Did you know that as many as 50 percent of us suffer from chicken skin otherwise known as Keratosis Pilaris? Whilst it’s not curable, it’s eminently fixable.

Keratosis Pilaris or KP for short is a genetic disorder with autosomal dominant inheritance. That means that if one of your parents has it, you have a 50 percent chance of having it too. Typically, it develops in childhood through adolescence and will often become a bit more noticeable as you enter adulthood. And it displays something called variable penetrance which means that whilst your mom might have it worse, you might have barely anything to see at all.

But, what’s important to emphasize is it’s completely harmless apart from the way it looks. Typically, you’ll see it on the backs of the arms, the front of the thighs, and it’s characterized by these rough little bumps that sit in the hair follicles with a red edge around them. It feels rough to touch and that often bothers people the most. It can almost look a bit like goosebumps that you experience when you’re cold, but it’s got a very typical distribution on the backs of arms and front of thighs. It can creep up onto the buttocks, chest, and it’s not uncommon on the cheeks and a rare variant involves part of the eyebrows. It’s also associated with atopic dermatitis and a rare skin disorder called Ichthyosis Vulgaris. Keratosis Pilaris can get worse in winter, with low air humidity, and can make your skin rougher, drier and the redness more noticeable.

Now, because it is a genetic disorder, it means that there’s no cure. But the good news is you can make a big difference with the right skincare and the right skin practices. It does often get a bit less apparent as we get older as well. It’s also good news that it’s easy to diagnose and from a clinical point of view, you’re rarely going to need to test to confirm that you’ve got Keratosis Pilaris.

What Should You Consider in Choosing the Best Products to Treat KP?

When treating Keratosis Pilaris, you should focus on these ingredients:

• Salicylic Acid is important because it’s the only acid that’s going to get inside the pore and exfoliate those dead skin cells that are blocking the pores. It does this because it’s lipophilic which means it’s attracted to oil.
• Lactic Acid is a gentle alpha hydroxy acid which not only exfoliates the surface of the skin but also hydrates the skin.
• Retinoids speed up the rate of cell renewal and cell turnover which means that the exfoliation process is going to happen faster, and you’ll see your results more quickly. Retinoids also prevent the build-up of the dead skin cells that are blocking the pores in the first place.
• Humectants are moisturizers. The good ones to look out for are urea, hyaluronic acid, and glycerin.

Best CeraVe Products for Keratosis Pilaris

Treatment involves several considerations. Firstly, you must do no harm. It’s very tempting to want to cleanse with something. Exfoliating to get rid of those little bumps might worsen the redness components and that’s often the part that’s the hardest to treat. So, when it comes to cleansing, it’s best to stick to cleansing principles involving no fragrance, nothing physical in terms of exfoliation, gentle cleansing without foam. Hence, you’re taking care to preserve skin barrier function, especially in winter when we know skin’s already prone to drying out due to low humidity.

In treating Keratosis Pilaris, it is important to use the right product with the right ingredients. So, we have the finest and very effective products from Cerave:

• One of the best cleansers out there is the CeraVe Smoothing Cleanser, which is a great versatile cleanser that can be used on the face or body.  The exfoliants in this product are Salicylic Acid and Gluconolactone which is a polyhydroxy acid–a gentler form of alpha hydroxy acid. It’s less irritating on the skin. It’s perfect for those people that have sensitive skin. This product also contains niacinamide and the surfactants that do the cleansing. They are gentle ones so they’re not going to dry out your skin and cause further irritation or worse in Keratosis Pilaris. This product contains Glycerin, ceramides, and cholesterol which are all going to hydrate the skin as well. Give it at least one or two minutes on your skin so that it gets time to work.
• CeraVe SA Smoothing Cream is a great emollient. It has Salicylic acid, lactic acid, and niacinamide. Niacinamide is great because it’s an anti-inflammatory. It helps to calm down any redness. You get these red spots over the areas where the Keratosis Pilaris bumps are. Sometimes, even when you’ve managed to smoothen out the bumps with products, the redness remains. Niacinamide is good for this. Niacinamide is also a great ingredient for treating hyperpigmentation because it prevents the transfer of pigment from our melanocytes, the melanin-producing cells, into our skin cells.  This product has got loads of moisturizing ingredients.  It’s got urea, glycerin, ceramides, and sodium hyaluronate. It’s not just going to exfoliate inside the pores and the surface of the skin to smooth out those bumps but is also going to hydrate the skin. In addition to salicylic acid in your ceramides, CeraVe SA Cream is going to help to moisturize and break down some of that keratin. It’s not very strong but it does help a lot of people. Use it after you’ve had a shower with lukewarm water because you don’t want to dry out the skin. Then, towel your skin very lightly and leave it still damp. Then apply this product so that’s going to trap some of the moisture into the skin. Use this product morning and evening. If your skin is feeling dry during the day, you can use this.
• CeraVe Psoriasis Cream has Salicylic Acid, but it also has Urea in it as well and it’s at higher concentrations than what you see in your regular serum.
• The CeraVe SA Lotion features both exfoliating and hydrating ingredients, which is why it’s become a popular pick with both experts and customers. The active ingredient in this lotion, salicylic acid, can help penetrate the pores and gently exfoliate the skin. As a beta-hydroxy acid (BHA), it terminates the bonds that keep dead skin cells trapped on the surface, which ultimately reveals smoother and brighter skin. The formula’s hyaluronic acid adds a dose of extra hydration, while its three essential ceramides are essential for the skin barrier.
• While the lotion can quench post-shower skin, the matching CeraVe Body Wash with Salicylic Acid works to moisturize and cleanse beforehand. It features many of the same skin-saving ingredients as the lotion, such as salicylic acid, ceramides, and niacinamide.