The FX Guide to Summer Skin Care

If you’re looking to make summer your skin’s glowiest season yet, then look no further than the FX guide to summer skin care.

After all, between the long-awaited sunshine (finally!), patio-heavy social occasions, and Instagrammable travel opportunities, you want your skin to be as camera-ready as humanly possible.

If you’re short on time but big on keeping your skin’s health in tip-top shape, here are three crucial components of a smart summer skin care:

Common Summer Skin Challenges

When you’re focused on squeezing in all of your summer fun, it can be easy to forget about all the common summer skin challenges that are dulling your shine– and may actually be negatively impacting your complexion for the rest of your life!

(We know, we know: cue the horror music!)

While the summer may be all about sun, beaches, camping, travel, late nights, and long patio lunches, be prepared for:

• • The consistent summer heat increasing oil production
  • Sun exposure depleting vital antioxidants and hydration from your skin barrier
  • Air travel contributing to excess dryness
  • Pollution from wildfire smoke triggering oxidative stress, which is a big contributor to premature aging– especially here in British Columbia, where we seem to get at least two wildfires every summer!

The result? Dry, dull, depleted, and, for many of us, breakout-prone skin… especially when we add late nights onto the pile, which makes it so our skin has less time to rest and repair itself!

Skin Therapist-Approved Tweaks to Your Summer Skin Care Routine

The FX guide to summer skin care would be incomplete if we didn’t outline our recommended skin regimen tweaks.

Prioritize SPF

Are you ensuring that you are consistently applying an SPF of 30 or higher?

A little-known sunscreen fact is that the assigned SPF number actually represents how much exposure it would take to cause a burn when using the sunscreen: it can be considered a timing measurement of how long an individual can be in the sun before burning.

We like to use the following example– if you would usually burn in direct sun after 15 minutes with zero sun protection applied, then an SPF of 30 will protect the skin up to 30 times longer. That results in 7.5 hours of sun protection. The more you know, right?

Here at Facial Expressions Skin Therapy, we recommend applying sunscreen every morning (whether you intend to be outside or not!), then following it up with an assessment at around lunchtime about whether or not you need to reapply based on your day’s activities. Here’s a pro tip: reapplication is non-negotiable if you’re swimming or engaging in any activities that increase sweating!

We also recommend to…

Consider Mineral Sunscreen

If you think that you can get away with just applying a moisturizer with SPF in it, think again! Having a dedicated SPF ensures that you are getting the sufficient layer of protection that your skin needs.

Moisturizing ingredients and sunscreen filters work differently in the skin, so combining them into one product– like a moisturizer that features SPF as an afterthought– doesn’t allow the full effectiveness of each component to shine through. Instead, opting for a dedicated mineral sunscreen ensures that protecting your skin from sun damage is the priority. 

As a bonus, mineral sunscreens are a reliable protectant, are gentler on sensitive skin types, are antioxidant-rich, and, of course, are nicer to reapply compared to sticky synthetic sunscreens thanks to their smooth texture and fast absorbency– meaning that you can easily reapply on-the-go, whether they be in powder form or lotion form.

Keep Hydrated

Alongside keeping on top of your water intake throughout the day (which is crucial both for your general health and for keeping your skin’s moisture barrier in tip-top shape), there are two ways that we here at Facial Expressions love ensuring that our skin is staying hydrated:

• Mists or sprays: Mists or sprays are small, portable, and, most importantly, refreshing on a hot summer day! Spritz your skin before reapplying sunscreen to keep your skin moisturized and dewy all day long.
• Gels or serums: Common gel or serum ingredients like hyaluronic acid or glycerin bind water in our skin cells, which work to plump our skin cells and keep their moisture levels vital… but if there isn’t enough moisture in the atmosphere around us, they can actually pull hydration out from the cells themselves! That’s a recipe for a dryness disaster. To counteract this, we always recommend pairing your usual hydrating gel or serum with a mist or spray.

Remember: hydration is key, and pairing both hydrators and moisturizers together in your skin care routine is a surefire way to keep your complexion happy.

Refresh Your Professional Services Lineup for the Summer

Last but certainly not least in our FX guide to summer skin care is this: refresh your professional services lineup for summer.

Just like your at-home skin care routine, the professional services you come in for should reflect the current season’s challenges (and your topmost skin concerns!)

During the summer, our top summer treatments are:

• • The Summer Facial Series: This trio of playful, summer-themed express facials are only here for a limited time! Featuring the refreshing Rain or Shine FX, the brightening Patio Glow FX, and the calming Popsicle FX, this season is all about prevention and protection. Now is the perfect time to tackle common summer-related skin woes like heat, sun exposure (and the resulting sun damage), pollution, increased oil production, and potential breakouts.
  • The Bare FX Back Facial: As a skin-perfecting treatment that deeply cleanses and exfoliates hard-to-reach skin just in time for bathing suit season, the Bare FX Back Facial packs in essential AHAs/BHAs, antioxidants, peptides, and vitamins to give your back and shoulders the same TLC as your face. Backne begone! This 45-minute treatment is here to give you the confidence boost you deserve.

Ready to make this summer the best yet for your skin? Start implementing the FX guide to summer skin care today.