Sponsored
“My psoriasis is triggered by stress, so I keep a product like this at home and apply as needed’
Sponsored By
Sponsored By
The Skin Nerd's Jennifer Rock opens up about her struggle with psoriasis and how she manages it.
Founder of Skingredients and The Skin Nerd, Jennifer Rock is a multi-award-winning dermal facialist and skin tutor. She knows everything there is to know about skin, especially when it comes to a condition she’s struggled with personally – psoriasis.
From common triggers to the best way to care for lesions, Jennifer covers all the skincare basics and then some. Read on for her expert guide…
What exactly is psoriasis?
“Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease. It occurs when your immune system becomes compromised, triggering inflammation in the skin. It presents as pink or red lesions, covered with silvery, white scales called plaques on white skin. While on brown and black skin the patches can also look purple or dark brown, and the scales may look grey.”
How do you identify it?
“Psoriasis typically tends to manifest on joints of the body, so you’ll find it on the elbows, the knees, the navel area and the little areas between the buttocks. It tends to affect quite a large amount of the population globally because it has to do with inflammation and immunity-compromisation. There are different forms of psoriasis, however plaque psoriasis is the most common type.
“The affected areas are quite tender and the plaque over them is almost rough to the touch. To manage them, we would want to stop the skin cells from growing so quickly and try to remove the scales – but not in an over-exfoliation manner because that will contradict what we’re trying to do.”
What should I NOT be doing?
“People try to really exfoliate the skin because the plaque is a hardened skin and your desire to remove it can be potentially quite excessive. So, we have to remember that there’s a tender red lesion underneath. So actually, it’s about not using overly aggressive exfoliators, it’s about trying to hydrate, lock in moisture, and identify the ‘why’ which can be stress externally. If you don’t address the source, it’ll just keep repeating itself.”
What are some common triggers of psoriasis?
“Psoriasis is not quite the same as other conditions really. Ultimately, the goal is to try to understand what your specific triggers are. For example, for myself, it’s stress-induced so I know if I have a pretty busy time my immunity is slightly lower, and as a result, my skin will flare up because it’s trying to protect itself. My skin becomes inflamed and it presents as psoriasis.
“I know that I have to watch my ‘why’, so I always encourage people to keep a skincare diary for a couple of weeks and months and try to understand the pattern of their skin. For me, I know that I can’t avoid stress – it’s unavoidable – but I also know that I need to have a product like the No7 Derm Solutions Psoriasis Treatment at home so I can apply it as soon as I enter into that hectic period.
“It all circles back around ensuring that you are trying to identify the triggers of the skin condition or disease, and knowing that it’s chronic. It tends to be long term and it can become dormant and then repeat itself. It can be in the same area that it occurred previously or it can be in different areas of the body, but the goal is to get those key ingredients in and understand why it’s been triggered for you and make sure that you have something at home to be able to ensure that you can really calm the skin quite quickly.”
What ingredients should I look out for?
“Because the skin cells are produced at a much more rapid rate than what we would want, it’s important to get ingredients like Urea, Glycerin and Ectoin into the skin to soothe and rehydrate the skin.
“Ectoin is a 100% natural ingredient. Its ultimate objective is to calm and soothe the skin. It’s obtained from microorganisms that live in extremely hostile environments like salt lakes and deserts, where it’s their job to protect themselves against the environment. These microorganisms produce Ectoin to alleviate the stress of the environment they live in.”
“Other key ingredients to look for would be Glycerin, which is a beautiful ammonium ingredient that really hydrates the skin and gives a beautiful slip to it.”
Would you recommend the No7 Derm Solutions Psoriasis Treatment?
“Yes, 100%. I would definitely endorse it and encourage you to apply the No7 Derm Solutions Psoriasis Treatment three times daily or as needed to localise that specific area. It ultimately supports the natural elimination of dead cells from the skin surface and those plaques of skin that we spoke of. With its hydrating and membrane stabilising properties, it helps to normalise your skin cell production and stabilise the skin barrier.
“So in skincare, when we talk about the barrier, we’re always talking about how it’s your first line of defence so ultimately, we’re trying to help restore the defence mechanism, we’re trying to then moisturise and ultimately further hydrate the skin. The key ingredient inside it is Ectoin, which we spoke about already, but it helps reduce the hardening, itching, scaling, and redness of the skin and it’s steroid-free. So I think that it’s something that someone can use long term and it’s fragrance-free.”
To find out more about the No7 Derm Solutions skincare range and the No7 Derm Solutions Psoriasis Treatment, visit boots.ie.
If you’re unsure about any skin concerns, make sure to seek advice from a medical professional.
Photography by Anthony Woods
Also Read
