The Right (And Safe!) Ways To Nail Glowy Skin On Vacation
Because not even Jennifer Lopez was 'born' with her infamous JLo glow…
Summer might be almost over (gasp!) but we’re still in full-on vacation mode at TruSkin HQ. And, for us, vacations are all about glowing, radiant skin – as well as a few new fabulous sundresses, of course. Ooh, and those Chloe sunglasses we’ve been eyeing up since June…
But we digress. Back to glowing skin, which, frankly, is not something most of us wake up with. Truth is, radiant skin takes work. Sure, you can spend a few minutes slapping self-tanner on your face and body, and, absolutely, makeup is fabulous for bronzing up your cheeks and adding shimmer to your décolletage. But wouldn’t you rather do real, longer-lasting good for your skin in the quest for an illuminating complexion?
Us too. That’s why you’ll find us mostly doing the following for the next few months. Scratch that, we’ll actually be doing them forever more. Because glowing skin is not something we want to give up once summer is over.
Get Handsy
A fantastic way to boost your circulation and simultaneously get your skin glowing and ready for the day is to give yourself a facial massage each morning while cleansing. It’s also totally free. And easy. Nice.
Wash your hands first, then wet your skin with lukewarm (never hot) water and squeeze a dime-sized amount of cleanser (Vitamin C Brightening Cleanser is a joy!) into the palms of your hands. Apply this all over your face and neck and really work it into your skin using the flats of your hands and the pads of your fingers – just NOT your nails as these can scratch and damage the surface of your skin.
Start on your forehead, pressing your fingers along the brow area and up your forehead towards the headline. Repeat this a few times, then work from the center of your nose and out along your cheeks to your temple area. Use large circular motions for a gentle, but fairly firm massage, again, repeating a couple of times, then continue with the same motions over your chin, along your jawline, then finish with long, smooth strokes down your neck.
Spend just two or three minutes doing this in the shower each morning. You'll be amazed by how much healthier your skin will look (and feel!).
Tone Down Your Exfoliation
Don’t get us wrong, summer is a great time to exfoliate more often than normal – if nothing else but to keep your pores clean and clear of excess oils, sweat and sunscreen. However, when you’re in the sunshine all day, every day, for however many days you’re lucky enough to be on vacation, exfoliating too much can make your skin extremely vulnerable to UV damage.
Of course, you can still reap the benefits of certain exfoliants while you’re away, you just need to choose your formulation wisely. Our Ocean Minerals Super Toner, for example, contains a super low percentage of glycolic acid to help boost cellular turnover without overdoing it. It’s a great little product to take away with you as it also helps to refresh and hydrate your skin.
If you prefer more of a scrub and can’t bear to be without it when you’re on vacay, stick to just once a week and exfoliate it in the morning rather than in the evening when your skin might be feeling the heat of a long day in the sun. Choose a super (and we mean, REALLY super) mellow scrub like our Vitamin C Gentle Facial Scrub and use a very delicate touch to smooth it over your skin and neck using lukewarm water to rinse thoroughly.
Layer Sunscreen & Vitamin C Before Beach Days
Want to ensure your skin is shielded from UV radiation in the best way possible? Then you not only have to apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen every day (SPF 30 is the sweet spot), but you also need to layer up with a vitamin C serum. This powerful double act is pretty unbeatable when it comes to winning the battle and the war against sun damage. No exaggeration.
Vitamin C is one of the best topical antioxidants you can use on your skin as it counteracts damaging free radicals which, if left alone, can and will screw up your collagen and elastin, causing premature aging lightning fast. It basically supercharges your sunscreen while strengthening and fortifying your skin. Not to mention the fact that it also helps keep melanin under control to stop dark spots from ruining your mojo.
The issue, however, is that vitamin C can be pretty powerful if you don’t use it wisely. So we recommend choosing sodium ascorbyl phosphate (SAP) over pure vitamin C (l-ascorbic acid) as it’s way gentler. It also remains more stable when it hits light and oxygen as an added bonus.
The great thing is that our SPF 30 Mineral Sunscreen already comes packed with SAP, but for an extra morning boost, we always apply a few drops of Vitamin C Facial Serum underneath. Because it’s nice to be smug. And doubly protected from the wicked ways of the sun.
Try An Evening Double-Cleanse
Your skin gets subjected to a lot throughout the day: especially on vacation when you’re out in the sun, sweating more, producing more oil and layering on the SPF.
This is why a thorough, pre-bedtime double cleanse is so crucial. As you sleep, your skin goes into full recharge mode, regenerating itself and repairing environmental damage, but it simply won’t be able to do this properly or efficiently if it’s clogged up with daily grime.
To nail an effective, but not-too-harsh double cleanse, start with a cream or oil-based cleanser to remove makeup, sebum, sunscreen and other oily surface debris. Then use a water-based formula like a gel or lotion to take care of sweat, pollutants and anything else that might still be hanging around on your skin.
As a rule, double cleansing can be too intense and, frankly, kind of unnecessary for most skin types on a daily basis, but for a thorough, summer vacay clean-up job we are all in.
Moisturize Like A Demon Before Bed
Heat from the sun can suck all the moisture and oils from your skin making dehydration and dryness a real issue. And get this: dry, dehydrated skin is never, we repeat never going to look radiant and healthy because it isn’t able to reflect light as well as soft, moisturized skin.
