Common summer skin problems and how to resolve them

With the arrival of summer, as well as an increase in happiness, we always see an increase in skin problems. Here’s our guide to the three most common summer skin problems and the steps you can take to prevent them.

Summer breakouts

Heat means sweat, and when sweat mixes with the sebum and bacteria on your skin, it can trigger a breakout, especially for those already prone to acne. There are some easy and simple ways to prevent, or at least lessen, summer breakouts we recommend everybody follow.

Keep a clean cotton cloth handy to dab away facial sweat. Blot it away, rather than wiping your skin, as this can irritate and trigger a breakout.

If you regularly wear a hat, clean the headband before each use. Baseball caps and cotton hats can be washed in the washing machine, of course, and headbands in straw hats can be given a careful hand-wash with hot water and wiped with anti-bacterial gel. Do make sure your hat is properly dry before you wear it again - a damp hat will rub skin raw.

Stick to non-comedogenic skin products. Specially designed to not block your pores, these will help reduce breakouts. Cleanse with a gentle salicylic or lactic acid-based wash. Our own Prep Cleanse or Prep Wash is perfect for controlling summer breakouts, as it’s gentle enough to use on acne prone skin, but will effectively unblock pores and wash away any build-up of oils and bacteria. Twice a day is quite enough.

Dry and irritated skin

The sun’s out, so what’s our instinct? Turn our faces towards it. Of course, we all love that sun-kissed summer glow, but there’s a big difference between a healthy glow and ‘oops, I’ve overdone it a bit.’ To prevent your skin from drying out you need to take a two-prong approach - keep hydrated from the inside and out. Drink loads of water, fruit teas, hot teas - more than you do when it’s cool and you’re not outside sunbathing. Your body needs lots more hydration in the heat just to keep your internal organs and brain fully hydrated, and you will sweat so much more too, so extra water is needed to help maintain your skin’s natural barrier in a healthy state. Avoid alcohol in the daytime, it’s a diuretic, so hydration will go straight through, not to where it’s needed

Topically, a good daytime and nighttime routine is recommended. In the mornings, use our prep wash to clear away excess oils and dead skin cells that will prevent your serum or moisturiser being as effective as it might be. Then use a hydrating serum, such as our Power HA, with serious hyaluronic power, to boost hydration at a skincell level. Top with your favourite moisturiser and then always, but always, add a good SPF. In the height of summer this should be at least an SPF 30, but we recommend you stick with an SPF 50, such as our own Solar 50.

Sticky and oily skin

Even skin that is not prone to breakouts can get a build-up of oils in summer that makes it feel sticky and greasy. If this happens to you, you should instigate the double cleanse routine we wrote about at the start of this month. The first cleanse will clear away the day’s dirt, makeup and build-up of sebum, then the second will clear the sweat and grime and dead skin cells that slow down the natural processes of the skin. For this second cleanse, we suggest you use or Prep Wash cleanser every morning, before applying your usual skincare.