Summer finally turned into autumn. Finally? Tajka are you normal? Who doesn’t like summer? Well, weather cooling down is a good fit for me, although I am the more frozen type, summer is not my favorite part of the year. However, the skin is not too keen on the transition to the colder months, so let’s see how we make it easier for our skin to transition to the new season by tweaking our skincare a little.
How does our skin behave in the summer?
Most face more oily skin in the summer, which is seen primarily as glowing parts of the face. High temperatures stimulate the sebaceous glands to produce more sebum. When the skin is oily, the pores on the face look larger and, at the same time, they become clogged earlier, as excess sebum and dead cells on the skin surface fill the pores faster. Due to the heat, more bacteria are also present on the face, helping to make the excess sebum and dead cells infect the bacteria with pores to form pimples.
It is true, however, that most pimples are caused by inadequate skin cleansing in the summer. Silicone-based sunscreens are not so easy to remove, so proper cleansed skin requires a double cleansing technique. If the sunscreen is not completely removed, it settles into the pores as impurity and further clogs them.
For this reason, skin care is greatly simplified during the summer months. Mostly moisturizing serums and moisturizing creams are applied to the skin.
Why does the skin behave differently in the fall / winter?
After the summer heat subsides, our sebaceous glands return to normal state. However, even cold weather does not have a particularly good effect on our skin. The combination of wind and increased use of central heating dries the skin. For people with dry skin, the change can often be large enough to cause an increase in the appearance of very dry areas, cracks in the skin, flaking.
The cold air tightens the pores. This reduces the excretion of sebum onto the surface of the skin, which acts as a protective layer, providing lipid protection while preventing water from evaporating from the skin. Usually, in the colder months, the relative humidity of the air is lower than in our skin and water actually evaporates from the skin, causing the skin to dry out. This can exacerbate existing conditions that make the skin prone to cracking and flaking.
So what changes do I need to make in the transition from summer care to fall / winter?
Above we have highlighted two problems, too little moisture and too little lipid. So this together leads to dehydrated and dry skin. However, with the proper adaptation of your care products you will not face such problems.
Increase in skin moisture
I have been using the skin moisturizing serums myself in the summer, as simply excess moisture can’t hurt me. In the transition to fall / winter care, use a serum that contains humectants that increase the level of moisture in the skin, if they contain any other ingredient that soothes the skin even better. However, remember that moisture must be locked into the skin with the help of emollients or occlusives.
Use of richer cream or oils
The use of richer nourishing creams is essential especially for people who cope with dry skin in winter. The nourishing cream will lock the moisture of a moisturizing serum in the skin, while also adding lipids to the skin, whichwe have too little in the winter due to less sebum secretion. Lipid deficient skin can be identified by peeling off.
For oily skin types, this period is quite complicated as the skin is still oily, but even oily skin may lack adequate lipids in winter. The biggest problem is when you use the wrong products, because you lose moisture from your skin and thus produce dried epidermis, even though the skin is still oily. For those with oily skin, it is advisable to resort to oils that are suitable for the care of oily skin, such as black cumin, jojoba oil, squalane, and thus lock in moisture in the skin. Use the oils for the evening because you can go to bed looking like a disco ball, right? During the day you can choose a cream with added ceramides, which will nevertheless properly nourish your skin.
Now is the perfect time to start with active ingredients and make various cosmetic treatments
Autumn and winter are great for introducing cosmetically active ingredients such as retinoids and hydroxy acids. Namely, these active ingredients increase the photosensitivity of the skin and in the autumn / winter the cloudy weather does us a bit of a favor, so the UV index is not so high and consequently it is more difficult to produce photo-damage. However, having more cloudy days doesn’t mean you can escape the sunscreen now!
This period is also great if you opt for cosmetic treatments such as lasers, microneedling, acid scrubs, because as with the above mentioned assets, these treatments increase the photosensitivity of the skin as they remove a large part of the epidermis and thus our natural protective layer.
Sunscreen is a must in winter too!
Whether you use active ingredients or not, you also have to protect yourself during this time of year. Being cloudy does not mean that there is no UV rays. As much as 80% of the UV rays can pass through the clouds. When it snows, as much as 90% of all UVB rays are reflected from the snow, which means that both the sun and the rays that bounce off the snow can burn us.