You Already Know the Skin Needs Attention. The Next Question Is What to Do About It.
If you’ve already read about why the external intimate area deserves the same consideration as every other area of skin, the next question moves from why to how. What does intimate skin care actually look like, and where do you begin?
The question exists because the external intimate area has been under-addressed across medicine, industry, and culture. Women receive remarkably little guidance on caring for the skin in the vulvar, perineal, and perianal regions, even though hormonal changes, medical treatments, and aging affect these tissues throughout life.
Medical guidance often focuses on internal vaginal health, while product development has rarely focused on the external intimate area. Conversations about intimate skin remain limited compared with those about skin elsewhere on the body. The external intimate area is skin, and like all skin, it functions as a living ecosystem with its own barrier, hydration, and repair processes. Recognizing that complexity is what makes routine the next logical conversation.
Most skin care routines exist because skin has multiple needs. Facial skin requires hydration, it requires barrier support, and it benefits from protection when conditions become harsh or irritating. For that reason, facial skin care often involves more than one product, since different formulations serve different functions.
The same principle applies to the external intimate area, and arguably with more urgency. Think about how much time this skin spends under pressure. Sitting, walking, even standing all create friction in that area, and most of us never stop to consider it. The skin on your face is rarely compressed against anything for hours at a time, but the vulvar and peri-anal skin is, every single day. Once you notice that, the case for giving this area at least as much attention as the rest of your body becomes hard to ignore.
The vulva, perineum, and peri-anal skin respond to hormonal changes, friction, moisture loss, and environmental stressors, and skin in those areas may become drier, more sensitive, or less resilient over time. Menopause, perimenopause, cancer treatment, autoimmune conditions, medications, and other health changes can accelerate those effects.
No single product addresses every aspect of skin function. A routine exists because hydration, restoration, and protection are not identical needs.
Why a Routine Involves More Than One Product
When skin becomes uncomfortable, the instinct is often to search for a single solution. Skin physiology rarely works that way.
Hydration, barrier integrity, and protection each contribute to skin health, and supporting one function does not automatically address the others. You see this in facial skin care, where a serum performs a different role than a moisturizer, and a moisturizer performs a different role than a protective balm or ointment.
The external intimate area follows the same physiological principles. The goal is not complexity for the sake of complexity, but applying the same principles that guide facial skin care to an area that has been under-addressed across medicine, industry, and culture. Within the Nancy Chun Formula, each product serves a specific purpose.
The Three Components of the Routine
Serum: Deep Hydration and Moisture Support
Hydration begins beneath the surface, which is why the serum serves as the foundation of the routine. It is formulated with triple molecular weight hyaluronic acid, combining high, medium, and low molecular weight forms of a molecule that naturally attracts and holds water. The larger molecules draw and retain moisture at the surface, while the smaller molecules penetrate more deeply to support longer-lasting hydration. Working together, the three weights replenish moisture at multiple levels of the skin and help reduce the feeling of dryness, tightness, and discomfort.
Hydrated skin often feels more comfortable, more resilient, and less prone to irritation. The serum is the lightest layer in the routine, making it the first product applied after cleansing.
Moisturizer: Restoration and Protection
Hydration alone is not always enough. Skin also requires support for its barrier function, and a healthy barrier reduces moisture loss while contributing to overall comfort.
The moisturizer delivers hydration while supporting the skin barrier with three lipids found naturally in healthy skin: ceramides, fatty acids, and triglycerides. Ceramides help hold the barrier’s structure together, fatty acids support hydration and the skin’s natural defenses, and triglycerides soften and smooth while reducing moisture loss. These were chosen deliberately because they mirror what the skin’s own barrier can lose over time through aging, hormonal change, or environmental stress.
The serum provides hydration, and the moisturizer helps maintain and preserve it. For women experiencing menopausal dryness, the moisturizer often serves as a practical starting point because restoration and barrier support address moisture loss directly.
Balm: Extra Support When Skin Needs It
Some days pass without much thought. On other days, clothing feels more noticeable, movement feels less comfortable, or skin feels more sensitive than usual. Exercise, heat, prolonged sitting, and hormonal fluctuations can all contribute to those changes.
The Barrier Repair Balm provides additional support during those periods. Formulated with zinc oxide, aloe vera, and vitamin E, it creates a protective layer that shields skin from friction and moisture loss while supporting its natural recovery. The texture is thicker, comparable to a zinc-based barrier cream, which makes it well suited to the moments skin feels most vulnerable, whether after exercise or prolonged sitting, while wearing pads or liners, or during periods of heightened sensitivity tied to menopause, cancer treatment, or other hormonal changes.
