If you’ve already read my last two articles—one on rosacea, one on eczema—then you already know both Graydon, our founder, and I are no strangers to skin redness, irritation, and inflammation. That’s why I shared Graydon’s personal struggles, successes, and advice about rosacea in this article, and my own in the article on eczema.
But you’ve read the title already, so you know that this article is all about psoriasis. What makes psoriasis different from these other two skin conditions is that it’s an autoimmune disease. That’s when your immune system is overactive and attacks your body’s own cells. Because of the nature of psoriasis, topical products can provide relief and help manage symptoms like scaly skin, but most treatments a doctor would prescribe are related to the immune system.
My mom and my boyfriend both have psoriasis (and I have eczema, so clearly those that itch together, stay together 😂). It also means I’ve been along for the ride when hearing about their treatments, home remedies, skincare experiments, and insecurities related to their skin.
So, let’s dive into it. In this article, I’ll talk about their personal experiences and the tips and strategies they’ve discovered to help with their psoriasis, alongside a general overview of what psoriasis is and what it looks like on the skin. Then, I’ll get into some topical ingredients and products that might help you if you’re navigating psoriasis flare ups.
All About Psoriasis
My boyfriend, Johann, has never really let his psoriasis bother him—at least, he doesn’t let it show. However, for the last couple of years, he’s been working in finance and heading to work in dressy clothes, and it’s bothered him that the psoriasis on his elbows, scalp, eyebrows, and sometimes cheeks put a damper on his professional look. He’s always been self conscious when it flares up more on his face, as well.
A few weeks ago, though, he made some comment about his flaky skin to a coworker, and they replied, “Oh, I’ve never noticed that.” It just goes to show how often our insecurities make things out to be worse than they actually are.
My mom, Jennifer, has psoriasis too. At one point in time, it was severe enough that it covered large amounts of her body. Now, it’s mostly just on her lower legs, and even then it’s not that scaly compared to before. That’s because she’s been really proactive with treating her psoriasis through a ton of lifestyle choices and holistic approaches to her skin and immune system health, and it’s made a huge difference.
I’ll be sharing some of Johann and Jennifer’s tips later on in the article. But first, let’s dive deeper into what psoriasis actually is, and what it looks like on the skin.
What exactly is psoriasis and what causes it?
I said above that psoriasis is an autoimmune disease, meaning that your immune system attacks your own healthy cells. Particularly for psoriasis, your T-cells (your immune system blood cells) collect in your skin. Put more simply, your immune system overproduces skin cells, creating thick flaky/scaly patches on your skin called “plaques”.
Psoriasis plaques are incredibly common on the elbows and knees—that’s because of the nature of psoriasis being an autoimmune disease. Did you know rheumatoid arthritis (which causes swelling and pain in the joints) is also an autoimmune disease? So just like arthritis, psoriasis targets your joint areas. If you have psoriasis, you can even develop something called psoriatic arthritis.
Psoriasis can appear anywhere on the body, but other common areas include the scalp, hands, face, folds of the body, and genitals (though this is influenced by the type of psoriasis you have). As for where psoriasis comes from, researchers believe it to be a combination of genetics and environmental factors (it can be hereditary, though some people with no family history of it still develop it).
Though this is not the case for everyone (as both Johann and my mom luckily don’t deal with this as much), psoriasis can be incredibly itchy, and might be painful, with stinging or burning sensations in affected areas.
Because psoriasis is an autoimmune disease, it can have an effect on your body’s inflammation response. If you have psoriasis, you might notice that your body tends to overreact to things like cuts or colds.
What does psoriasis look like on the skin?
There are actually 5 different types of psoriasis, and each look slightly different from one another. By far the most common form is plaque psoriasis, which makes up about 80%-90% of people with psoriasis. It appears as raised patches of scaly, inflamed skin. This is the kind you’ll often find around the scalp, knees, and elbows. The plaques will have silvery “scales”, but underneath, you will be able to see that the skin is red and inflamed.
