Everyone wants healthy, radiant skin throughout the year, but perhaps never more so than during the hot, humid months of summer when layers of makeup and concealer seem particularly weighty and unappealing.
While everyone’s skin is different, there are several steps you can include in your skin care routine to help you achieve a more flawless complexion.
Cleanse Regularly
Perhaps nothing is as important when caring for your skin as proper cleansing morning and night. A double cleanse in the evening comprised of a nourishing cleansing oil followed by a silky gel or cream ensures you totally rid your face of makeup, dirt, and environmental impurities that can clog and age skin. A brightening morning cleanse gives your skin a glow and assists in recovery by washing away accumulated oils and dead skin cells that have sloughed off overnight.
If you exercise, you might need to add a third cleanse in there somewhere!
Because soaps and other harsh cleansers can be drying and irritating, it’s important to have a gentle regimen that moisturizes and protects the skin barrier as it cleanses instead of stripping it away.
Treat Skin Specific Issues
Identifying your top skincare concerns is the best way to individualize your skin care routine. Most people can benefit from exfoliating once or twice a week to smooth the skin by helping it shed its flakiest outer layer, but this doesn’t have to be an aggressive process. Choose a gentle scrub or acid-based mask that won’t inflame skin, but instead encourages more rapid cell turnover and a pleasant polishing effect.
Skin serums are usually the go to for treating individual concerns like redness, age spots, wrinkles and acne, and are generally applied after cleansing and before moisturizing. Since some serums contain retinoids or ingredients that make skin more sensitive to the sun, they are best used at night. Other products with brightening properties or skin defenders should be used in the morning.
Hydrate Inside and Out
After cleansing thoroughly with warm water and spot treating trouble areas, apply a hydration-boosting moisturizer for your skin type to damp, dewy skin. Softer, more elastic skin naturally looks younger and brighter, and matching it to your skin type will ensure your cosmetics set beautifully and stay put.
It’s important to assist external efforts at moisturizing the skin by hydrating from the inside as well. Start each day by drinking a full glass of water before anything else and keep some nearby to sip on throughout the rest of the day. Staying hydrated will ensure your skin looks plump, radiant, less dry, and flaky, and can help prevent the formation of new lines and wrinkles.
If you feel particularly dehydrated, or don’t like plain water, add a pinch of sea salt, fresh lemon juice, or another unsweetened electrolyte to your cup.
Eating moisture-rich fruits and vegetables also helps.
Practice Safe Sun Exposure
While some sun can naturally boost vitamin D levels and help regulate circadian rhythm, too much of it is never ever a good thing. Failing to protect yourself from excessive sun exposure can accelerate the skin aging process and increase your risk of skin-related cancers.
Choose daytime skincare products and cosmetics with a mineral sunscreen already in them and keep some handy to reapply as needed. Experts recommend a broad spectrum formula to protect from both UVA and UVB rays and reapplying it every two hours when out in the sun, or more often if sweating or swimming. Sun hats, shades, and light, breathable fabrics over skin help you stylishly protect it from aging and burning.
Use The Right Products for Your Skin
The cleansers, oils, creams and serums that make up your skin care routine don’t have to cost a fortune, but using the wrong ones can be a total waste of cash. Not only will they not produce the hoped-for results but can actually cause more problems!
Your products should be suited not only to your skin type — oily, dry, combination — but to your skin’s present condition, which can change with stage of life, illness and climate. Look for products that prioritize nutrient-rich ingredients over parabens, phthalates, artificial fragrances, and other chemicals.
Clean Up the Lifestyle Piece
No matter what you do to the outside of your skin, it’s not likely to reveal its full potential if you consistently practice poor diet and lifestyle habits. Alcohol dehydrates skin and the excess sugar and hydrogenated fats found in ultra processed junk foods can lead to redness and breakouts.
Aim to “eat the rainbow” of fresh fruits and veggies, healthy fats and high fiber foods full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that detox the body and make your skin glow.
Avoid smoking and excessive sun exposure, both of which cause wrinkles among other damage, and work on getting enough sleep. Regular aerobic exercise gives you instantly glowing skin and it’s also a great natural foundation for good health.
Visit Your Aesthetician
Regular visits to a professional aesthetician can take your skin care routine to a whole other level. With medical-grade products and beauty treatments like chemical peels, microneedling, intense pulse light (IPL) therapy, among others, an aesthetician can help reduce the signs of aging, encourage new skin cell turnover, clinically address breakouts, and improve lymphatic circulation to reveal clear, glowing, vibrant skin. A licensed skin care specialist can also advise you on the best products for your skin type and condition, removing the guesswork when choosing between fancy packaging and lofty marketing claims.
Kalologie MedSpa Austin combines the latest in medical aesthetic treatments, rejuvenating skin care and results-oriented, dermatologically tested products to help you put your best face forward every day. If you’re interested in leveling up your skin care routine, contact us today.