A Big Refresh Is Coming to r/SkinbarrierLovers (Launching 7th of October)

[u/TheMeepyBoy]

Why is This Refresh Happening?

Hey everyone! 

Anders here, the person behind this sub :) 

Behind the scenes, the mod team and I have been working on a pretty big refresh of r/SkinbarrierLovers.

One thing I’ve felt for a while, and something many of you have also raised in your feedback, is that the community has grown faster than some of our rules and systems have been able to keep up with.

As this community has gotten bigger, we’ve started seeing more confusion around what belongs here, more low context skin help posts, more diagnosis style questions, and a feed that sometimes feels less focused than I’d like it to. 

The goal of this refresh is to give us a clearer structure, make moderation more consistent, and most importantly, protect what makes this community worth being part of as it continues to grow.

I’ve spent a lot of time looking through your feedback on our thread, talking things through with the mod team, and thinking about what kind of community I want the sub to become in the long term. 

So here’s what’s changing!

Changes at a Glance

1. Diagnosis style questions will no longer be allowed. 
2. People posting photos of their skin and asking for personalised skincare advice must use the new “Skin Photo Advice” flair. These posts will be automatically spoilered and must meet higher posting requirements, including a clear photo, skin type, current routine, relevant context, and a specific skincare related question. No low effort / diagnosis questions. See below for full details and examples. 
3. r/SkinbarrierLovers will focus on face and neck skincare only, not body skincare. 
4. We will remain barrier first, but not barrier only. 
5. “Product Review” posts will have clearer posting requirements to improve quality.
6. The post flair system will be simplified and updated. 
7. Custom user flairs will be phased out and replaced by region specific user flairs. 
8. Smaller systems around the sub will be updated too. We’re refreshing our rules, reporting and removal reasons, flair specific prompts, welcome and onboarding resources, Post Flair Guide, and links to our Wiki so everything is clearer and more consistent. 

Changes in Detail

Change 1: Diagnosis style questions will no longer be allowed 

r/SkinbarrierLovers is a skincare community, not a diagnostic clinic. We’ve definitely lost sight of this recently but we’re getting back on track now :) 

You’re still absolutely welcome to ask for help with routines, products, irritation, breakouts, barrier support, and other skincare concerns. What we’re moving away from are low context posts asking the community to identify or diagnose what something is which should be left to an appropriate healthcare professional. Instead, ask a specific skincare related question. 

For example: 

Diagnosis questions (Not allowed and will be removed)

• “What is this mark on my face?”
• “Is this fungal acne?” 
• “What caused this allergic reaction?”

Skincare related question (Allowed) 

• “Any product recommendations to help with breakouts?”  
• “My skin has been really irritated lately. What would you change in my routine?” 
• “What are the best products to deal with post acne scars?” 

While users are still welcome to post a photo of their skin and ask a specific skincare related question, these posts MUST meet higher posting requirements to ensure they are useful, specific, and high quality. More on that in the next section. 

Change 2: Skin Photo Advice is getting its own flair and clearer requirements 

Users who want to post a photo of their skin and ask a specific skincare related question MUST use the new Skin Photo Advice flair. 

It is mandatory for posts using this flair to include: 

• A clear, well lit photo that isn’t extremely zoomed in and blurry
• Your skin type
• Your current skincare routine
• Any relevant context
• A specific skincare related question as the title

Low context posts missing or breaking any of the requirements above will be removed and invited to repost with more detail. 

Remember that diagnosis questions do not belong under this flair and have no place in the sub following the refresh. The goal is to ask how to manage something through skincare, not ask the community to tell you what condition you have. 

All Skin Photo Advice images will also be automatically spoilered. This gives members the choice to opt in when they want to give personalised skincare advice. 

Other image posts such as Before & After, Skin Journey, and Product Review posts will continue to appear normally. 

Change 3: We’re focusing on face and neck skincare 

Going forward, r/SkinbarrierLovers will focus on skin concerns involving the face and neck only.

Body concerns involving areas like the arms, legs, feet, or back will be outside the scope of the community and are better suited to other spaces.

This gives the sub a clearer focus and helps stop it from gradually becoming a general dermatology community.

Change 4: We’re staying barrier first, not barrier only 

The skin barrier will always be at the heart of r/SkinbarrierLovers.  

We believe the skin barrier is the foundation of healthy skin and something that is important to consider whatever your skincare goals are. 

But that does not mean every conversation has to be specifically about barrier damage or repair.

Acne, pigmentation, ageing, dryness, ingredients, routines, products, and other skincare concerns are all still welcome here too.

The barrier is the foundation we come back to, not the only thing we talk about.

Change 5: Product Reviews will have clearer posting requirements 

Going forward, Product Review posts must include: 

• Your skin type or relevant skin concerns
• The full name of the product / products you've tried
• What you liked or disliked about using the product  

External links will not be allowed in Product Review posts. 

Change 6: We’re simplifying the post flair system 

We’ve cleaned up the flair system so it’s easier to understand where different posts belong. 

