Hands up if you experimented with something during one of the various national lockdowns? Whether it was sourdough recipes, homemade ceramics, crocheting, cross-stitching, or learning to code, the pandemic brought out the hobbyist in all of us.

If, like me, your adventurous nature led you to the bathroom cabinet and skincare section of various websites, I’m guessing you may have gone overboard, too? I applied hair masks, cut my cuticles, experimented with retinol, and used facial tools like they were going out of fashion. Skincare was my hobby and, without any social plans, I could go to town. 

However, there were mishaps. I overused retinol and had the typical red, flaking skin that comes with such behaviour. I layered products that effectively stopped each other from having any effect – a rookie error, I know. Comfortingly, I know I wasn’t alone. 

“There was a significant trend of people overusing, over-exfoliating, overtreating and overbuying,” says Marc Elrick, founder of TanLuxe.

“People were playing chemist in their bathroom. They were experimenting with super-strong, single-ingredient-led actives or products and it was having a long-term impact on their skin health. Basically, they were breaking their skin barrier in search of a short-term fix.”

A protective layer, a healthy skin barrier controls transepidermal water loss and protects against external and environmental stressors. Overusing barrier-breaking products (think potent actives and ingredients designed to treat certain concerns) in this way harms this natural barrier and disrupts the microbiome – not what we want at all. 

But, it’s not all doom and gloom, because Elrick’s newest venture is here to help educate us on what we should have been focusing on the entire time: skin barrier care. Enter Byoma.

A seven-product skincare range (all enriched with a patented tri-ceramide complex combining fatty acids, cholesterol, and ceramides), Byoma was born out of the belief that the health of our skin barrier is the most important part of any skincare routine. 

Alcohol, fragrance, and cruelty-free, the vegan skincare brand is suitable for all skin types. Here’s what you need to know about each product.

Images: courtesy of brand