With summer holidays over and autumn rolling in, you are probably trying to preserve any colour the sun brought out in your skin. However you also may have noticed that where you once saw bronze goddess, you skin is now looking a bit dull. Here are a few things you can do to savour your tan and keep you J-Lo glow.
Moisturise. Sun exposure, even with SPF, can be very drying for your skin, so be sure to hydrate your face and body daily. Whether you are using a specially created post-sun cream, body lotion or oil, this will help to prolong summer colour.
Exfoliate. Before you started soaking up holiday rays, you likely performed a solid exfoliation prior to departure. Using an exfoliator, removes the very top (dead) layer of skin and allows the tan developing at the base of your epidermis (through melanin) to shine through.
Post-holiday, though, clients often tell me they have dropped their exfoliation routine because they don’t want to speed up the fading of their tan. Meanwhile their skin appears a bit lifeless due to pores clogged with suncream and skin damaged by the sun. While exfoliation will slough off the top layer of dead skin along with a bit of colour, it is one of the best ways to reveal skin that isn’t dull.
Rather than dropping your exfoliation all together, do it just once a week to help keep your skin looking fresh.
Get a facial. Just as we have a pile of dirty clothes to clean on our return, a post-holiday facial is just the ticket to give your skin the deep cleansing and intense feed of vitamins to repair skin. Plus it will leave your skin brighter and more hydrated, which makes your tan look better.
If you’ve been getting regular facials and feel you need a bit more attention after this travel season, adding microdermabrasion to your facial will provide an even deeper cleansing and exfoliation of pores, helping to remove all the suncream you (rightly) slathered on while sitting on your sun lounger with a refreshing afternoon cocktail.
However you choose to pamper your skin right now, there are also a couple winter preparations to consider.
As we continue to soak up the last of the summer sun, I highly recommend taking a daily supplement of Vitamin D (5,000 iu per day) through March. This suggestion isn't related to glowing skin directly, but it will help to keep your insides glowing.
With less exposure to the sun, lack of Vitamin D can slow down absorption of calcium. Alongside this important function, I love the mood-levelling and elevating effect that Vitamin D offers.
A few years ago, a Vitamin D deficiency found me taking a super dose (10,000 iu per day) to alleviate winter blahs. And boy, did it work!! Yes, I know, it seems way too early to talk about that grey day feeling, however Vitamin D needs about a month of consumption before you start feeling its effects.
You should also start thinking about your face moisturiser as we prepare for colder weather. Chances are when the warmer weather arrived, you switched to a lighter option. Do continue using this until late October / early November or basically whenever the heating is on more nights than it is off.
At that point you’ll want to opt for a thicker face cream rather than waiting until the first snow fall, allowing your skin to suffer from dryness unnecessarily. I’ll write more on this when we get closer to time. For now, it’s just something to keep in mind.
In the meantime, let’s hope we can enjoy at least one more glass of rosé or an Aperol spritz in the sunshine.