🌿 When the Body Speaks: My Journey with Asthma, Dermatitis and Sensitive Skin
Updated: Oct 1
My experience with dermatitis and sensitive skin developed alongside a much bigger change in how my body was responding to my environment.
There was a time when I didn’t fully understand my skin.
Growing up in Thailand, life felt simple and connected to nature. I spent most of my time outdoors - under the sun, surrounded by warmth and humidity. At the time, my skin generally felt comfortable, balanced and uncomplicated.
It wasn’t something I thought much about.
Until much later.
Before the Skin—There Was the Breath
Before I understood my skin, my body was already communicating with me - through my breath.
I grew up around cigarette smoke, as my grandfather was a smoker. From time to time, I would notice that taking a deep breath didn’t feel completely clear. It felt slightly restricted, but subtle enough to ignore.
At the time, I was very active.
I played sports and swam regularly.
So I assumed my lungs were strong.
It wasn’t until 2018, while working in a hair salon, that things began to shift.
Day after day, I was working around chemical fumes from hair dyes and salon treatments. During that period, I began to notice that my breathing was becoming more noticeably affected.
Eventually, I went to see a GP because of the discomfort I was experiencing in my chest. That appointment led to a diagnosis I hadn't expected - asthma.
Later, when I saw a respiratory specialist, we talked about my history of breathing difficulties and my work environment. He explained that exposure to chemical fumes in the salon could have been a trigger for my repiratory symptoms.
Looking back, it helped me understand that some of the sensations I had experienced much earlier in life were worth paying attention to.
When It Became More Than Just Breathing
Hand dermatitis and sensitive skin. 
Hand dermatitis and sensitive skin
My own experience with dry, reactive skin became part of what led me to look more closely at skin barrier care.
My awareness of sensitivity didn’t stop there.
Years earlier, my daughter had already been diagnosed with dermatitis by multiple GPs. At the time, I couldn’t fully understand why. There was no obvious family history from her father’s side, and I didn’t believe I had it myself.
But over time, I began to recognise the same patterns in my own skin.
Around five to seven years ago, I was diagnosed with dermatitis.
For years, I had thought about sensitivity mainly in relation to my breathing. Now, I was beginning to understand my skin in a different way too.
Calm dermatitis and sensitive skin on hand
My skin today. Living with sensitive skin has shaped the way I understand and approach skin barrier care.
A Shift in Environment
Looking back, my experience wasn't as simple as moving from one climate to another.
After growing up in Thailand, I spent many years living in different parts of Australia. During those earlier years, I don't remember experiencing the same skin concerns that became noticeable later in my life.
It was only after another change in my environment, work and lifestyle that I began to pay closer attention to what my body and skin were telling me.
At the time, I was also working around salon products and chemical fumes, and my breathing had become increasingly sensitive. My skin concerns developped later, adding another layer to my understanding of sensitivity.
I don't believe there was one simple cause. Instead, those experiences taught me to pay attention to my individual triggers and to how my skin responds when my environment, lifestyle or routine changes.
Those experiences eventually led me to think about sensitive skin very differently.
Understanding My Triggers
Through my naturopathy studies, I also began learning more about the relationship between diet, individual sensitivities and overall wellbeing.
Some of the things I became more aware of included:
Nickel sensitivity
Certain soaps and external irritants
Lactose intolerance
How my body responded to certain foods, including gluten and corn
Periods of emotional stress
What I gradually learned was that sensitivity wasn't alwaus straightforward. Sometimes my skin would feel comfortable, while at other times seemingly small changes in my environment, routine or lifestyle appeared to make a noticeable difference.
Rather than trying to identify one single cause, I began paying closer attention to my own patterns - what I was exposed to, what I was using on my skin, and how my skin responded over time.
That process of observation became an important part of how I learned to care for my sensitive skin.
What I Learned Through Study & Practice
During my naturopathy studies, I began explorig a broader understanding of skin health and the many factors that can influence how the skin looks and feels.
I also became increasingly incleasingly interested in the role of the skin barrier and how changes in barrier function may influence skin comfort and sensitivity.
Through my work in the treatment room, I have also seen how differently sensitive-feeling skin can present from one person to another.
Some clients may experience:
dryness or tightness
visible redness
increased reactivity
sensitivity to products they previously tolerated
skin that simply feels uncomfortable or unsettled
These experiences reinforced something that has become central to the way I approach skincare.
Sometimes, a simpler and gentler approach can be more appropriate than continually adding stronger products or treatments.
A Different Approach to Skin
This journey reshaped how I approach skin today.
Not as something to "fix" quickly, but something to understand and support gently.
My focus became:
supporting the skin barrier
recognising and reducing unnecessary triggers
simplifying skincare routines and formulations
paying closer attention to how the skin responds over time
Because for sensitive-feeling skin, sometimes less really can be more
Rethinking My Relationship with Scent
Living with sensitivity also changed how I experience fragrance.
For a long time, I found that fragrance applied directly on my skin could leave it feeling irritated and uncomfortable.
But scent has always been deeply meaningful to me - especially the floral aromas I grew up with in Thailand.
So rather than removing scent from my life completely, I became more considered about how I experienced it.
For my skincare, this meant choosing to formulate without added fragrance or essential oils. Scent, meanwhile, found a separate place in my home fragrance collection - where it became about atmosphere, memory and the feeling of a space.
For me, skincare and scent eventually found two different purposes.
The Philosophy Behind CHIVATARA Collection
CHIVATARA Collection was created from this understanding.
A space where:
skin is supported, not overstimulated
sensitivity is respected, not ignored
and scent is experienced with intention
This is why:
our skin formulations are kept simple and barrier-focused
added fragrance and essential oils are avoided in our skincare
our home fragrance collection explores scent through atmosphere, memory and the feeling of a space.
Not as an overload - but as a quiet presence.
A More Conscious Way of Living
Asthma and dermatitis became more than diagnoses in my own journey.
They made me pay closer attention -
to my environment,
to my body,
and to the smell, everyday exposures that often go unnoticed.
Through that awareness, I began to understand my own sensitivities more closely and found a different way to care for my skin and myself.
Closing Reflection
I didn't set out to create a philosophy around sensitive skin.
It grew quietly from my own experiences, my work with clients, and everything I continued to learn along the way.
What began as a need to understand my own skin eventually shaped the way I formulate, the way I work, and the way I created CHIVATARA Collection.
And perhaps that is the most personal part of the brand - it grew from something I was living myself.
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