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Think you have your summer skin care routine all figured out? For most people, sun protection is a big focus at this time of year…and rightly so! With UV rays seriously intensifying during the summer months, this is when your skin is most vulnerable to UV damage.
However, sun protection aside, many people are actually unaware of what their skin needs most in the summer. Once you understand exactly what your skin is craving during these hot and sweaty months, you’ll have unlocked the secret to radiant summer skin.
Ready to find out what your summer skin is desperately crying out for? Keep reading as VouPre explains.
Intense Hydration: The Secret to Radiant Summer Skin
Okay, so this isn’t technically a secret – lots of people are aware of how important hydration is for their skin. However, they often don’t realize just how crucial this actually is…
Keeping your skin hydrated ensures:
- Your skin barrier is able to function optimally.
- Your skin has some natural form of defense against UV rays and other environmental aggressors.
- Oil production will be better balanced.
- Your skin will be able to maintain the feeling of firmness and elasticity.
- Cell turnover is optimized.
- Inflammation is kept to a minimum.
- The skin’s natural healing processes function optimally.
The problem is, maintaining hydration isn’t easy. People think that the summer months, with their higher humidity levels, naturally counter moisture loss, but this isn’t true at all. Instead, once those UV rays intensify, your skin barrier ends up taking quite a beating. This prevents it from functioning as it should, meaning that it’s no longer able to effectively retain moisture. And yes, while the higher humidity outdoors slows down how quickly moisture evaporates from the skin, any time spent in dry air-conditioned air will immediately have the opposite effect. The heat, along with summer activities like swimming, also has a dehydrating impact on the skin.
How to Keep Your Skin Hydrated in the Summer
So, what can you do to keep your summer skin sufficiently hydrated? Here are our top tips:
Hydrate in Layers
While some skincare products can be extremely hydrating, a single layer of hydration, no matter how good it may be, is unlikely to last for very long, especially if your skin barrier is compromised. Instead, if you want to ensure that you’re giving your skin hydration for several hours, a few layers of moisture will be needed. Sandwiching the hydration into your skin in this way ensures that each layer is locked in, significantly slowing down moisture loss.
Of course, you need to be careful with how you go about doing this in the summer. Each layer of hydration needs to be lightweight – it’s so easy for summer skin to end up overwhelmed and greasy, which only leads to breakouts.
Our recommendation? Start with a hydrating toner after cleansing, like the VouPre Hydrating Toner. Then, follow up with a water-based serum that contains plenty of humectants. These are ingredients that bind moisture to the skin, making them great for hydration. The Aqua Hydration Serum from the VouPre Aqua Collection contains several of them. Finally, lock that all in with a hydrating moisturizer. Again, the Aqua Collection, with the skin-quenching Aqua Nano Cream, has what you need!
Make Sure That Your Cleanser and Exfoliator Aren’t Contributing to Dehydration
With sebum and sweat production soaring during the warmer months, regularly cleansing and exfoliating your summer skin becomes more important than ever. However, with many cleansers and exfoliators having the propensity to exacerbate dehydration, this can sometimes be counterproductive.
This doesn’t mean that you should stop cleansing and exfoliating, however. Instead, simply find formulas that don’t dehydrate your skin. How? The main issue with cleansers/exfoliators is that they often contain ingredients that strip the skin barrier. This then interferes with moisture retention – a compromised skin barrier won’t be able to hold moisture in, meaning that it will evaporate away at a much faster rate.
If you want to make sure that your cleanser and exfoliator aren’t interfering with skin barrier function, give VouPre’s formulas a try. Both the ClearSuds Foaming Purifier and the Radiance Facial Cleanser feature skin-loving ingredients. Go with the foaming cleanser if you have oily/combination skin, or the Radiance Facial Cleanser if your skin type is dry, normal, or sensitive. Meanwhile, the Deep Renewal Facial Peel will thoroughly exfoliate your skin while ensuring that your skin barrier continues to feel strong and resilient.
Keep Your Skin Barrier Feeling Supported
As we mentioned above, your skin barrier plays a crucial role in maintaining skin hydration levels. The more damaged your skin barrier is, the less it will be able to keep moisture locked in.
Unfortunately, in the summer months, there’s so much out there that damages the skin barrier. Not only do the heat and intense UV rays take a toll, but air pollution, which inflicts serious damage to the skin barrier, also tends to be higher in warmer weather.
