Your morning routine is always the same, wash, hydrate, moisturize but something is feeling a little bit different because within an hour or two your skin feels tight.
You wonder if you forgot something. Did you hydrate? Honestly, you probably did your summertime routine perfectly. Remember that your skin is the barrier between the internal and external world of you and we hate to break it you but it’s not summertime anymore. The weather is changing and that means your skincare routine needs to change too.
Why Does Skin Change in the Fall Months?
Why is it important to change your skincare routine as the season's change?
The skin is always exposed to the environment, which means it’s much more vulnerable to changes in that environment than other organs in the body.
The water in the air affects the balance of water (hydration) in your skin. A humid climate can soften skin and make it easy to maintain fullness, but a dryer climate can dehydrate the skin, making more likely to show fine lines and wrinkles.
As far as the affects of climate on skin goes, there are advantages and disadvantages to every season. In the summer, skin can be easier to manage because the air is more humid than it is in the winter (even in dryer climates). The summer lifestyle can also help skin thrive, as we’re more likely to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, exercise, and stay active, which increases circulation and helps skin stay healthy.
Summer months aren’t so great in other ways, though. We tend to get too much exposure to the sun, which can accelerate the appearance of aging, and if we spend time in the pool the exposure to chlorine or salt can cause drying and temporary irritation. Increased air conditioning dries out skin while excess heat means more sweating, which can lead to clogged pores.
Fall brings colder, more turbulent weather. Winds blow more fiercely and the temperature may vary greatly from one day to the next with hot, humid days and cool, dryer nights. With this shift in weather our skin has to adapt, so our skincare routine has to change along with it.
7 Tips for Your Best Fall Skin
To help maintain your best look as you go through fall this year, try these seven tips. Make sure to pay attention to your skin for clues. Do you feel dry midday, or do you still have excess oil on warm days? Does your skin look dull and tired? Do you notice more sagging?
Depending on what your skin is telling you, you may want to increase or decrease how often you do each of these steps each week. If you find that you’re a person very affected by the changes in weather, watching the forecast and planning your routine around the humidity and/or cloud cover could offer the best results.
1. Change Your Cleanser
This is probably the most important thing you can do for your skin. Sweat and activity in the summertime often call for a more clarifying cleanser like the Citrus Mint Cleanser, while fall and winter hibernation demand that you take a gentler approach.
If you’re finding that your summertime cleanser is feeling a bit too harsh, look for something that will leave your skin more moisturized. We recommend our Aloe Herb Cleanser because it cleanses gently and leaves your skin feeling moisturized and nourished.
After cleansing, think about how your skin is feeling. Is it comfortable and smooth, or does it feel tight? If it’s the latter, keep looking, as that means your skin is still too dry after cleansing. You want to avoid that dry feeling going into fall and winter.
2. Change Your Toner
This follows the same logic as changing your cleanser—you want something with a little more balancing power.
We recommend our Neroli Toning Mist. Our Rosemary Toning Mist works wonderful in the summer, as it’s more refreshing and invigorating, but in the fall and winter, Neroli gives skin that extra dose of hydration that helps it resist moisture loss throughout the day.
Whatever toner you choose, be sure to avoid the alcohol-based ones, as alcohol is drying to the skin. Use something that calms and soothes skin after cleansing. Again, take clues from your skin. How does it feel when you’ve finished applying?
3. Change Your Moisturizer
You’ve probably already heard that it’s best to use oil in the summer and cream in the winter. Because we tend to sweat more in summer it’s best if moisturizer we use has a lighter base so it doesn’t clog pores. In the fall we’re transitioning into colder windy days, blasting heaters, and less water in the air—all of which suck that hydration out of our skin (and moisture right along with it) leaving behind a dry, flaky surface that highlights lines and wrinkles.
Skin also tends to naturally produce less oil in the fall and winter months so that means it’s time to step up the moisturization. If you have oily skin, you may be fine staying with your summer moisturizer during the day, but switch to a more deeply penetrating moisturizer at night to help keep your skin from developing dry patches.
