Ep 378 – The Rogue Pharmacist: Why Soothing Ingredients Backfire

Summary

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ASCP Esty Talk Ep 378 – The Rogue Pharmacist: Why Soothing Ingredients Backfire

Release Date: February 27, 2026
Host: Maggie Stasik
Guest: Benjamin Knight Fuchs, Skincare Formulator & Pharmacist

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Episode Overview

This episode of ASCP Esty Talk dives into a provocative topic: why soothing skincare ingredients—the ones estheticians and clients often reach for in times of irritation—sometimes backfire and can actually make matters worse. Host Maggie Stasik and the "Rogue Pharmacist," Ben Fuchs, unpack the physiology behind skin reactions, misconceptions about calming ingredients, and how topical soothing can miss—and even worsen—the underlying causes of skin inflammation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Problem with Soothing Ingredients

Timestamp: 01:12–05:52

• Metaphor: Soothing a Baby vs. Soothing Skin
  • Ben: “If you have a baby and your baby's crying and you soothe your baby, what generally can happen after you soothe the baby?... Baby goes to sleep. Do you want your skin to go to sleep? No… you want it moving. You want dynamic. It's a barrier. You want it revved up.” (01:30–01:46)
• Soothe = Suppress: Soothing ingredients can dampen skin chemistry, much like suppressing activity in the skin.
  • Lotions and creams—common in skincare—often have a "suppressant effect."
• Occlusion as a Soothing Strategy:
  • Many soothing products create an occlusive barrier, helpful post-injury (like burns or eczema), but generally undesirable for healthy skin as it inhibits normal function.
• Herbal Ingredients' Risks:
  • Botanicals (lavender, chamomile, calendula) can soothe but also frequently cause allergic reactions due to phytochemicals.

2. Three Main Issues with Soothing Approaches

Timestamp: 02:00–05:52

• Suppression of Skin Chemistry: Occlusion and suppression reduce essential skin functions.
• Allergenicity: Herbal/botanical ingredients can trigger sensitivities.
• Ignoring the Root Cause: Soothing topical treatments can mask internal problems (e.g., inflammation from the inside out), allowing them to worsen and even become systemic.
  • Ben: “If you have eczema…and you don't address it at that level, you could end up with arthritis, autoimmune diseases, ultimately cardiovascular health issues, and a shortened lifespan, because you're ignoring the signal that's being communicated to you through the skin by trying to strictly soothe.” (04:48–05:26)

3. When Is Soothing Appropriate?

Timestamp: 05:27–06:30

• Post-trauma (burns, peels, barrier disruption): Soothing is “an important way to address…conditions,” but only as a temporary solution.
• Long-term: Risk is perpetuating or masking rather than solving the root problem.

4. Ben’s Picks: The Best Soothing Ingredients

Timestamp: 06:15–06:38

• Nutritional Solutions Trump Botanicals:
  • Vitamin C: “A super super superstar anti-inflammatory, as is vitamin E and as are ionic plant derived minerals.” (06:32–06:37)
  • Vitamin E: Effective, low risk.
  • GLA (gamma-linolenic acid): Not an essential fatty acid but with “wonderful soothing properties.”
  • Ionic Minerals: “My favorite soothing ingredients.”

5. Why Does Supposedly ‘Calming’ Skincare Backfire?

Timestamp: 06:38–10:23

• The Skin Shouldn’t Be Sensitive: It's designed as a barrier; chronic sensitivity signals an internal issue.
• Immune System ‘Spring Loaded’: When skin reacts to topicals, it’s often because it’s already primed by internal toxicity, usually from a leaky gut and subsequent blood toxicity.
  • Toxins are dumped into soft tissues like skin and joints to protect blood.
• Cytokines and Inflammation: Immune chemicals (cytokines) accumulate in skin; when something is applied topically, the "jumpy" skin can react severely.
  • Ben: “When you put something topically on the skin…there's cytokines and immune activity that's already present. It's like the skin is really jumpy… you have an immune reaction.” (09:13–09:35)
• Primary vs. Immediate Cause: The topical ingredient gets blamed, but the real culprit is underlying inflammation/toxicity.
  • Ben: “The reason this is important is because it'll look like it's the ingredient that's causing the immune reaction, because the immediate cause is the ingredient. But you're not going to be able to solve the problem permanently by just getting rid of the ingredient. You gotta backtrack to this cause of the initial sensitization.” (09:38–09:58)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ben Fuchs [on soothing ingredients]:
  “You don't want your skin to sleep, you want it moving. You want dynamic. It's a barrier. You want it revved up.” (01:45)

• On Herbal Risks:
  “Many people are reactive to the terpenes and the phytochemicals that are in these ingredients.” (03:00)

• On Masking the Root Cause:
  “...any more than as a temporary solution, you run the risk of, A, not really solving the problem, and the problem continues, but even worse, B, the problem gets worse and becomes systemic as opposed to the skin.” (04:33)

• On Immune Reactions:
  “If you're not getting that protective response…you know there's something percolating underneath.” (10:37)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• 01:12: Why soothing ingredients can backfire—in-depth metaphor and rationale.
• 03:00–05:52: Three reasons soothing can be problematic; risks and when it’s appropriate.
• 06:15–06:38: Ben’s recommended alternatives—nutrient-based soothing.
• 06:38–10:23: Physiological explanation—why “calming” ingredients provoke reactions; immune mechanisms and root causes.

