Beauty fact or fiction: Does your skin need to breathe?

Hi everyone. Today i wanna talk about a little bit of beauty fact or fiction. One of the most common misconceptions that I come across my comments, questions, in articles, other people's videos and other people's blogs etc.. This idea of your skin needing to breathe. 

I'm not really sure why this has persisted for as long as it has because anyone with any sort of scientific background has debunked this over and over and over. But I usually will hear this in the context of well you don't wanna wear makeup too long because your skin needs to breathe. Or petrochemicals like mineral oil and Petrolatum which is Vaseline are bad for your skin. Because your skin can't breathe when these emollients are on it. 

That's just not really how it works

And you know I can understand this is like one of those logical leaps that people make. You know thinking that putting an occlusive substance over the skin is somehow damaging its normal daily metabolism. But that's just not really how it works. So no, the skin does not breathe. There is no inhalation or exhalation on the part of the skin. Your follicles are not taking air and exhaling it somehow. They're not processing air. 

Your skin is not really air-dependent like your lungs

Your lungs are designed to take in air to take oxygen out of it and replace it with carbon dioxide which you then exhale. Your skin doesn't do that if it did then you would suffocate if you take a bath and we know that that does not happen. So yeah the skin doesn't breathe. 

What you need to be concerned about?

What it does do is perspire and this is the only function of the skin that you need to be concerned about when you're covering it up. However, This isn't an argument. It's just a back-and-forth that I frequently have with people when they ask about mineral oil and they're talking about how bad Vaseline is, which is not. This concept that it's blocking the skin somehow.

And I always say the same thing that's just not how it works. Substances like Vaseline or your cosmetics, your foundation and concealer etc.. or your skin care products do not form an impenetrable barrier over the skin like liquid latex does. Liquid latex is a liquid that dries into rubber covering your skin. That can interfere with your natural perspiration and can be a problem. But on small areas, even if you're covering your entire arms and legs it's still not enough to be a problem. 

Why you should remove your makeup?

So when people talk about needing to remove your makeup and needing to wash your face it is not in anyway because your skin has to breathe or because these substances are somehow suffocating it. What's actually happening is your skin is producing oil and your oils are mixing with whatever's on your skin that can cause problems. It can cause the appearance of your follicles to be larger. It can cause blackheads and different sorts of Acne. It can cause dermatitis witch is a type of irritation in the skin. And that you do want to watch these things off your face at the end of the day. 

I am NOT in anyway saying that you should not wash your face at night before bed. And that you should not wash your face in the morning when you wake up. You should be washing your face twice a day if for no other reason than to introduce water to it. But you also want to remove excess oil and oil that has mix with the other things that accumulate on the surface of your skin including dirt, bacteria, dust, pollution etc.. 

So no the skin does not breathe

But yes you should be washing things off of your face on a regular basis because it can be irritating and unsightly. So just wanted to clear that up for you guys just in case you ever hear that one. It's very very very common argument against using occlusives like mineral oil Petrolatum or other heavy oils in the skin. Because people who don't understand how the skin works want to somehow think that covering the skin with an oily substance is the same thing as smothering yourself with a pillow. It's just not guys. 

So I hope that cleared it up for you and if you have any more questions about this myth or any other myths you would like me to talk about in the future, please leave me a comment below and I'll try to get to it in a future article. I will talk to you very soon.