Rather than following a rigid schedule, the balm is used whenever skin benefits from extra protection or comfort, applied as a thin layer to areas of discomfort. Some women apply it after showering, while others use it before exercise, before bed, or during periods of increased sensitivity. The balm can be incorporated whenever skin benefits from additional barrier support.
Where to Apply the Products
One source of confusion surrounding intimate skin care is understanding where products belong. Dr. Nancy developed the Nancy Chun Formula for external intimate skin, and application begins with the external vulvar skin, including the labia majora and clitoral hood. Women may also apply the products to the perineum and the external peri-anal skin as needed.
Always apply products from front to back. This direction matters for the same reason it matters during everyday hygiene: it keeps bacteria from the anal area away from the vulva and urethra, where it can cause irritation or infection. Use clean hands, apply each product in that single front-to-back motion rather than going back and forth, and wash your hands once you finish.
Dr. Nancy designed the products for external use. While they are not intended for internal application, incidental contact is not considered harmful, and the guiding principle remains straightforward: the routine is intended for use on the external skin.
Why the Layering Order Matters
The application order follows the same logic used in facial skin care, where lighter products are applied before heavier ones. A thinner, water-loving formula reaches the skin more readily when nothing heavier is sitting on top of it, while a richer product layered afterward helps seal in what came before. Reverse the order and the heavier layer can block the lighter one from absorbing the way it should.
The serum goes on first to bring moisture into the skin, and the moisturizer follows to support the skin barrier and help retain that moisture. The serum draws water in, the moisturizer holds it there, and the two work better in sequence than either does on its own. Women can apply the balm whenever skin needs additional protection or comfort.
Each layer performs a different function, and applying products in that sequence allows each formulation to do the work it was designed to do. The process is meant to be simple, yet intentional.
What the Routine Looks Like in Daily Life
Many skin care routines become difficult because they require perfect timing or rigid schedules. The Nancy Chun Formula was designed to fit your routine, rather than dictate it
Whether you cleanse with a shower, bath, or cleansing wipe, apply a half-pea-sized amount of serum to clean, dry skin, then follow with a pea-sized amount of moisturizer over the same areas. For most women, that sequence forms the core daily routine, and the Barrier Repair Balm can be added whenever extra comfort or barrier support is needed.
A routine performed consistently tends to provide more benefit than a routine performed perfectly. For most women, the easiest way to stay consistent is to attach the routine to something already part of the day. Keeping the serum and moisturizer near where you dry off after a shower, or on the nightstand alongside the rest of a bedtime routine, turns two quick steps into a habit that takes under a minute. Missing a day now and then changes very little, because what the skin responds to is the pattern over weeks and months, not any single application.
Starting with One Product
The full system was designed to work together, and at the same time, each product provides value independently. Many women prefer to begin with one product before incorporating the entire routine.
The starting point often depends on what feels most noticeable. Some women focus primarily on dryness, others notice sensitivity that comes and goes, and others simply want to establish a consistent routine for supporting intimate skin. When dryness is persistent or more pronounced, the serum is often the most practical first step, since its triple molecular weight hyaluronic acid delivers deep, multi-level hydration. For everyday comfort and maintenance, the moisturizer provides hydration at the surface while supporting the skin’s natural protective barrier.
The serum, moisturizer, and balm were designed to work together, but each addresses a different aspect of skin care. Women whose discomfort appears intermittently may prefer the balm, particularly if sensitivity tends to arise during specific activities or circumstances.
No single starting point is universally correct. The important consideration is recognizing a need and responding to it, and a routine can grow over time.
A Physician’s Perspective on Where to Begin
When patients ask Dr. Nancy where to start, the conversation rarely begins with products. It begins with consistency, because skin responds to repeated care, and the same principle applies to facial skin, body skin, and the external intimate area.
Many women spend years adapting to discomfort without realizing another approach is possible, while others assume symptoms are simply part of aging, treatment, or hormonal change. Physiology tells a different story.
Skin remains skin regardless of location. Hydration matters, barrier function matters, and protection matters. The external intimate area deserves the same thoughtful attention women routinely give to facial skin, not because the area is different, but because it is not.
The vulva, perineum, and peri-anal skin follow the same biological principles as every other area of skin, and the standard of care should reflect that reality. For women who are unsure where to begin, the first step is often the most important, because a consistent routine creates an opportunity for skin to receive the same level of consideration, support, and care that has long been expected elsewhere.
Education has always been central to Dr. Nancy’s work. The Nancy Chun Formula grew from the same principles discussed here: hydration, barrier support, and protection for external intimate skin. If you’d like to learn more, explore the serum, moisturizer, and balm Dr. Nancy developed to bring those principles into daily practice.
Learn More