Hi, I'm Mila, the co-founder of Irritated.
For over 10 years, I lived with severe dermatitis and eczema. There were days I didn't want to leave the house because my skin hurt, and days I avoided mirrors altogether. I tried so many different products that promised to "fix" sensitive skin. Most of them just made mine so much worse. It was all over my lips, eyes, neck, chest, and arms and the flares would be so random I could be okay one day and completely suffering the next.
I found myself Googling the same questions over and over again:
What causes skin to react to products? Why does my skin keep flaring up? How to stop skin from reacting? Why does everything irritate my skin?
My moisturizers would sting. A cleanser could leave my face so red and itchy. I'd find something that finally seemed to work, only for my skin to suddenly decide it didn't anymore. It was literally so exhausting…
The hardest part wasn't even the flare-ups. It was never knowing when or why they would appear.
Sometimes your skin barrier is already struggling, so products that normally wouldn't bother you suddenly do. Other times, you can develop an allergy to an ingredient after using it for months or even years (ding ding ding - this is what happened to me). Skin changes, and what it tolerates can change too.
Looking back, what my skin actually needed was so much less. I was attached to my 10 step routine filled with toners, acids, double cleansing, and then soaking my skin in whatever moisturizers or serums I preferred that month…no wonder my skin was so angry!
Cutting back on my crazy routine and only introducing clinically proven ingredients known to be gentle on the skin was such a game changer for me. In fact, it changed my life so much that I had to spread the word. Less is sooo much more when it comes to skincare!
However, it was a lot of work to know what ingredients were the right ones for damaged barriers and sensitive skin. The issue was finding a serum or moisturizer that had those ingredients but didn’t contain fragrance, essential oils, or heavy alcohols. And on top of that, I also suffer from active breakouts and oily skin (soo fun) and finding something that didn’t break me out in addition to all of the other criteria was literally next to impossible.
That massive struggle became the reason Irritated exists!!
I wanted to create the product I wish I'd had during those years. And I also wanted to make sure that people with sensitive skin had the best products with the best shopping experience.
Like…I’m a girl…I don’t want to shop bland, boring brands. Make sensitive skin fun again!!! I’m so tired of white and blue and an ad with someone in a white lab coat staring at the camera. That’s literally haunting and I’m already going through enough LOL. Okay sorry back to the point…
If your skin feels like it's reacting to everything right now, I hope you know you're not alone
I started Irritated because I never wanted anyone to feel as lost as I did. If sharing my experience helps even one person stop blaming themselves for their skin, then it's worth it.
And if you're at the beginning of your own sensitive skin journey, here’s a helpful cheatsheet to get you started:
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Fragrance (Parfum): It makes products smell nice… but it's also one of the most common causes of allergic contact dermatitis. If your skin seems to hate everything, this is usually the first thing I'd cut!!
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Essential oils: "Natural" doesn't automatically mean gentle. Lavender, citrus, peppermint... they are PACKED with the same fragrance compounds that can trigger reactive skin.
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Volatile alcohols (Alcohol Denat., SD Alcohol, Isopropyl Alcohol): They can make products feel lightweight and dry down quickly, but they can also leave an already unhappy skin barrier feeling even drier and more irritated…not good.
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Keep it boring for a bit. When your skin is flaring, this is not the time to try every trending serum on TikTok. A simple routine is almost always the better move.
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Patch test. Learn from my mistakes. Testing a tiny area first is a lot less dramatic than finding out your whole face doesn't agree with something.
And if you're looking for a place to start, that's exactly why we created Irritated.
After spending over 10 years searching for products my skin could actually tolerate, I wanted to make the one I could never seem to find. A formula that's fragrance-free, essential oil-free, dermatologist-tested, hypoallergenic, non-comedogenic, and designed to support your skin barrier instead of constantly pushing it.
Your skin deserves the best…that’s why we created Irritated!
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