Your skin takes a beating every day—sun rays, dirty air, even the glow from your phone. How do you keep it healthy and looking good? The Skincare Pyramid, straight from the 2014 Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, is a conceptual model that works from the outside in, starting with the top layer of your skin and going deep down.
The skincare pyramid is divided into three levels: the base, the middle, and the top. Let’s break it down.
The Base of Pyramid: Guard and Fix
The bottom level of the pyramid is all about the top layer of your skin, called the stratum corneum. Think of it as your skin’s shield. The goal here is to protect it from bad stuff like sun rays (UVA and UVB), pollution, cigarette smoke, and even too little sleep. These things create tiny troublemakers called free radicals that mess up your skin cells and break down collagen, leaving wrinkles behind. Tiny bits of pollution from cars or factories make it worse.
To fight back, start by washing your face with proper, non-soap facial cleanser to get rid of dirt and pollution. Then slap on sunscreen or a good moisturizer to block the bad stuff. To fix damage, use products with antioxidants—like vitamin C—to stop those free radicals. Keeping your skin’s natural bacteria happy helps too.
The Middle of Pyramid: Refresh and Moisturize
Next up is the pyramid middle level, which works on the layers just below the skin surface and a key spot between the epidermis and dermis, called the dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ). This is about giving your skin a fresh start. Moisturizers lock in water and make your skin feel soft and look nice. Stuff like alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs), retinols, and proxylane are big players in here. AHAs peel away dead skin and retinols speed up new skin growth to smooth out little lines. All these are important to keep skin layers rejuvenated and young. Proxylane, an anti aging ingredient, goes deeper to keep your skin hydrated and bouncy by boosting the skin glycosaminoglycans. It reaches to the DEJ to strengthen the junction and keeps the skin firm, at the same time stimulates skin cells for production of collagen. Our X’Factor face cream is packed with this goodie.
Interestingly due to the different receptor targets and mechanism of actions of these active ingredients, layering them or mix and match them alternately will give synergistic outcome. Using X’Factor after AHA chemical peel will sooth and calm the skin; as well as X’Factor before retinols will reduce the dryness and irritation of retinols.
The Top of Pyramid: Build It Back
At the top, we’re fixing the deeper part of your skin, the dermis. This is where peptides and growth factors step up. Peptides are like tiny helpers that tell your skin to make more collagen or relax wrinkles. Growth factors—like TGF-beta—help rebuild, but they need a boost to be able to absorb and sink into the skin. This level is about making your skin strong from the inside.
Start Strong
Like building a real pyramid, you need to get the bottom stable first. Protect and fix, then refresh, next rebuild. Check your products—are your bases covered? With this simple, science-y plan, you can work on layering your skincare products; or mix and match across the pyramid levels to suit your skin unique needs during different times in our life journey.
References:
- Mayoral FA, Kenner JR, Draelos ZD. The skin health and beauty pyramid: a clinically based guide to selecting topical skincare products. J Drugs Dermatol. 2014; 13(4): 414-421.
- Draelos ZD. Revisiting the skin health and beauty pyramid: a clinically based guide to selecting topical skincare products. J Drugs Dermatol. 2021; 20(6): 695-699.