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Conclusion

Takeaway:
Soothing skincare has its place—mainly as triage after trauma—but routinely reaching for calming ingredients can be a mistake. Chronic sensitivity and inflammation are almost always driven by internal causes that must be addressed for lasting change. The most effective and safest topical solutions are nutrient-based, like vitamins and ionic minerals, rather than botanicals or heavy occlusives.

Final Thought:
Next time skin flares up, don’t just mask it—listen to it. The symptoms may be telling a larger story beneath the surface.

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Hello and welcome to ASCP and the Rogue Pharmacist with Benjamin Knight Fuchs. In each episode, we will explore explore how internal and external factors can impact the skin. I am Maggie Stasik, ASDP's program director, and joining me is Ben Fuchs, skincare formulator and pharmacist. Hi, Ben.

[C]

Hello, Maggie.

[B]

Ben. Estheticians are often taught to reach for soothing ingredients whenever skin is reactive. And probably consumers are too. But clinically, that doesn't always lead to better outcomes. Why do calming ingredients sometimes make things worse?

[C]

Well, if you have a baby and your baby's crying and you soothe your baby, what generally can happen after you see the baby, when the baby soothes?

[B]

I don't know. Oh, baby goes to sleep.

[C]

Asleep. Exactly. Do you want your skin to go to sleep? No.

[B]

You don't know.

[C]

You don't want your skin to sleep, you want it moving. You want dynamic. It's a, it's a barrier. It's. You want to revved up.

[B]

That went right over my head.

[C]

Yes. So soothing ingredients. If you use soothing ingredients, you can suppress skin chemistry. In fact, this is one of the big problems with our standard skincare products that we use, the emulsions, the lotions and the creams is they have a suppressant effect on skin chemistry. The classic example is the so called nobody can see me doing this, but I always have to do this when I say this. Moisturizer, Right. How does a moisturizer work? It shuts things down. Now, they're not necessarily soothing, but many of the ingredients in moisturizers are used, are soothing ingredients. They're occlusive. And occlusion is one of the strategies for soothing the skin. And while occlusion can be helpful for things like eczema or when the barrier is disrupted, like you have a burn or some kind of trauma, for the most part you do not want to occlude healthy Skin, and that's one of the strategies that it's used with soothing is occlusion. So, number one, occlusion and soothing can suppress skin chemistry. Number two, another soothing ingredient or soothing class of ingredients are herbal. And while lavender has wonderful soothing properties and St. John's Wort can be soothing, and chamomile can be soothing, and calendula can be soothing, you run the risk of allergenicity and you run the risk of sensitivities because many people are reactive to the terpenes and the phytochemicals that are in these ingredients. So, number one, you run the risk of suppression of skin chemistry. Number two, you run the risk of allergenicity. And number three, when you soothe the skin topically, you're trying to counteract a response that the body wants. When our skin is irritated, it's actually, or you're using something to soothe the skin. Your skin is telling you something. It's telling you that there's something getting into the skin, usually from the bottom up or from the inside out, not from the top down or from the outside in, that's causing an inflammatory response. And so the real answer is, let's figure out what the heck is inflaming the skin. It's kind of like we were talking before, rather than trying to tamp down the inflammation and the irritation from the top down. Now, there are times when soothing can be very helpful, for sure, particularly if you have eczema, for example, and avena, Avena sativa, or oats can have wonderful soothing properties. And oatmeal baths have been used forever for their soothing properties. And those, those are. That can be an important way to address these conditions. But any more than as a temporary solution, you run the risk of, A, not really solving the problem, and the problem continues, but even worse, B, the problem gets worse and becomes systemic as opposed to the skin. So if you have eczema and it's due to toxicity that's getting into the bloodstream, as we talked about many times through a leaky gut, and you don't address it at that level, you could end up with arthritis, autoimmune diseases, ultimately cardiovascular health issues, and a shortened lifespan, because you're ignoring the signal that's being communicated to you through the skin by trying to strictly soothe. So soothing has its place for sure, but you gotta be a little bit careful because it can be counterproductive in the sense that A, it can occlude and suppress skin chemistry. And by the way, skin electricity, skin respiration, this is one of the big problems, as I say, with so called moisturizing products. Number two, if you're using herbal ingredients to soothe those can actually trigger a hypersensitive or immune or allergic response. And number three, if you're trying to take care of a irritation or inflammation that's topical on the skin, without addressing the cause, which oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes is internal, you run the risk of allowing the problem to perpetuate and sometimes get worse and cause other systemic issues that can ultimately shorten your life. So if you have a burn, like a mechanical trauma of some kind, or if you've gone to an esthetician or a dermatologist and had laser peel or a chemical peel, soothing can be beneficial. But the best soothing ingredients, as always, because I'm a nutritional pharmacist, is going to be nutrients. And vitamin C is tremendously soothing. Vitamin E has soothing properties. There's a fatty acid called gla which I don't know if you've heard of, which is a derivative of an essential. It's not an essential fatty acid, but it's a derivative which has wonderful soothing properties. Topical ionic minerals, ionic polyelectrolytes, folic minerals, if you will, those have one. In fact, that's my favorite soothing ingredients. So the best way to soothe the skin, if you want to, number one, not have to deal with occlusion leading to suppression of skin chemistry. Number two, if you don't want to deal with any potential problems with herbal or botanical ingredients stimulating or activating the immune system, the best strategy is going to be nutritional. And vitamin C is a super super superstar anti inflammatory, as is vitamin E and as are ionic plant derived minerals.

