All Your Summer Skincare Questions – Answered!

Good news: the most effective things you can do for your skin are also the simplest.

We know we don’t need to reiterate the importance of cleansing and moisturizing your skin every morning and night. Those kind of skincare practices are a given. However, there are plenty of other basic habits you should get into if you want to maintain the best skin of your life. Because taking care of your skin is way easier than you think – but there are still rules.

Read on for ten of our favorites.

1. Use Toner

Toner is often overlooked in the quest for fabulous skin. But here’s the thing. It might not be an absolute ‘essential’ like cleanser, moisturizer and sunscreen, but similar to other skincare greats like serums, a good toner can provide a whole lot of love to your skin.

Typically water-based, think of your toner as like a primer for your skin, gently removing any last traces of grime from your pores, while balancing your pH and providing much-needed hydration. Depending on the ingredients used, certain toners may even help brighten, firm or clarify your skin.

Take Action: Introduce a toner to your morning and evening routine and you’ll notice the benefits almost straight away. Just make sure you choose well, steering clear of harsh alcohols and synthetic fragrances in favor of calming, soothing and balancing botanicals like rose water and aloe vera. Try Rose Water Refreshing Facial Toner.

2. Prioritize Sleep

Great skin isn’t just about great skincare. Your lifestyle is even more important than the products you put on your skin. Sleep, for example, is crucial. Deprive yourself of a good night’s sleep and your skin misses out on valuable regeneration time in which collagen production amps up, cell regeneration accelerates, blood flow increases and antioxidants kick in to neutralize environmental damage.

Take Action: You must have noticed how much better you look after a quality eight hours of sleep time, right? Then do your damnedest to make that a regular occurrence. Your skin will look and feel ten times better. Stat.

3. Avoid Harsh Skincare

If you have sensitive skin, you'll already err on the side of gentle when choosing your skincare products. But, in all honesty, the same rule should apply regardless of your skin type. We know it’s tempting to choose oil-stripping products if you have greasy or acne-prone skin, for example, but honestly, they won’t help. In fact, they’ll probably make matters worse, causing dehydration and irritation in both the short- and long-term.

Take Action: Don’t be too harsh on your skin. Sure, choose products that are tailored to help your individual skin type (dry, oily, normal or combination) but avoid anything that’s packed with strong alcohols and/or unnecessary chemicals. Kindness is next to godliness. Or something like that!

4. Embrace Eye Cream

For some people, eye cream falls into the same ‘do I really need it?’ category as toner. And sure, if you’re young enough to yet be dealing with dark circles, puffiness, dryness and wrinkling around your eyes then fair enough, eye cream won’t be your highest priority. For the rest of us, however, eye cream is vital.

Gentler than regular moisturizer, eye creams are specifically formulated to deal with the thinner, more delicate skin around your eyes. Unlike the rest of your face, this area contains fewer sebaceous glands to keep it moisturized as well as less muscle and fatty tissue for strength and volume. So it really does need looking after.

Take Action: We have three fantastic eye creams to choose from depending on your skin concerns. Depuffing Longevity Eye Cream is incredible for improving eye bags, while Hyaluronic Acid Eye Cream is a must for hydrating and firming the skin around your eyes. But don’t forget Peptide Eye Gel, our fabulously lightweight, cooling gel that works on all the visible signs of aging. Use just a tiny amount of your chosen formulation morning and night.

5. Find A Simple, Consistent Routine

Consistency is everything. It’s as simple as that. However, what might work for your BFF might not work for you, so find your own way in your skincare life. Then stand firm.

Take Action: Sticking to a daily routine that’s simple and effective will go a long way to helping you reach your skincare goals. This may be applying Retinol Facial Serum every night and exfoliating twice a week; or it could be alternating between Vitamin C Facial Serum and Niacinamide Facial Serum. If it works for you, roll with it.

Of course, you can switch the odd product up every now and again to work with the seasons and help target certain changes that may occur in your skin. But don’t mess around too much, and definitely don’t switch out your products every month. This won’t give them time to do what they set out to.

6. Quit Smoking

Cigarettes are packed with thousands of chemicals which are terrible for the skin. According to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology, the long-term effects of smoking include dryness, patchy skin, bags around the eyes, sagging and deeper-then-normal wrinkles.

“It is common for the skin of a 40-year old heavy smoker to resemble that of a 70-year-old non-smoker,”  experts claim. We’ll just leave you with that for a hot minute.

Take Action: If you don’t smoke, don’t start. And if you do, there are many ways to quit. It might not be easy, and it’ll take time, patience and a lot of willpower. But we believe in you. Head here for help.

7. Wear Sunscreen

We may have said this before (ha, like only a thousand times!) but sunscreen is the most important product you can have in your anti-aging skincare arsenal. In fact, UV radiation is responsible for somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of all visible skin aging, helping to ward off premature lines, discolorations and sagging.

And yes, you do need to protect your skin from UV radiation every day of the year. Because, not only does UVA penetrate right through clouds but it also goes through windows to hit your skin when you least expect it.

Take Action: Go for a broad-spectrum sunscreen that has an SPF of at least 30. This will ensure you’re giving your skin sufficient protection from both UVA and UVB radiation. Apply it generously to any exposed skin (your face, neck and back of the hands as an absolute minimum), and choose a formulation you actually enjoy applying to ensure it seamlessly becomes part of your routine, like cleaning your teeth and brushing your hair. Good news: SPF 30 Mineral Sunscreen with Vitamin C is so lightweight and easy to apply, you'll actually WANT to wear it.

8. Stop Touching Your Face

No matter how often your wash or sanitize your hands, they will always carry germs, allergens and bacteria that can transfer straight to the skin on your face. This can upset your skin’s delicate microbiome, potentially triggering breakouts or worsening existing conditions like eczema and psoriasis.

Take Action: We get it, touching your face is something you rarely realize you’re doing. But whenever you clock it, call yourself out. Hopefully over time you can stop, or at least reduce the amount of face touching you do on a daily basis.

9. Clean Up Your Diet

Whether it be chocolate, ice cream, Fritos or hot dogs, we all have our vices. And treats are fine in moderation, but too many can cause harmful compounds that attack your skin cells and really mess with the tone and texture of your poor complexion.

Take Action: The best diet for your skin is one that’s packed with antioxidant-rich fresh fruit and veggies, plus oily fish, seeds and nuts, all of which are high in omega-3 fatty acids. Don't starve yourself of the good stuff (that rarely works), but don't go overboard and make sure the healthy stuff always outweighs the unhealthy.

10. Exfoliate

As you get older, exfoliation becomes ever more important as your skin’s rate of turnover becomes sluggish and dead skin cells start to outstay their welcome. This can leave your skin looking drab, dreary and extremely dull. Worse yet, it can block up your pores and invite acne breakouts to the party. Prefer brighter, smoother, more wide-awake skin than any of the above? Then you gotta exfoliate.

Take Action: Give your face a gentle exfoliation as often as you think your skin needs it. This could be as frequent as every day, or as little as once a week. It may also take a few weeks to figure out your skin’s sweet spot, but when you get there, trust us, it’ll be worth it.

Also, think about whether you prefer the physical action of a scrub or the simplicity of a leave-on lotion. The good news is we cater for both with our awesome Vitamin C Gentle Face Scrub and 6% AHA, BHA + PHA Liquid Exfoliant.