How to Take Care of Your Skin This Summer
With the weather getting increasingly warmer and summer just round the corner, our skincare expert Alexandra explores a variety of avenues and provides helpful solutions for common season-specific skin care complaints including sun protection, swimming pool damage, clogged pores and oily skin.
She offers preventative information you won’t want to miss including tips to avoid your makeup from slipping off in the heat, how to find the right SPF for your skin type, and much more. Let’s dive in!
Tip One: Make Vitamin C Part of Your summer Skincare Routine
Our skin becomes more dehydrated in the summer which can make it feel tight and ‘dry’. Although there may not necessarily be visible flakiness, it could still be an underlying factor. Fine horizontal lines are more visible with dehydrated skin and pigmentation can become visible due to sun exposure, which nobody wants.
During the summer I like to incorporate a daily dose of vitamin C into my skincare regime, which has huge benefits throughout the year, but in the summer can become even more essential. I like to try vitamin C serums, eye creams and moisturisers along with taking the Simone Thomas Wellness skin quencher supplement. Topical skin care helps to detoxify the skin by healing and repairing the cells effectively. SkinQuencher is packed with marine collagen to rehydrate, plump fine lines and help skin to glow. Paired with my weekly vitamin C face mask, my complexion is brighter, and rehydrated after exfoliation.
Tip Two: Preventing Sun Damage
Sun damage is a widely discussed topic during the summer, and rightly so. It’s important to protect our skin at all times from the harmful rays. Here are a few pointers to help you understand why we protect our skin, and how to do it.
Find the Right SPF for your Skin Type
Let’s touch on UVA and UVB for just a moment and what they mean.
- UVA filter prevents the skin AGEING.
- UVB filters prevent the skin from BURNING.
Burning causes skin damage and pigmentation so it’s really important to keep the skin topped up with SPF with both UVA and UVB filters.
If you expose your skin to the sun at all, it is important to use an SPF. When using retinol products or Roaccutane for your skin, you will need a higher SPF such as 50, because your skin will be more sensitised and prone to burning.
SPF30 would otherwise be a good coverage for the face daily during the summer. Many foundations or other makeup products often contain an SPF, but we always recommend using a stand-alone SPF rather than where it’s been added.
It’s important to moisturise first, then use your SPF product afterwards. Treatment creams are made with small molecules which absorb into the 10 layers of the skin to treat it for various concerns, such as ageing. SPFs are made with larger molecules to sit on top of the skin and not absorb, to best protect and form a barrier. Using a mix of both in one product can slow down the effectiveness of your treatment cream.
Using a daily SPF during the summer is my go-to. I like the Natura Bisee Diamond sheer cream SPF 50 as this helps to protect against pigmentation, reduce sun damage and helps to nourish and hydrate the skin. It’s important to find an SPF that suits your skin so you feel comfortable using it regularly.
Tip Three: Manage Oily Skin in Summer
Some people find that their skin becomes more oily than usual in the summer, this can be due to increased blood circulation in the hot weather, which can stimulate our sebum production.
It is important to understand that an oily skin type can still become dehydrated in the summer and it’s important to treat both the skin type and the skin condition.
Oily skin is a skin type, just as normal, dry and combination skin are. Our skin type can change slightly but usually your predominant skin type will remain the same throughout your life. Although signs of dehydration (which can present as dryness) can occur, we may still be presented with the odd blemish and blocked pore.
Using a makeup primer like Clarins SOS can help to mattify your skin and reduce the visible shine. Keeping up with a regular skincare regime will help i.e., Cleanse, tone and moisturise and follow with SOS or your preferred primer before applying foundation or SPF.
Using a face oil at night can be key to help balance the natural oils in your skin. Using an oil can trick the skin into thinking it has produced an oil already and therefore doesn’t naturally produce as much! The biggest skincare myth is that oily skin doesn’t need additional moisture. But in reality, even the oiliest of skin still needs moisturising!
Tip Four: Reducing the Effects of Chlorine on the Skin
Another question we are asked during the summer is about how chlorine can affect our skin. Chlorine is a chemical which will dehydrate the skin and can affect the pH balance of the skin. This can make the skin appear less bright and also affect how dry it appears.
As we would with our hair, it is important to thoroughly cleanse the skin after being in a chlorinated pool. Using a cream cleanser or a balm cleanser can be more nourishing to skin than standard cleansers. If you need something you can use in the shower after a swim, use a hypoallergenic face cleansing gel which is made for sensitised skin. Anything with rose oil is really nourishing and helps hydrate and soothe.
You should also use a face serum under your moisturiser, one which is formulated to hydrate as its main focus.
If you like to do your routine more thoroughly in the evening, a nourishing face oil over the serum can be super hydrating, healing and give your skin that all-important glow back.
Tip Five: Skin and Hair Health Supplements for Glow
We recommend supplementing your diet throughout the year but, Summer time is a great time to start. as we all want to achieve the natural glow in our skin.
We have talked about the Skin Quencher supplement. Our best kept skin secret and your best friend in summer. Taking these supplements in the lead up to summer will help you to prepare the skin and give it a boost of both vitamin C and marine collagen, which will work effectively to ensure it’s in the best condition ready for the holiday season. Find out more about how collagen can transform your skin.
Aside from skincare supplements, Everyday Wellness is a powerful probiotic supplement to support your gut. Good gut health helps to support the whole body, including your skin, hair and scalp health. Did you know good health starts in your gut? Therefore, it’s very important to prioritise fuelling your gut with friendly bacteria found in probiotics as this will help to reveal glowing skin and healthy hair.