This is a compromised skin barrier — the lipid "mortar" between your surface skin cells has been stripped faster than it could rebuild, so water is escaping and everything, including water, registers as an irritant. The good news: barriers want to heal, and most recover in days to a couple of weeks once you stop the assault.
The plan is subtraction, not addition. Pause every active — acids, retinol, vitamin C, all of it. Keep exactly two steps: a gentle non-foaming cleanser (lukewarm water, no scrubbing) and a bland moisturizer, ideally one with ceramides plus a humectant like glycerin. In a randomized trial, a ceramide-dominant cream and cleanser regimen significantly improved water loss and hydration within 28 days in people with measurably impaired barriers (https://doi.org/10.1111/dth.14970), and ceramide moisturizers reduce water loss within hours of application (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6197824/). The skin's own barrier lipids are a mix — ceramides, cholesterol, fatty acids — which is why formulas supplying that blend are a sensible choice (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9308554/).
If even your moisturizer stings right now, thinner layers more often can be more comfortable than one thick coat, and plain petrolatum over the angriest patches is boring and effective. Protect from sun with shade and a hat if sunscreen stings too.
The most common mistake is treating the irritation with more products. Don't. And if you're getting weeping, crusting, or no improvement after two weeks of genuine blandness, see a dermatologist — at that point it may be more than a barrier problem. When you do reintroduce actives, one at a time, weeks apart (/routine/guide#introducing).