How to Transition Your Summer Skin Ritual to Fall
Summer has officially come to an end, and the cooler air of fall has returned. Summer weather does a lot for our skin, mainly beneficial to us. The brisker fall weather brings dryness and tightening of the skin, which can be uncomfortable and challenging to manage when not knowing the resolution. We switch up the clothes we wear throughout the four seasons, so why not do the same for your skin? While it’d be ideal for maintaining our best skin days year-round, we have to switch up our skin rituals and maintain healthy lifestyles year-round. Developing a proper skincare routine for the season that you’re currently in is vital for maintaining healthy glowy skin.
How Lifestyle Affects Our Skin
Before we get into what skincare switches you should make in your ritual, we need to understand that a dedicated daily skin ritual is not the sole solution to having excellent skin health. To look and feel good, we also have to take care of our internal, mental, and physical health. There are plenty of things we do that we don’t realize can affect our skin health.
These include...
Lack of sleep
Excessive alcohol use and smoking
High-stress levels
Poor diet
Water intake
Any medication you may be on
Excessive sun exposure
Lack of exercise
All of these factors and more take effect on overall health. Before we rush to try every existing product, look at your lifestyle habits that could be affecting your skin. We can often neglect our mental health, but it’s crucial to care for ourselves in every way to feel our best selves.
Now, what exactly does a skin transition to fall look like for you?
Dry and Irritated Skin
If your skin feels dried out, you may be using products too harsh for colder weather. Instead of foaming cleansers, use a cleansing oil or balm in your first step of double cleansing, followed by a creme cleanser to help hydrate tight skin. You may want also to test out skipping facial cleanser in the morning and instead do a splash of cool water on the face followed by the rest of a simplified morning skin ritual.
Skin Ritual Switches
Try not to over-complicate your morning and night skin rituals. In doing this, you may be irritating your skin further and damaging the skin barrier. Loading up on products will overwhelm already irritated skin, so while the trendy 10-step skincare routines may look appealing, it’s best to stick to a simple skin ritual that suits your skin.
Acne and Inflammation
A common misconception for oily skin is that it doesn’t need moisturizer or make the skin even more greasy and congest the pores. However, oily skin will worsen with moisturizer taken away from it. If you’re acne-prone and oily, don’t be scared to use moisturizer! It doesn’t need to be a heavy cream but use a lighter cream instead of skipping it altogether. Another common mistake made for those with acne-prone skin is to load up on all the so-called “miracle” products targeting breakouts. Again, when we use too many products, it’s going to irritate our skin even more. Give your skin the chance to breathe by keeping a simple skin ritual.
Sun Damage
Summer has its fun constantly being in the sun and great weather; it’s probably taken a toll on your skin. However, you might regret those hours spent sunbathing without enough sunscreen. Sun protection doesn’t stop after summer as we still have the same risk of getting sun damage in any other season. Remember to apply sunscreen daily to avoid sun damage.
Beauty Treatments
It’s best to wait until the fall and winter seasons to receive specific skin treatments. Why? Well, while it’s ideal for maintaining specific treatments monthly, your skin requires a different kind of attention in the fall and winter compared to warmer seasons.
Receiving a skin treatment that penetrates the skin barrier makes the skin more sensitive than before. Suppose you have a treatment in the spring or summer. In that case, you risk increasing sensitivity and damage to your skin because of excessive UV exposure and higher temperatures; not properly taking care of the skin after treatment leads to scarring and unwanted hyperpigmentation. During the fall or winter season, you’ll need to protect your skin from becoming dryer due to the cold. Getting specific treatments done during the colder months will help rehydrate your skin, giving it a youthful glow.
Chemical Peel
Chemical peels are an exfoliating acid solution used to improve the skin’s overall appearance. It helps boost collagen and improve elasticity in the skin to reduce the appearance of fine lines. This process works by shedding dead skin cells to make way for new skin cell growth, preventing dryness and dullness on the epidermis layer of the skin. While this is good for removing dead skin during the summer, not protecting it correctly from the heat and UV rays can create long-term damage.
Fall is ideal for a chemical peel as it’s typically more protected following the days after treatment when you’re most sensitive. We usually aren’t spending as much time outside or in higher temperatures. There are numerous chemical peels that are beneficial based on your skin type and concerns.
Read this blog post to learn which chemical peel is best for you.