Autoimmune Stress & Skin: Calming Tips to Soothe Flare-Ups

Ciao, Beautiful!

When my best friend’s lupus flares from stress, it shows up in the most visible way — reminding her she’s in a fight she didn’t choose.

She has lupus, an autoimmune disease that can cause severe skin rashes (aka autoimmune skin flare). The moment stress takes hold, a bright red, painful rash appears on her body. It itches a little but hurts a lot. The only thing that clears it quickly? A steroid shot or cream.

But here’s the catch — long-term steroid use isn’t sustainable. It can thin the skin, increase infection risk, and cause other side effects. Watching her go through this over and over is what inspired me to dig deeper into non-steroidal ways to care for sensitive, compromised skin — especially during stress-triggered autoimmune flare-ups.

Autoimmune diseases like lupus, psoriasis, and certain types of eczema happen when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy skin cells. This triggers inflammation, damaging the skin barrier and causing symptoms like redness, swelling, pain, and rashes.

Cancer treatments (like chemotherapy and radiation) can cause similar skin disruptions — not because of autoimmune activity, but because these treatments target rapidly dividing cells, including skin cells, which weakens the barrier and makes skin more vulnerable.

In both cases, skin is left:

• Inflamed (more sensitive to irritation)

• Dry (due to impaired barrier function)

• Easily triggered (small things like heat, friction, or UV light can set off a flare)

Stress causes your body to release cortisol and other stress hormones. While these are useful in small doses, chronic stress disrupts immune system regulation. For people with autoimmune conditions, this often means flare-ups in both internal symptoms and visible skin reactions.

The good news? You can address this inside and out — reducing stress triggers internally, while protecting and soothing your skin externally.

Here’s my easy-to-follow, research-backed approach to helping prevent and soothe skin flare-ups during stressful times.

1. Internal Support: Calm the Nervous System

When stress is your trigger, calming the body from the inside out is essential.

What to Try:

• Immune-support mushrooms (Reishi, Turkey Tail, Chaga) – Reishi in particular has adaptogenic properties that may help the body adapt to stress and regulate immune response (this is what I take - use code at checkout for your special discount)

• Magnesium glycinate – Supports relaxation, better sleep, and healthy nerve function (what I take).

• L-theanine – An amino acid from green tea that promotes calm focus and lowers the body’s stress response (what I take).

• Rhodiola rosea – Adaptogen shown to reduce fatigue and improve stress resilience.

What to Avoid:

• Excess caffeine (can raise cortisol and trigger inflammation)

• Highly processed, sugar-heavy foods (can fuel inflammatory pathways)

• Alcohol (dehydrates the skin and can worsen inflammation)

2. External Support: Protect & Restore the Skin Barrier

Compromised skin needs barrier-focused care to prevent water loss, reduce irritation, and help it heal faster.

My go-to skin barrier repair & maintenance products for sensitive skin:

• Jentri Quinn Whipped Face Butter & Whipped Body Butter – Perfect between flares to deeply nourish and reinforce the barrier with EVOO, cocoa butter, and coconut oil. They help keep skin resilient so flare-ups may be less severe when they happen.

• Alra Therapy Lotion – Ultra-gentle, hospital-trusted lotion with aloe, lanolin, and allantoin to soothe tenderness and calm the skin during more sensitive times (use JENTRI25 at their store (Alra.com) during checkout for your special discount).

• La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 (non-sponsored affiliate link)– A dermatologist favorite for soothing redness, reducing inflammation, and protecting raw or irritated patches.

What to Avoid:

• Fragrance, essential oils, and alcohol-heavy products during flare risk periods.

• Hot showers or baths (heat increases redness and blood flow to inflamed skin).

• Physical scrubs or strong acids (these can damage already weakened skin).

3. Stress Rash Prevention Habits That Make a Difference

• Daily mineral sunscreen – Even indoor light and short sun exposure can trigger lupus rashes and other autoimmune skin reactions.

• Moisturize 2–3 times daily – Keep the barrier strong so small triggers don’t escalate into a rash.

• Wear soft, breathable fabrics – Avoid wool and rough textures on sensitive areas.

• Stress-buffering routines – Even 5 minutes of deep breathing, meditation, or stretching can help lower inflammatory markers in the body.

What to Do vs. What Not to Do

For my best friend — and for so many others living with autoimmune skin conditions — flare-ups are often unpredictable, but not entirely unavoidable. By supporting your body internally with stress-calming adaptogens and protecting your skin externally with barrier-focused care, you can reduce the frequency, severity, and discomfort of rashes.

You can’t always remove the stress from life. But you can give your skin and your nervous system the tools to weather it better.

This is NOT medical advice - only my recommendations to you as an oncology certified esthetician. Always cosult with your doctor before starting or trying a new routine on compromised skin. Patch test on a small area (i.e. behind your ear) before using any new product(s). 

The more you know, the more you glow.

With love,

Jentri 

ps. for more beauty insider tips & BTS life moments, listen to my Beauty Backroads podcast! 

pps. indulge in our body butter bundle for daily barrier support and save $!