Dr. Barbara Sturm Combats Quarantine Skin

Screen time highs make for skin care lows.

The do-nothingness of quarantine days has left a perennial need for human connection. Whether you’ve been streaming live DJ sets, fêting a cocktail over Zoom, or just amortizing the endless hours scrolling through social, screen-time has reached its crescendo and your skin may be paying the price.

“Unless you use this time to adopt the simple elements of an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, the quarantine is overwhelmingly likely to cause harm to your skin,” said Dr. Barbara Sturm, founder of her namesake skin care line, over email. “Internet usage statistics say your time in front of screens has spiked above the already high exposure times,” rendering us all the more vulnerable to their harmful emissions.

Carfrae Consulting – Dr. Barbara Sturm Skin

Our screens radiate High Energy Visible light or “HEV” rays that penetrate and maim skin, leaving us dry, dull and inflamed. Sturm runs through a short list of what HEV’s foray on our collagen looks like: all but offensive. “Exposure can cause premature aging, dryness, impaired skin healing, compromised melanogenesis, sensitivity, wrinkles, uneven tone and texture,” she goes on. “HEV is also shown in studies to cause an inflammatory cascade – a skin killer that in turn affects skin healing, skin barrier function, cellular cycles and breakouts.” In short, blue light emissions, smart and mean, have anguished our skin even before lockdowns courted a gray area of safety and shuttered apothecaries far and wide.

Holding that thought, HEV rays don’t act alone. UVA and UVB emissions have long outsmarted our skincare regimens, silently seeping from our electronics, permeating our skin, and causing lasting detriment. “I created my Dr. Barbara Sturm Sun Drops with this in mind,” she says. “My Sun Drops are a hybrid; they are a sunscreen that is also packed with skincare ingredient science.” And while indoor pollutants, screen emissions, and stress-driven Cortisol facilitate the production of acne, leading to dryness and irritation, you can combat such afflictions with Sturm’s Anti-Pollution Drops and Anti-Pollution Food, or indulge in her Hydrating Face Mist, Face Cream, and Face Mask, to rehabilitate skin’s fundamental moisture and enable that sought after STURMGLOW.

Carfrae Consulting – Dr. Barbara Sturm Skin

Looking for more guidance?

Rest easy, Dr. Sturm has translated her expertise to touch nearly all digital platforms. Connect on her YouTube channel or Instagram Live sessions where she has been joined by Anastasia Soare, Alexander Wang, Charlotte McKinney and Ivan Pol, or watch her recent Maskathon,  hosted in support of World Health Organisation’s Covid-19 Solidarity Fund and First Responders First. Complementary Virtual Consultations extend personalized, 30-minute tête-à-têtes, centric to client-specific skin concerns. Digital Masterclasses are offered as 75-minute Zoom sessions, addressing all things from the bane of adult acne to the optimal skincare regimen of darker skin tones. Tickets are $10, and all proceeds benefit Baby2Baby, Sturm’s longtime philanthropic affiliate. Teenage skin is addressed via Sturm’s Skin School, where she has been joined by the likes of, Hailey Bieber, Emma Roberts, Maria Sharapova, Olivia Culpo, and Nicky Rothschild Hilton, while sharing the sage answers to the hard questions of adolescent skin, and directing donations to the NAACP and the It Gets Better Project.

Carfrae Consulting – Dr. Barbara Sturm Skin

And if you happen to be on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, keep an eye out for Dr. Barbara Sturm’s Product Donations.The people on the frontlines of this pandemic are heroes. They are out there day and night risking their lives for others,” says Sturm. “They experience countless difficult challenges…I am glad to do anything for them.”

So, yet there seems to be hope in isolation, taking form as frosted pipette bottles and glass ampules.

Carfrae Consulting – Dr. Barbara Sturm Skin
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