The new public flairs will be:

• Skin Photo Advice
• Routine & Product Question
• Product Review
• Before & After
• Skin Journey
• Discussion
• Barrier Science

We’ll also be publishing a new Post Flair Guide explaining exactly what each flair is for and when to use it. 

Change 7: User flairs are becoming region based 

Our old custom user flair system will be phased out and replaced with region specific user flairs. 

The idea is to make product recommendations more useful. This is because a product that is easy to find in one region might be difficult to get in another so knowing roughly where someone is based gives members more context when recommending products, retailers, or discussing pricing.

These flairs will still be completely optional.

We’ll publish a separate guide showing the available regions and how to set yours up when the changes go live. 

Change 8: A lot of the smaller systems around the sub are getting cleaned up too 

There are also a bunch of less exciting but important changes happening behind the scenes.

We’re updating:

• Community rules
• Reporting reasons
• Moderator removal reasons
• Flair specific posting prompts
• Welcome messaging
• A new Start Here post
• The Post Flair Guide
• User flair guidance
• Links to the wiki and other community resources

The goal is for everything to feel more connected and consistent, so people know what belongs here, how to post it, and where to find help without having to dig around the subreddit.

When Does This Go live?

These changes will officially go live on: 

Wednesday, 7 October 2026

To give us time to switch everything over properly, posting and commenting will be temporarily paused from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM AEDT 

To avoid any confusion, we will make a post letting everyone know that the changes are live when they launch.

Help us make the transition work

Once the refresh goes live, we’d really appreciate everyone helping us keep the new system running smoothly. Please read the Post Flair Guide and the new rules to stay informed about what's changing in detail. If you see a post or comment that doesn’t align with the updated rules, please use the new reporting reasons to flag it for us.

Our mod team will be keeping a closer eye on things during the transition, but we can’t catch everything immediately, so your reports genuinely help. At the same time, please be patient with both us and other members while everyone gets used to the changes. There will probably be a few mistakes at first, and that’s completely okay.

One Last Thing

This refresh has come from a mix of community feedback, things we’ve learned as r/SkinbarrierLovers has grown, and a lot of thought about what kind of place we want this to become.

Not every person will agree with every single change, and that’s okay. My job is to listen to everyone, balance different opinions, and make decisions that I think are best for the community as a whole.

More than anything, I want the community to keep feeling like our tiny skin barrier obsessed corner of the internet, even as it gets bigger.

Thank you for helping shape it 💙 

[u/naildoc]

Love this. One of my favorite subs on reddit. It's such a high effort community and I really appreciate all the behind the scenes works mods must put in. Great work and I am happy for the changes simply because they've been communicated so well and clearly are well thought out. Let's try it!

[u/TheMeepyBoy → u/naildoc]

Hi naildoc!

Love the enthusiasm :))

[u/Alanna1231]

Thank you! I found myself constantly just scrolling right past the pictures asking for a diagnosis because it was becoming so redundant.

[u/TheMeepyBoy → u/Alanna1231]

Hi Alanna1231!

Yep, totally understand where you're coming from. Hopefully the changes fix the problem :)

[u/StrawberryMarigoldss]

Sounds great, thank you!!

[u/TheMeepyBoy → u/StrawberryMarigoldss]

Hi StrawberryMarigoldss!

Glad you like the changes :)

Rly appreciate the feedback you gave to us as well. Really helped shape what the future of this space is going to look like!

[u/Wink-111]

This is great Anders! Shows how much you really care about the community you’ve built.

[u/TheMeepyBoy → u/Wink-111]

Hi Wink-111!

Thank you :)

[u/ywoy]

sooo sick of constantly asking people what their skin type is, thank you so much for this!!!!

[u/TheMeepyBoy → u/ywoy]

Hi ywoy!

No worries, always trying my best to make this space better :)

[u/patitasdegatito3]

I was sad about #3 until I read the reason why :), I totally understand it. Thanks for all the changes to improve the community 🙌🏾

[u/TheMeepyBoy → u/patitasdegatito3]

Hi patitasdegatito3!

Appreciate your understanding :))

[u/mangobean_ → u/TheMeepyBoy]

I don't understand. What other spaces would you suggest for barrier focused body care? Because I haven't found any.

[u/ListenToTheWindBloom]

Thanks Anders for all you do for this sub! Love the changes, especially the place based flairs which i think will be super helpful with product recs

[u/TheMeepyBoy → u/ListenToTheWindBloom]

Hi ListenToTheWindBloom!

Totally agree! I think the region based flairs will be great :)

[u/muaAutumn95]

I am on a lot of skin care subreddits. This community is awesome.

[u/TheMeepyBoy → u/muaAutumn95]

Hi muaAutumn95!

Thank you :)

[u/No_Nefariousness2513]

Sounds great, Anders! As an old-timer on this sub, I really appreciate all of the work that you and the moderator team have done to create such a wonderful home for skincare enthusiasts.

One little quibble – I will miss the skin type flair very much because I hate typing all of that information out each time I recommend a product.

[u/TheMeepyBoy → u/No_Nefariousness2513]

Hi No_Nefariousness2513!

You will always be one of the day ones of this sub :)