Recently I suffered from a really damaged skin barrier that came seemingly out of nowhere. I didn't switch up anything in my skin care or makeup routines, I haven't been travelling, I literally did nothing different than what I haven't already been doing for months before.
The first sign I had that my skin barrier was damaged was that my skin started feeling really rough, like the best way I could describe how my skin felt was that it felt like "alligator" skin and nothing I did could get my skin feeling better. Then it got progressively worse, I started noticing my skin becoming really red and hot to the touch, then it started getting really sensitive and products that worked fine for my skin previously started burning my face which really started to scare me. The only part on my face that ever gets sensitive is the area around my nose but I started getting burning sensations around my cheeks, my mouth, and even around my forehead. I also started feeling like my skin was extremely dry and tight which I rarely experience, and even then, only when I go to cold countries where the climate is a lot drier. There were some areas on my face that started peeling as well.
I started an extensive testing session with all my products and figured out what worked for my skin and what needed to take a back seat till my skin got better. What I did was to apply a small amount of the product on my skin to see if it stung, if it did, I immediately washed it off my face and started with something else. I don't know if there's a better method to this but it was the one that worked for me.