For some, the redness looks closer to a purple tone, especially if you have darker skin. The silvery scales might also be closer to gray. A study also found that, if you have darker skin, you are more likely to develop psoriasis on your scalp and are 6x more likely to develop it on your palms and the soles of your feet than someone with fair skin.
About 8% of those with psoriasis have guttate psoriasis. This is the type my mom has. It’s characterized by small, red dots of inflamed skin, and commonly appears on the arms, legs, and torso.
Inverse psoriasis, which can affect ¼ of those with psoriasis, looks closer to a birthmark than the raised or scaly inflammation of other types of psoriasis. While still discoloured (red, purple, etc), the skin is smooth. It’s commonly found in the folds of the skin, like the armpits and under the breasts, and can become worse by sweat and friction.
Pustular psoriasis can look like pustules surrounded by inflamed and red skin and affects about 3% of people with psoriasis. Lastly, erythrodermic psoriasis, the most rare kind at about 2%, is characterized by intense redness and discolouration in large areas of the body. The skin can shed in large sheets, and it often affects the whole body. This kind can be life threatening, and other symptoms include intense itching and pain, changes in heart rate and temperature, and dehydration. If this last kind sounds like something you might be dealing with, please go see a doctor right away.
Johann & Jennifer’s Tips
My mom’s biggest tip on managing her psoriasis is that it needs to be dealt with from the inside out. It’s the lifestyle, diet, and mental health habits that have had the biggest success for her, though she still finds relief in many topical products.
For a while when her psoriasis was at its most severe (covering large areas of her body), she turned to medical solutions. She used topical steroid creams, took oral medication (low dose naltrexone), and went to the Women’s College Hospital in Toronto for phototherapy treatments, which consisted of exposing the affected skin to a controlled amount of UV light. These were all huge helps to her.
When her psoriasis got better because of these treatments, she eventually stopped using them. My mom is someone who prefers natural, holistic remedies whenever possible, so she considers it a privilege that these medical interventions got her to a point where she could transition into more holistic solutions. The specific kind of phototherapy my mom underwent can cause UV damage to the skin (though there is, on the flip side, evidence that shows LED red light therapy can help with inflammation without risk of photo damage), topical steroids thin the skin, and her medication, while not an immunosuppressant like other meds that could have been prescribed, still has side effects like nausea and insomnia. While necessary interventions for her, they had their downsides.
But going into Jennifer’s tips for a more holistic approach to improving her psoriasis, she attributes her diet, work with managing her stress and healing her trauma, and a variety of topical products as being key.
In terms of her diet, my mom takes care to avoid inflammatory foods. People with psoriasis are also more likely to have celiac disease (which my mom does) so she has completely cut gluten out of her diet. Some preliminary research suggests that trying a mediterranean diet might help, but in general adding foods like cold-water fish to your diet (to get those omega fatty acids) can help.
In terms of stress and trauma, this has been where Jennifer really made huge progress. There's a link between your emotions and your body—it’s well documented that stress and emotional trauma can trigger inflammation. The fact that books like The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk and When the Body Says No by Gabor Maté are bestsellers show that it’s something relevant to a large number of people (they’re also some of my mom’s favourites). My mom has put a lot of effort into healing her trauma and managing her stress over the years, especially this last year, and the physical results speak for themselves—her skin plaques are mostly gone.
One of my mom’s favourite meditations for this is a visualization practice when she envisions that a golden, light-filled liquid (she actually told me the colour she sees it as is similar to Moon Boost!) covers her body and heals her. She always feels calm and rejuvenated after.
She’s also a fan of gentle skincare products that have skin softening (emollient) and soothing properties to help with the hard, dry scales synonymous with psoriasis. She specifically mentioned Putty to me as being one of her faves. On the other hand, Johann swears by Jade Moon to help with the plaques on his eyebrow area, scalp, and around his nose—the omega fatty acid rich oils in the serum are particularly helpful.
Johann’s other advice? Get out in the sun. Though it seems counterintuitive to general skincare advice, getting some sunlight on his skin really helps his psoriasis. After all, the phototherapy my mom did uses the same UV rays as those from the sun, so the science is there. Vitamin D is also considered a great way to help your psoriasis, which the body creates while you’re in the sun. Ingesting it through liquid drops or supplements works too.
