What does primed skin mean? That depends on who you ask. Make-up enthusiasts will likely answer, “Skin with make-up primer applied to create a smooth, flawless look,” but skin priming takes on different meanings in professional skincare and dermatology spaces. Estheticians and consumers use toners to prime or facilitate skin receiving the benefits of serums or moisturizers, while dermatologists or clinical estheticians in medical settings prime skin by degreasing it immediately before a peel. Prime means “of first importance,” and skin priming is no exception with yet another meaning! Skin priming is a way to prepare your skin for professional skin resurfacing and highly active at-home products.

What Is Skin Priming?
Unlike degreasing before chemical peels to remove excess oil so skin frosts quickly, evenly, and completely, skin priming is a skincare reset before embarking on resurfacing procedures and products. It entails setting aside retinoids, acids, and exfoliants and going back to skincare basics to encourage the best results. Like skinimalism with a twist, skin priming focuses on using only gentle formulas in a pared-down pre-treatment care routine to keep skin calm and your barrier intact. This simplified regimen needs only a mild cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen to help prevent adverse reactions.

Why Skin Priming?
Skin priming is an essential step for preparing skin for dermatologic and other more aggressive treatments. The goal is to ensure the skin barrier is healthy to improve skin tolerance and minimize possible side effects like discomfort, burning, dryness, excessive peeling, sensitivity, or worsening of acne, hyperpigmentation, and other conditions. The answer to the question, “Should I do skin priming before micro-needling, chemical peels, micro-needling, laser treatments, or new prescription skincare that may be irritating?” is “Yes!” To avoid prolonged redness or post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, preparatory skin priming recovery care is a distinguishing factor between so-so outcomes and treatment success. The increased moisture levels and strengthened skin barrier improve results and help speed healing time. It also helps protect your skin against environmental aggressors like pollution.

In contrast, using products that compromise your barrier until your appointment increases the chances of poor results. Not only will you experience redness, stinging, burning, irritation, and general discomfort, you may worsen the very condition you were getting the treatment for. Breakouts, increased hyperpigmentation, and rosacea flare-ups can occur when aggressive therapies are performed on skin with an impaired skin barrier. Skin priming is also a fantastic way to get your skin back on track after over-doing it. You can introduce skin priming any time skin becomes hyper-reactive or irritable due to overuse of active or harsh ingredients, a condition called status cosmeticus.

How It Works
You will start your skin priming regimen anywhere from a few weeks up to a month before your treatment.

Step 1 - Cleanse: Ditch bar soaps and cleansers with sulfates and exfoliating acids in favor of non-stripping sulfate free cleansers formulated to preserve skin barrier health. Also, skip rough washcloths and cleansing brushes or pads and hot water. Your fingertips and lukewarm water are just fine!

Step 2 - Moisturize: For moisturizing while skin priming, make sure your formula refrains from acids, retinol, or other stimulating ingredients. Also, avoid other irritating ingredients, choosing formulas with no Artificial Fragrance or Mineral Oil.

Step 3 - Protect: Use a broader protection mineral sunscreen formula for optimal defense against sun damage and blue light. Again, be sure it contains only safe ingredients, and beware of formulas with Alcohol, often used to make them feel more lightweight and absorb quickly, or chemical sunscreens with synthetically sourced Oxybenzone, Avobenzone, or Homosalate found to irritate many skin types. If they are safe for oceans and reef like ours, it is even better! Consistent, daily use of skin priming products is vital to ensure that redness subsides so that healing occurs more rapidly with fewer issues afterward.