[B]

You may have touched on this a little bit already, but what's happening physiologically when skin reacts negatively to ingredients that are supposed to calm inflammation?

[C]

Gray gray, crested gray. What is like, what is that about sensitivities and inflammatory and immune reactions that are induced topically? In order to really understand that, we gotta understand that the skin should never be sensitive. It's designed by nature to not be sensitive. It's a barrier, that's its job. You want it to be not sensitized. You want to be able to have things bounce off of it without initiating an immune response. If you do have an immune response, inflammatory response, sensitized response, as you're asking to a topical ingredient, you can rest assured that your immune system is jumpy, it's spring loaded. And what happens is, and this is really an interesting mechanism when you get toxicity in the blood. One of the things that the blood will do, and this is, this is a survival mechanism really, because the blood, you don't want toxicity circulating around the bloodstream because then it's going to get. It's going to toxify the whole body. The body will actually dump out those toxins. The body will dump out toxins from the blood into the various tissues of the body. In fact, if you have classic examples, autoimmunity, if you have an autoimmune disease, they'll actually look in your blood for immune complexes. They call them CICs, circulating immune complexes. And they'll look for these immune complexes. The immune complexes are indicative or a marker of some kind of immune response. What happens over time in order to keep the blood clean? The blood is a sacred space. It has to stay clean. The body will dump these immune complexes into various tissues. One of the places we'll dump it out is in the connective tissue. Then the connective tissue almost is like a sieve, like a spaghetti strainer for the blood. And it's one of the ways that the body filters out the blood to get rid of toxins. A second mechanism is deposition of these toxins in soft tissues. And this is one of the mechanisms for autoimmunity. And deposition in the thyroid can cause Hashimoto's thyroiditis or even Graves disease. Deposition in the joints can cause rheumatoid arthritis. Deposition in the connective tissue can cause various connective tissue diseases, Ehlers, Danlos, and diseases like this. But one of the body's favorite places to dump toxins is the skin, the dermis. Once those toxins are in the dermis, through the digestive tract, the dermis becomes very jumpy. The skin's response, the dermis response to these toxins is the secretion of powerful molecules that modify cell responses, particularly immune responses, called cytokines. You've probably heard the term cytokines. These cytokines are released from immune cells, from white blood cells, and they sensitize the skin. And then when you put your lavender on the skin, boom, you get an immune response. So the skin becomes jumpy due to prime number one. Step number one, deposition of toxins, usually from the digestive tract, almost always from the digestive tract. And then secondary release of cytokines from the immune cells that migrate to that area to protect the skin or wherever tissue, whatever the tissue is. And then when you put something topically in the skin, because there's, there's cytokines and immune activity that's already present. It's like the skin is really jumpy. It's like it's spring loaded and boom, you have an immune reaction. The reason this is important is because it'll look like it's the ingredient that's causing the immune reaction, because the immediate cause is the ingredient. But you're not going to be able to solve the problem permanently by just getting rid of the ingredient. You got to backtrack to this cause of the initial sensitization, which is stuff that's coming into the skin or whatever organ you're dealing with from the bloodstream, which itself is coming in through a leaky gut. That makes sense.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Makes. Yeah, makes perfect sense. I mean, for an. From an esthetician's point of view, they wouldn't know.

[C]

They wouldn't. Because they're putting something on and then there's a reaction. So it looks like it's the ingredient, but the way you know, this is not the case is because the skin's designed to be a barrier. It's designed to protect. So if you're not getting that protective response, you're getting an anti protective response, inflammatory response. You know, there's something percolating underneath.

[B]

That concludes our show for today, and we thank you for listening. But if you just can't get enough of Ben Fuchs, the ASCP's rogue pharmacist, you can find [e-mail] for more information on this episode or for ways to connect with Ben Fuchs or to learn more about ascp, check out the show notes.