Johann & Jennifer’s tips summarized:
- Seek out medical treatments like phototherapy, oral medication, and medicated topical creams as options
- Build strategies to manage your stress like visualization and meditation practices
- Unpack your trauma, as oftentimes it has an impact on your skin and immune system
- Try a diet that avoids inflammatory foods—and see if you have any food sensitivities or intolerances like celiac affecting your immune system
- Get out in the sun and absorb some UV rays—they can help with psoriasis and give you a vitamin D boost
- Try gentle topical products that soften the skin (emollients) or products rich in omega fatty acids—Putty and Jade Moon are good options to test out
Skincare for Psoriasis
Psoriasis requires a holistic approach to manage, and skincare is an important aspect of that. The scaly, dry skin that form the plaques of psoriasis on your skin are best treated by skincare ingredients and products that are emollients.
An emollient is a type of ingredient that works by rehydrating the skin and boosting the lipids in your skin, which creates a barrier (because the emollient is filling in spaces between skin cells) that protects your skin from moisture loss. AKA, it hydrates your skin, fills in the gaps, and keeps that hydration locked in.
What makes emollients particularly helpful for psoriasis is that they are skin softening ingredients. This helps with “scale removal”. Another helpful benefit of an emollient’s ability to soften skin is that it makes patches of psoriasis more pliable and less likely to crack (when they do crack, according to Johann, it’s sometimes painful, sometimes annoying, and sometimes a little bit bloody, so avoiding it is fantastic). Emollients can also help soothe itchiness.
Beyond emollients, there are other great ingredients and products that can help. The important thing to look for is that they’re moisturizing and anti-inflammatory. Bonus points if they help strengthen the skin barrier. If you read my last article on eczema, you’ll know I recommended occlusive ingredients and products there. In general, there’s a lot of overlap (an ingredient that's occlusive can also often be emollient). All that to say, occlusive ingredients are worth trying for your psoriasis too.
Here are a few ingredients and products to test out if you have psoriasis. Plus, they’re all plant-based and natural!
Chia Seed Oil
Chia seed oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. These lipids fill in the areas between skin cells, strengthening the skin barrier and moisturizing the skin. It also softens the skin, working as an emollient. Chia seed oil is anti-inflammatory and can reduce itchiness—that’s because it’s high in vitamin E, which can inhibit the production of pro-inflammatory molecules.
Chia contains niacin, a form of vitamin B3 that helps promote the production of ceramides in the skin, strengthen the skin barrier, and calm inflammation. Ceramides are very important for your skin’s overall health and resiliency, especially if you have weakened or damaged skin. The ceramide production stimulated by chia can help reduce redness and improve skin texture as well.
Find chia seed oil in Jade Moon Serum.
Broccoli Seed Oil
Another emollient oil that, like chia seed oil, is rich in fatty acids. We already know fatty acids strengthen the skin by filling in the areas around the skin cells, creating both a stronger skin barrier and skin that is more softened and moisturized.
Beyond that, broccoli seed oil also has great antioxidant properties, which can help fend off free radical damage, something normally caused by environmental factors like UV damage or pollution, or by factors like stress, lack of sleep, and more.
Find broccoli seed oil in Jade Moon Serum, Matcha Mint Hair Smoothie, and Phyto Clear
Turmeric
Turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory ingredient that has been used for centuries in both Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine. Specifically for psoriasis, this study from 2018 found that turmeric significantly improved the scaling and thickening/hardening of skin, as well as soothing the related itchiness, for psoriasis on the scalp.
It's the curcumin in turmeric in particular that gives it such powerful anti-inflammatory and soothing properties. It’s also what makes turmeric an effective antioxidant. Another helpful aspect of turmeric is that it promotes wound healing—a nice bonus for when psoriasis has cracked and created a wound on your skin.
Find turmeric in Putty and Jade Moon Serum.
