Make your Skin Glow Brighter this Summer
Summer has a ridged effect on your skin. The blazing sun and the scorching heat can be unforgiving, especially to your skin. Pollution and other environmental contaminants take away your skin's natural radiance, leaving it oily, dull, and blemished. Read on to understand how summer changes the quality of your skin and what you can do to hold on to that radiant and healthy skin.
The heat, pollution, and humidity wipe off the natural glow, and sometimes, invites infections. An increase in temperatures during the summer months, combined with moisture and heat, can increase the activity of the sebaceous glands. This makes oily skin appear oilier, and dry skin looks rough and patchy. The intensity of the sun's rays also causes tanning by producing more melanin pigments. The heat can also cause more pores to open, which can get clogged with dirt and oil, trapping bacteria, causing acne, pimples, and blemishes on the face. Here are some tips you can follow to make your skin look better in the hot summers
Keep Your Skin Hydrated
Remember that summer is the time when your skin requires moisture as well as hydration. Invest in a good hydrating mask, which you use a couple of times a week. A mask can treat specific skin conditions like dryness, acne, oil, etc. Pick the appropriate mask and spend those ten extra minutes on wiping away the stress, fatigue, and blemishes from your skin. Gels and purees are perfect fast absorbers. Nothing spells summer more than a light, refreshing fruity lotion. Make sure you apply right after you dry off from your shower. You need to seal in the moisture your body just soaked in. Use face scrubs that contain the following ingredients as they help your skin in a lot of ways.
Niacinamide
Niacinamide, one of the two forms of vitamin B3, regulates the oil production of the skin, and the other is known as niacin. Niacinamide is found in many foods, including yeast, meat, fish, milk, eggs, green vegetables, beans, and cereal grains. Niacinamide is also found in many vitamin B complex supplements with other B vitamins. It treats skin conditions such as acne, dry/itchy skin, and other skin conditions. It is water-soluble and is well-absorbed.
Benefits of Niacinamide
Acne: Research shows that taking tablets containing niacinamide and other ingredients for eight weeks improves skin appearance in people with acne. Other research shows that applying a cream containing niacinamide enhances the appearance of skin in people with acne. It unclogs pores and reduces inflammation when you put it on your skin.
Skin Cancer: Taking niacinamide seems to help prevent new skin cancer or precancerous spots (actinic keratosis) from forming in people with a history of skin cancer or actinic keratosis. Taking niacinamide supplements has shown to enhance DNA repair in the UV damaged skin.
Dark patches on the skin: Research shows that applying a moisturizer containing 2-5% niacinamide helps to lighten the dark spots of the skin.
Chamomile
Chamomile has been used in traditional medicine for centuries, commonly as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and a mild astringent. Due to these properties, chamomile is an excellent choice to reduce the appearance of blemishes. By applying to the skin immediately upon the first sign of a spot, chamomile can reduce bacteria, helping to prevent the discoloration from growing, as well as reduce any inflammation, helping to improve any swelling.
Benefits of chamomile
Fight free radicals: Free radicals are the most significant contributors to visible signs of aging. In simpler terms, free radicals form in our DNA from external damage such as radiation, poor nutrition – and especially UV exposure. This goes on to damage our DNA, which can cause aging that shows on the skin. Chamomile is an excellent source of antioxidants, and can easily be ingested or applied to the skin surface. Using chamomile will up your antioxidant intake, helping battle the look of damage caused by free radicals.
Calm skin irritations: Whether you suffer from rosacea, eczema, or just general sensitivities, adding chamomile to your skincare routine is a great option. Itching is often caused by inflammation of the skin, either due to environmental factors (such as a change in the season) or a reaction (such as a bug bite). Since chamomile is a natural anti-inflammatory, it can offer general relief to tame the itchy symptoms from these flare-ups. These calming properties can also be used to help improve the pain and redness from sunburn.
Reduce Under-eye Circles: One of the main reasons to use chamomile is its natural skin-lightening properties that come into play to combat those dark half-moons under your eyes. At the same time, its anti-inflammatory properties can help reduce any under-eye swelling.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is one of the essential nutrients the human body needs and is also naturally produced in the human body. It is Ascorbic acid, also known as L-Ascorbic acid. The other purposes of Vitamin C include fighting colds, building proteins, and repairing tissues under the skin. It is water-soluble, which means that it is digested quickly by the human body. It can be easily found in substances like spinaches, citrus fruits, kiwis, green/yellow peppers, etc.