Don’t forget the eye area. This delicate skin also requires more moisture during the colder months to fight off fine lines and hollowness. We like our Anti-Aging Eye Cream but think of thicker salves and balms to hold moisture in on those windy days.
4. Exfoliate
Even the most cautious sun lover can enter into fall time with the reminisces of the summer sun and pool playtime showing up on their skin. We always recommend exfoliating because it is the best way to minimize the appearance of dark spots and smooth out your skin tone but now is a really great time to pay attention to your exfoliation routine.
Since we’re entering into a time of year where the skin is creating less oil and can be irritated by the environmental factors—wind, rain, the changing temperature—you want to pay close attention to when your skin is looking a little dull and in need of a scrub. Some people are able to exfoliate a couple of times a week in the summertime but over exfoliating in the cooler, drier part of the year can be to much. Our Ayurvedic Scrub is ideal for this, as it’s gentle enough to use regularly and it helps slough off those dead skin cells revealing the younger, smoother looking skin underneath.
By the way—don’t forget your lips. Whatever exfoliating you use on your face, you can also apply lightly to the lips. (Rinse after 2-3 minutes.) This will help get rid of that old, dry, flaky skin. Follow up with your deep moisturizer to enjoy plump, soft lips in the fall months.
5. Reduce Pore Size
Because we sweat more in the summertime, the pores tend to enlarge and sun damage doesn’t help the issue. That means that as we go into the fall months, we may look in the mirror and see more pores than we’d like.
Take advantage of this time to bring your pores into line. The key is to keep them clean so that your body’s natural cycle can do the rest. Our Purifying Mud Mask is what you need! The clays absorb excess oil, pulling all the gunk out of the pores as you sit back and relax. When you rinse, you’ll notice a difference right away.
Try it twice a week for a few weeks until you notice a difference in your pores, and then you can back off to just once a week. We like to exfoliate before we do the mask, just to make sure we’re working with the new skin, then follow up with a hydrating mask for a lovely at-home spa treatment.
6. Bring Out the Hydrating Masks
The transition from summer to fall to winter bring drier air, which can rob your skin of moisture. That means that even if you change your moisturizer, it may not be enough, especially when the winds blow and the heaters come on.
You may not have needed a hydrating mask in the summertime, but now it’s time to start using one again. During your weekly at-home spa treatment, we recommend our Coconut Honey Mask. Honey is a natural humectant, which helps to drive hydration deeper into your skin, and the coconut oil in the mask will leave your skin feeling smooth and deeply nourished.
You can also make your own hydrating mask using ingredients like mashed bananas, avocados, honey, yogurt, olive or jojoba oil, oatmeal, and the like. Just mix together, apply, and leave on for 10-15 minutes.
7. Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate!
All this dry, blustery weather is dehydrating to our skin. We can (and should) drink glass after glass of water but because the skin is part of creating a balance in our internal and external worlds, sometimes we need a little extra topical hydration to fight that external battle. Our Serums are created just that! Use them just before your moisturizer to plump up the skin and boost the skin’s natural repair mechanisms.
To choose a serum from our line, check out what your skin needs! Our Anti-Aging Serum works to soothe the feeling of inflammation and plump of the skin to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. The Repair Serum is a stem-cell serum that rejuvenates skin and provides powerful antioxidant activity to help promote beautiful skin and the Wild Fruit Serum brightens, hydrates, and helps tone aging skin.
Three Keys to Your Best Skin
Keep in mind the three keys to your best skin this fall:
- Notice how your skin reacts to the change in weather
- Notice how your skin looks throughout the day
- Adjust your skincare routine to match what you’re needing
Remember that anytime you add a product or change your routine, your skin will need time to adapt. Use your new routine for at least a couple weeks before determining that it’s not working.
Make product changes gradually. Start with just changing your cleanser and give that a week or so then change your toner and watch how your skin responds with each change. Give it the time it needs to level out before you make your next change.
Do you change your skincare routine in the fall and winter?
7 Skincare Routine Changes for Fall was originally published to: http://www.annmariegianni.com/
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