Black Currant Seed Oil
Black currant seed oil is rich in antioxidants and gamma-linolenic acid aka GLA (an omega-6 fatty acid), meaning it’s a highly effective anti-inflammatory ingredient. Earlier I mentioned the relation between arthritis and psoriasis. Studies have shown that orally ingesting black currant seed oil helps ease symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis because of the GLA in the ingredient.
Alongside its phenomenal ability to reduce inflammation, black currant seed oil is also an emollient. It softens skin, moisturizes, and improves barrier function without irritation.
Find black currant seed oil in Skin Stuff.
Other Gentle, Anti-inflammatory Ingredients to Look For
Psoriasis-Friendly Products to Try
While all of Graydon Skincare’s products are clinically proven for sensitive skin, there are a few that make great additions to your routine if you are someone who has psoriasis. Please keep in mind that none of these skincare products are direct cures or treatments, but rather might help soothe and calm areas of inflammation for those with psoriasis.
Jade Moon Serum
Jade Moon Serum was designed to boost skin barrier function and is formulated with a powerful blend of fatty acid and antioxidant rich botanical oils. Not only does Jade Moon soften, moisturize, and support the skin barrier, it also improves skin texture and is soothing.
It contains chia seed oil, alongside other oils with similar benefits for those with inflamed, dry, itchy skin, including sacha inchi seed oil, goji seed oil, oat oil, prickly pear seed oil, raspberry seed oil, and more. It also contains turmeric.
Johann is a big fan of Jade Moon on his own psoriasis, and shared with me, “I use it every day. It’s amazing how quickly my flare ups go away, and it's gotten even better the longer I use it consistently.”
Putty Moisturizer
Putty was made to soothe and calm irritated, red skin. It’s no surprise that a ton of people with rosacea, eczema, and psoriasis have given it a try and found it an excellent solution to managing their skin irritation.
Putty includes many of the ingredients I shared above, like turmeric, carrot oil, and colloidal oatmeal. Zinc and cocoa butter also help nourish, soothe, and moisturize the skin. Like I said before, it’s one of my mom’s faves to use on her own psoriasis.
A reviewer shared, “I used to have flaking skin around my nose and this has completely disappeared since I started using this cream. My dry psoriasis patches are finally healing as well. I don’t think I could ever live without this cream ever again. My pores are smaller, skin less red, and more moisture in my skin than I’ve had in years. Wow!” —Kathryn
Skin Stuff Moisturizer
Skin Stuff is a moisturizer created with sensitive skin as the priority. Ultra gentle, not too thick, and filled with emollient, occlusive, and humectant ingredients, you get skin hydration and barrier support in a variety of ways, giving your skin a comprehensive approach to its health and hydration.
It also includes some of the ingredients I shared above, like black current seed oil, ceramides, rosehip seed oil, and evening primrose oil.
One reviewer, Brenda H., shared, “A year ago I developed a severe skin condition. I couldn’t use any products without a hive reaction. I pretty much swore off any skin creams no matter how natural they claimed to be. I love this cream because my skin has nothing but a positive reaction.”
Support Your Skin
I hope you’ve come away from this article with a better understanding of psoriasis—not just in terms of what it is and what it looks like, but also the tools, treatments, and skincare solutions others have tried and found success with.
As I’ve said in my last two articles on rosacea and eczema, not every solution will work for everyone, and talking to your doctor can help you get pointed in the right direction in terms of what you’d like to try out on your psoriasis.
If you’ve ever felt your confidence dip because of your psoriasis, you’re certainly not the only one. I can promise you, no one is more hyperaware of the supposed “flaws” on your skin than you are. We can often be our own worst critics. If you want an example, I actually had to call my mom and ask her what her psoriasis was looking like, even though I’d visited her a few days before. I didn’t even remember seeing it on her!
Just remember, your skin is beautiful and worthy of all the care you give it 💜
My articles on rosacea and eczema are part one and two of this three part series on skin conditions. If you haven’t checked out either of them, I encourage you to take a look, as all the ingredients, products, and tips shared do have some overlap, as they’re all related to soothing, supporting, and protecting sensitive skin. Read about rosacea here, and eczema here.