So what must you do? Easy. You simply must replace lost hydration with Hyaluronic Acid Facial Serum (it’s the bomb for drawing water to the surface of your skin). Then, moisturize thoroughly and effectively morning and night. We specifically like to amp it up before bed, slathering our face and neck with Vitamin C Deep Hydration Night Cream to repair skin from everything a day on the beach throws at it (cocktails, chlorine, salt water, sunshine, need we go on?).
Waking up with great skin with very little effort? That is what we live for!
You May Also Like
View More-
![5 Unusual Things That Can Trigger Breakouts]()
No idea why you’re getting an influx of acne right now? Many lifestyle habits can trigger your breakouts – and sometimes they’re found in the most unsuspecting places.
As you know, acne is caused by one thing and one thing alone: an excess of sebum that causes your pores to become blocked with oil, dead skin cells, bacteria and other impurities. Eating too much chocolate doesn’t give you pimples. Neither does moisturizer. Sure, they can trigger breakouts if you’re genetically susceptible to them, but acne isn’t caused by uncleanliness, a poor diet or crummy skincare routine. It’s caused by blocked pores. End of.
OK, so this begs the question: why bother trying to cure them if your breakouts are totally out of your control? Well, here’s the thing. You can’t change your genes, that’s for certain. However, what you can do is keep acne-triggering factors under control to help lessen the blow. Sleeping well, reducing emotional stress and eating a healthy, well-balanced diet; all these things are important for maintaining balanced sebum and therefore reducing the likelihood of you breaking out week after week.
But there are also some less obvious reasons why you face might be suffering with regular breakouts. So if you’ve already dispensed with things like smoking, poor cleansing and too much exfoliation, but you’re still getting pimples on the reg, it might be time to look at some of the more unexpected areas of your life.
On that note, read on for five slightly more unusual causes for your breakouts.
1. Your Pillowcase
Getting enough beauty sleep is crucial for the health of your skin, but if you’re sleeping on a dirty pillowcase for a solid eight hours every night dirt and bacteria is inevitably going to build up and irritate your pores. This is especially true if you sleep on a synthetic pillowcase because man-made fibers don’t absorb sweat as effectively as natural fibres like cotton or linen.
The answer? Go natural all the way, for starters. Also, cleanse and moisturize your skin before bed to reduce the amount of grime getting on your pillowcase. Tea Tree Super Cleanser+ is a great acne-fighting cleanser that balances and clarifies your pores. Follow this with Retinol Moisturizer to lightly hydrate and moisturize your skin while boosting cellular turnover to keep your pores free of dead skin cells.
Finally, wash your pillowcase every three or four days. And ditto, your face towel. Old, dirty towels that are used by the whole family for drying their hands and who-knows-what-else are another breeding ground for germs and bacteria. Do you really want to be swiping this all over your freshly cleansed skin? Thought not. So, invest in a couple of cotton face towels for you and you alone and wash them every other day.
2. Your Makeup & Hair Products
Your skincare routine might be spot on, but what about your makeup and hair products? Rich hair conditioners, for example, are notorious for containing heavy ingredients like cocoa butter and coconut oil which, granted, are incredible for moisturizing your precious locks, but are not so great for acne-prone skin. Of course, we know you’re not smothering your face with conditioner but still, it can settle on your face when you rinse your hair so always cleanse your skin after, never before conditioning.
Makeup can similarly clog up your pores, especially if you use formulations that contain oil. So don’t do that. Instead, look out for noncomedogenic products (this means they’re less likely to block pores) and use powder rather than liquid formulations whenever possible.
3. Your Workout Routine
Do you love to get a good sweat on when you’re working out? High fives to you. However, allow all that sweat and grime to sit on your skin and your pores are going to clog up quicker than your instructor can say ‘hit the floor for ten push-ups.’
Cleanse your skin thoroughly and swiftly after exercising (the longer you leave your skin doused in sweat and grimy workout gear, the more bacteria is likely to breed), and always use a mild but effective cleanser that helps to detoxify your skin without drying it out. Our Charcoal Clarifying Cleanser is a goodie as it harnesses the powers of coconut-derived activated charcoal which destroys skin-smothering impurities to offer a deep, gently purifying clean every time.
4. Your Winter Cover-Ups
Any fabric that rubs against your skin can lead to unwanted issues in the long-term. Remember how face masks were causing ‘maskne’ back in the pandemic? This was all due to friction from the mask combining with the obvious culprits of sweat, dirt, oil, bacteria and humidity which caused dryness, irritation and pimples.
Thankfully, for most of us, the days of having to wear a mask 24/7 are over. However, if you spend a lot of time outdoors in the winter and like to wrap yourself up in woollen hats and thick, heavy scarves, these can cause similar problems, trapping sweat and increasing friction around your chin, jaw, neck and forehead.
To help reduce breakouts caused by beanies, scarves (and even turtleneck sweaters), avoid synthetic fabrics and launder your winter cover-ups regularly. Weekly, at least.
5. Your Laundry Detergent
Speaking of laundry, your choice of detergent is also imperative. Just like your beauty routine, certain ingredients in your laundry detergent can be super irritating – especially if you have extremely sensitive or acne-prone skin. Fragrance, for example, can be a real Debbie Downer, as can harsh dyes, essentials oils, strong surfactants and preservatives.
To reduce the likelihood of your laundry detergent triggering those pesky breakouts, first up, choose liquid over powder detergents. Why? Because these leave behind less residue on your clothes and fabrics (who knew?!). Also, never use more detergent than is recommended on the label, avoid fabric softeners and try double rinsing your laundry after washing to remove as much residue as possible.
5 Unusual Things That Can Trigger Breakouts
read more
