In Clinic with Dr Jérémie Soeur x Cellcosmet

What is the difference between sensitive and sensitised skin?

Sensitive skin is characterised by unpleasant sensation, sometimes without any visible symptoms like redness or dehydration. It’s really difficult to characterise because the real definition is unpleasant sensation. We believe some people are born with a high concentration of nerve cells in the epidermis, so they are really sensitive to external, environmental and chemical exposure. This probably explains around 50 per cent of people with this predisposition.

Sensitised skin is different. You have observable symptoms: redness, erythema, strong dehydration. So sensitive skin can sometimes be felt without symptoms, but sensitised skin has clear symptoms.

What is driving the increase in sensitive skin reports?

Around 70 per cent of women report having sensitive skin, and 50 to 60 per cent of men. There is a huge increase in sensitivity reports. Lifestyle and exposome have significant impact.

Environmental exposure matters, but it is multifactorial. Pollution, photopollution, the combination of UV and sun pollution, stressful situations and cortisol all contribute to sensitive sensation.

How does cortisol affect the skin barrier?

Cortisol increases in blood circulation after stressful situations. Research shows that high concentrations of cortisol decrease skin barrier function, decrease ceramide neosynthesis, and lead to compromised skin barrier function. All together, these phenomena contribute to sensitive and sometimes sensitised skin.

What role do hormones play in skin sensitivity?

Oestrogen is a really good contributor to skin barrier and protects the skin. In perimenopausal situations, for example, you can have a decreasing of oestrogen synthesis, which contributes to impact your skin quality and decreasing skin barrier function. Unfortunately, this leads to sensitive situations.

What ingredients should people avoid? and what ingredients should people look for?

I would start with perfume. It’s rich in allergens and definitely terrible for sensitive skin. You must absolutely avoid any fragrance. Since sensitive skin has a genetic predisposition, you need to avoid any strong or harsh chemicals, like perfume and exfoliating agents such as BHA and AHA. You don’t want the skin turning over too much when it’s already quite irritating.

Have a look at ingredients addressing soothing. For example, Immortal Extract, Shea Butter, or Mando Grass. These are ultra-sensitive ingredients specifically developed for sensitive skin. You need to strengthen and repair your skin barrier function with gentle active ingredients like antioxidants, hydrating ingredients, glycerin, hyaluronic acid.

There are several molecular weights of hyaluronic acid. The larger ones address hydration, they are able to keep and store water. The lower molecular weight acts as a signalling molecule because they activate the CD44 pathway, leading to skin renewal and regeneration. It’s really nice to have a good balance between high and low molecular weight.

Is there a specific product for Ultra-Sensitive skin?

This product has been developed specifically for sensitive and sensitised skins without any harsh or strong ingredients, without perfume. It contains ceramide to strengthen skin barrier function, and Mando Grass extract, Ophiopogon japonicus in Latin, to address the skin microbiota, which is really important.

For the first time, we quantified an inflammatory mediator, TNF-alpha. TNF-alpha is an inflammatory mediator, and we measured a significant decrease of this mediator after one month’s application with this product. It is a morning and night cream with a carefully considered pH to maintain skin health. The natural pH of the skin is around 5.5 to 5.6. In dermatitis conditions, you have an increasing of pH. So it’s really important to have an acidic pH in your cream to take care of the microbiota and the biology of the skin.

How do aesthetic procedures relate to sensitised skin?

Sensitised skin means you have observable symptoms like rosacea, redness, strong dehydration. Aesthetic procedures can lead to sensitised skin because they stimulate the skin. To activate wound healing and regeneration, you create some side effects: redness, desquamation, loss of barrier function.

You need to help the skin recover and restore these parameters. It’s important to comfort the skin whilst it’s flaring up, without disrupting the stimulation that the procedure has caused, for collagen stimulation or whatever it might be. The recovery time is really important because just after the procedure, for two days or up to one week, you can have redness and so on, and you’re not really comfortable with your skin.

What makes Cellcosmet different as a brand?

Our strength is not specifically one ingredient. We have a very rare model because we have full integration. We have our own laboratory. Usually laboratories sit within big groups, but we are truly a small brand. So it’s distinctive to have the laboratory in order to create unique and specific products.

For the ultra-sensitive range, we did more than 144 different formulations before reaching the final one. It’s a very rigorous testing process. Our philosophy is to blend and find the balance between exclusive sensuality, strong efficacy, and quality.

What is the Hydra Soothing Mask?

This product has been developed specifically for immediate repairing situations after chemical peeling and after sun exposure. It’s a paste mask, you can apply it like a mask or like a cream. It’s rich in shea butter and zinc oxide. Zinc oxide is incredible for protecting against bacterial contamination, which is really important.

It’s also really nice for addressing redness. We measured more than 50 per cent hydration immediately after aesthetic procedures. This product has been tested both as a leave-on application and as a rinse-off application.

What is in the Derma Recovery Kit?

This kit has been tested just after medical acid peeling, and we had really incredible results. We proved that 10 minutes just after peeling, we recover the hydration level, skin barrier function, and we decrease the redness. This means people just after aesthetic procedures can take their life back.

The kit includes three products. First, the Hydra Soothing Mask. Then Ultracell, which is the highest concentration of Cytopep, our own active ingredient made of more than 5,000 different protein peptides to rejuvenate and support natural wound healing of the skin. It comes in one-use vials to protect the formula. Finally, there is Ultra Vital, a rich cream to protect the skin after laser or aesthetic procedures and to strengthen barrier function.

The set has been developed for two weeks after the aesthetic procedure, so you don’t need to use anything apart from everything that’s in this box for two weeks.

What is coming next for Cellcosmet?

We are developing an SPF 50+ which will come in 2027. SPFs are very tricky to formulate. We developed this with modern SPF filters without any bad reputation for safety. It will be without conservative ingredients that have bad reputations, and with a really strong balance in terms of UV protection between UVB and UVA, specifically against UVA1, well-known wavelengths involved in photoaging. UVB leads to cancer and skin concerns, whilst UVA much more induces skin ageing.

We are also working on a mist for the post-procedure area. After some procedures, an injection, you need to avoid touching your skin. So we are developing a mist, you don’t need to touch your skin to avoid any trouble after injection. We have already developed a really strong formula rich in hyaluronic acid.

Find Dr Jérémie Soeur in the TBT Address Book to learn more about Cellcosmet.