This is why it’s so important for your summer skin routine to contain plenty of barrier-loving ingredients. Your entire routine should be geared toward ensuring that your skin barrier feels replenished and supported. This will allow it to function as it should, enabling your skin hydration levels to soar once again.
What does this mean in terms of the products you should be using? Stay away from potent acids and other harsh ingredients. Stick to gentle formulas that support rather than stimulate the complexion. The String Lift Sculpting System is a great example. It’s incredibly hydrating, with six different forms of hyaluronic acid ensuring that the skin feels plump and dewy. It also contains several ingredients that are known for bolstering the feel of the skin barrier, including peptides, collagen, and oat extract.
Protect Your Skin From the Sun
A large number of the summer skin problems that people deal with are worsened by sun exposure. From dehydration to inflammation to acne breakouts, the summer sun tends to exacerbate most skin concerns, while also causing new issues of its own. If you want to keep your skin hydrated throughout the summer while also ensuring that it feels healthy in other ways, sun protection is essential.
While SPF on its own will improve skin hydration levels, simply by helping to keep your skin barrier intact, don’t forget our earlier advice about layering hydration onto your skin. Ideally, each product in your summer skin routine should contain some hydrating ingredients, and this includes your SPF.
This is why the VouPre Age Defense Cream SPF 30 is one of our bestsellers. Being an SPF moisturizer, it’s great for hydrating the skin while it provides protection. This is enhanced by the inclusion of several hydrating ingredients, including aloe vera leaf extract and glycerin. Thanks to how lightweight these powerful hydrators are, you won’t have to worry about this cream weighing your skin down or causing you to look greasy.
Keep a Hydrating Face Mist With You at All Times
People usually only apply skincare twice a day: morning and night. If your morning skincare routine features several layers of hydration, this might be enough to keep your skin quenched until evening.
However, in particularly hot weather, you may find that your skin hydration levels start to dwindle by midday. What should you do then? Turn to a hydrating face mist. A face mist is such a useful way to give your skin a boost of hydration while you’re on the go. It’s a quick and easy product to use – a few spritzes and your summer skin will once again be sporting its radiant glow.
Won’t the moisture from a face mist evaporate away very quickly? Sometimes, yes. However, choose a face mist that not only hydrates the skin but also locks that moisture in, and your skin will feel fresh for hours.
This is something that the Collagen Plumping Mist from our Collagen Cooling Set really excels at. In addition to featuring a blend of hydrating ingredients, this mist is also infused with niacinamide. Otherwise known as vitamin B3, this ingredient is revered for soothing the feeling of inflammation, evening out skin tone, and leaving the skin barrier feeling supported. It’s the perfect product to use on summer skin!
Use Hydrating Face Masks
Another way to quickly hydrate your skin is with a hydrating face mask. Face masks are designed to bring the skin a high concentration of active ingredients, with those ingredients varying depending on the purpose of the mask. Find yourself a hydrating face mask, and you’ll be able to lavish your skin with some potent hydrators.
We have a few different hydrating face masks available at VouPre. The Hydra-Glow Revitalizing Facial Mask is one of our most popular. These hydrogel sheet masks can provide a gorgeous glow in just 10-15 minutes!
If leave-on masks are more your style, the Aqua Melting Mask won’t disappoint. Packed with a mix of hydrating ingredients and superfruit extracts, this mask sinks into the skin to offer long-lasting moisture.
The Cannabis Caviar Transforming Mask is another worthy contender. Although clay masks aren’t primarily geared toward hydration, this one is a little different. While the clay works to absorb excess sebum from the skin, the blend of plant oils, seaweed extract, and honey binds moisture to the skin. Meanwhile, the many antioxidants in this formula, from the likes of grape stem cells, licorice root extract, and cucumber fruit extract, repair the appearance of oxidative damage, which includes the visible damage imparted by the sun.
Enjoy Radiant Summer Skin With VouPre
Your skin has a lot to deal with in the summer, making it important not to slip up when it comes to hydration. Give your skin as much moisture as possible, and not only will you end up dealing with fewer summer-related visible skin concerns, but you’ll also be enhancing your skin’s natural glow.
Click here to add more VouPre bestellers to your summer skin care routine.
