Let’s talk… spring skin care

It’s spring! At last. I went for a walk this week with my lovely husband and it was positively thrilling to feel actual warmth from the sun on my face. For me, this is the first sign that we are putting winter behind us and moving into the months when it doesn’t take 20 minutes to put on enough layers to leave the house. It will also make my regular cold water plunges easier to cope with, but that’s a whole other story!

It’s also a sign that I need to change my skincare routine to suit the new environment my skin is being asked to cope with.

As we switch our central heating off, our skin isn’t faced with the hot and dry air it had to get used to over the winter months. Not is it faced with sudden shocks of icy cold air as we go for walks, or even just scuttle to the car before our daily commute. This means it’s time to review our daily cleanse, exfoliate, hydrate and moisturise routine, so we don’t trigger an overproduction of skin oils by using products that are too heavy.

Cleansing

With the step away from the more rich daily moisturisers, we can move into a lighter daily cleanser. During the winter months, I recommend a regular use of my Prep Power. This is because rich creams can cause a build up of dead skin cells and oils on the surface of the skin, which leads to dullness and even flaky patches. I spring and summer, I recommend daily use of the lighter Prep Wash. It has a blend of citric and glycolic acids, which gently lift away dead cells (and any remnants of last night’s makeup) to reveal fresh and glowing skin.

For my clients with very sensitive skin, Prep Wash should be used once or twice a week, and instead on a daily basis my Prep Cleanse is just perfect. It contains gentle fruit acids, along with Vitamin E, which when used daily will keep skin cell turnover going, while maintaining a healthy skin barrier.

Toning

Back in the day, the mantra was cleanse, tone, moisturise, and the toner was simply a slightly astringent fluid that would clear away any remaining makeup or oils from your cleanser. When you use either Prep Wash, Prep Cleanse or Prep Power, there’s no need for that - skin is wholly clean. Now, your toner should be the first step to giving your skin the ‘food’ it really needs to be at it’s healthiest best. My Botanical Balance Tonic was developed precisely to do this - plus if you aren’t using any of the washes, it will indeed remove those last dregs or makeup! (Let’s face it ladies, sometimes we simply don’t have time to do every step!) It gently exfoliates dead skin cells, act as an antioxidant to minimise the signs of ageing, soothes stressed skin and contributes to the hydration of skin while supporting the skin’s barrier. It smells pretty gorgeous too,,,

Hydrate

We need to both hydrate and moisturise our skin. Yes, I know it sounds like the same thing, but it’s not. Hydration is about feeding the skin so it can remain plumped up and undertake all it’s natural processes with ultimate efficiency - just like drinking a glass of water every hour (minimum two litres a day, ladies!) keeps our brain, skin, and organs functioning optimally. Moisturising is about placing a barrier over our skin to limit water loss and incursion by external aggressor, such as pollution and UVA/UVB.

The ultimate hydrator is hyaluronic acid. My serum Power HA is a concentrated serum with 1% hyaluronic acid, which penetrates the upper layer of skin and hydrates the epidermal layer, restoring skin’s elasticity through hydration. 

Moisturise

Your moisturiser is the way you wrap a protective barrier over your skin, keeping all the lovely goodness from your toner and cleanser where it should be. It’s also the last opportunity to feed your skin what it needs to do the tasks is designed to do: make new skin cells, produce collagen and elastin to keep skin bouncy and smooth. As we age, our skin is less efficient at completing these tasks, so the more hep we can give it, the better. 

My Cream Drench is a super lightweight formula that settles into skin leaving no greasy residue, and is packed to the gills with good stuff. I have built a significant proportion of peptides into this face cream, as they are immensely powerful at supporting the production of collagen and elastin, which contribute not only to the skin density and elasticity, but are vital for healing processes to take should you accidentally damage skin, or undertake a course of microneedling, for example. It also contains very useful amounts of antioxidants, which in summer particularly are vital to protecting against free radicals, which are triggered by exposure to the sun.

Protect

Finally, and always - protect your skin with an SPF. You can choose a moisturiser with an SPF built in, or you can add a final layer of skincare in the form of a separate SPF. I’d always recommend nothing less than an SPF 30 if you’re going outside on a summer’s day, even if the sun’s not out too. My Cream Solar 20 is an excellent day cream with built-in protection, and ideal for the cooler months or indoors use, but if you're heading out and about I would recommend you top up with SkinGoal’s Solar 50. It’s a beautiful light cream that won’t leave your skin feeling heavy as many SPFs can, and has broad spectrum coverage to protect against those pesky UVA (ageing) rays and UVB (burning) rays.

If you would like a skin assessment and skincare guide, do give us a call. We’re here to help, either remotely or in person.

Love, Penny x