” razor. With 5 blades for a close shave our Original Steel Blades have an aloe vera lubrication strip.
If you’re struggling with dry, cracked lips the best cause of option is little and often. Pop a lip balm in your coat pocket, glove box, desk drawer etc and apply throughout the day as required. The best lip balm for dry lips is one that’s packed with moisturising and hydrating properties. Our Original Lip Balm has a slight minty flavour and is packed with candelilla wax, castor oil and shea butter to moisturise dry lips.
The same goes for hand cream for dry skin, little and often is the answer. Our Original Hand Cream absorbs easily into the skin to help relieve dry skin, leaving the hands feeling nourished, smooth and instantly softer.
Sensitive Face Wash
Our Sensitive Face Wash is fragrance free and gentle, perfect for sensitive prone skin. It contains three key ingredients; baobab oil, oat oil and willow herb. The ideal face wash for sensitive skin use twice a day (morning and evening) followed by a moisturiser for best results. Made using the best of nature and the best of science our Sensitive Face Wash for men is refreshing and non-drying.
How to Use:
- Pour a coin sized amount into the palm of your hand
- Add warm water and lather
- Massage onto the face for the count of one minute
- Rinse thoroughly and patch skin dry
- Follow with the sensitive moisturiser
Sensitive Moisturiser
Specially formulated for sensitive skin without any fragrance. This non greasy or sticky moisturiser will hydrate the skin leaving it feeling soft and refreshed. It contains three key ingredients; baobab oil, oat oil and willow herb. The best moisturiser for sensitive skin, use twice a day (morning and evening) after cleansing with Sensitive Face Wash for best results.
How to Use:
-
Pour a coin sized amount into the palm of your hand
-
Massage onto your dry face after cleansing
Foaming Sensitive Shave Gel
Presented in our innovative canister, powered by air. This shave gel creates a rich foam to deliver a smooth and close shave. Always use sharp blades on your razor and make sure you replace them frequently for the best possible shave.
How to Use:
- Lather up on wet skin
- Shave smooth
- Rinse thoroughly and pat skin dry with a towel
- Follow with the sensitive moisturiser
Next Steps
That covers your everyday basics for sensitive skin; face wash, moisturise, shave, lips etc. but what if you’re not an everyday basics kind of guy? What is you want to go that extra mile and really up your skincare game? Is that out of reach for sensitive prone skin? We would say absolutely not but you should be mindful of adding in more and more products to your bathroom cabinet. Start off getting your fundamentals right before moving on up in the world of skincare.
Perhaps you’re trying to address greasy skin or an oily t zone? The T-Zone is your forehead, nose & chin area (called the T-Zone because, well, it’s shaped like a T). This is the area of the face that tends to be the oiliest because it has a higher amount of oil producing glands. Our Oil Control Face Mask is your bathroom shelf saviour here. It is a blend of three natural clays: Kaolin, Cornish and Volcanus, lovely. It will help minimise excess oil and leave the skin feeling smooth and soft.
Remember that it’s always best to do a patch test before using any new product, especially one that will be left on the skin for any length of time (like a face mask). You can do this by putting a small amount of product on a washed, dry and clean area of skin (the inside of the wrist or elbow) and testing 24 hours before using the product on the face.
If a leave on face mask proves to be a bit too much for your skin, try using our Sensitive Face Scrub. Fragrance free and designed to be gentle, you can massage into your face as per usual but then wait a couple of minutes before washing off. That way you get the best of both worlds, a face scrub and a mini mask. Marvellous.