Benefits of Vitamin C
An antioxidant: Vitamin C being an antioxidant fights with the free radicals and protect us from the harmful rays of the sun (UV Rays), reduces the premature death of skin cells, also reduces the release of cytokines (inflammatory compounds).
Removes wrinkles: Vitamin C serums can help reduce premature aging by protecting the skin from the untimely skin wrinkles that sun exposure can cause.
Acts as a skin brightening agent: Vitamin C will lighten any discolouration from sunspots, age spots, or acne scars with consistent use. It also removes the dark circles under the eyes and helps regain its plump nature, making a face look fresher as well as younger.
Alpha Arbutin
Arbutin is a molecule extracted from the bearberry plant that prevents the formation of melanin. It is composed of hydroquinone with a sugar group attached. Arbutin may also act as a reservoir that slowly releases hydroquinone. Once absorbed into the skin, enzymes within the body can cleave off the sugar group from Arbutin, releasing hydroquinone. This acts like a built-in safety valve, preventing the skin from being exposed to too much hydroquinone at once.
Benefits of Alpha Arbutin
Sun protection properties: It can reduce the darkening of the skin after sun exposure by blocking the production of tyrosinase (an oxidase that is the rate-limiting enzyme for controlling the production of melanin).
It is less irritating on the skin: While other skin brightening agents irritate the skin, arbutin is pretty much less irritating.
Makes the complexion even: Since arbutin inhibits tyrosinase, an enzyme that helps with melanin production, it can prevent dark spots or also help fade them, leading to a more even complexion. If you have dark spots from sun exposure or age, arbutin can help fade their appearance.
Shea Butter
Shea butter is fat that's extracted from the nuts of the shea tree. Shea butter has been used as a cosmetic ingredient for centuries. Its high concentration of vitamins and fatty acids — combined with its easy-to-spread consistency — make it an excellent product for smoothing, soothing, and conditioning your skin.
Benefits of Shea Butter
It's moisturizing: Shea butter is typically used for its moisturizing effects. These benefits are tied to shea's fatty acid content, including linoleic, oleic, stearic, and palmitic acids. When you apply shea topically, these oils are rapidly absorbed into your skin. They act as a "refatting" agent, restoring lipids and quickly creating moisture. This restores the barrier between your skin and the outside environment, holding moisture in and reducing your risk of dryness.
It won't make your skin oily: Shea butter contains high levels of linoleic acid and oleic acid. These two acids balance each other out. That means shea butter is easy for your skin to absorb fully and won't make your skin look oily after application.
It is an antioxidant: Shea butter has significant levels of vitamins A and E, which means it promotes healthy antioxidant activity. Antioxidants are essential anti-ageing agents. They protect your skin cells from free radicals that can lead to premature ageing and dull-looking skin.
Water is your best friend
At least eight glasses of water are needed. If possible, carry a water bottle with you and remember to drink at least once every 30 min. Water not only helps you feel fresh, but it also prevents dehydration and will help wash out a lot of toxins. It keeps your skin supple, soft, and radiant. Remember to carry water anywhere you go and drink a minimum of 2-3 litres in a day. Water is also very crucial to flush the toxins out from the skin through sweat and urine.
Go for minimal make-up
During summers, less make-up is best. Under the intolerant sun, natural looks are best. To protect your lips, always use a gloss or a lip balm with an SPF of 15 to make your lips fresher. Eye make up is something which should be very much avoided in summers. Wear minimal facial make-up to allow the skin to breathe better. Humidity and heat suppress the skin's ability to breathe and stress it out. Avoid anything heavy on the face. Use a tinted moisturizer, tinted lip balm, and organic kajal in summer to give your skin some rest.
Exfoliate your skin regularly
Exfoliation is the key to brighter and smoother skin. It removed dulling skin debris and piled up dead cells. This debris prevents the skin from breathing and can congest the skin. Exfoliate with a natural home remedy, like coffee grounds mixed with oil and sea salt. Remember that exfoliation is required for your entire body and not just your face. You should, however, make sure to be gentle while exfoliating your skin. The ground rule of essential skin care is to exfoliate your skin. Your body sheds skin cells at a fantastic rate every minute of every day. If you don't get rid of them, they'll just set in on your skin, making you look dull and dry. Using a Charcoal face-wash will also help as they have activated charcoal, which has the following benefits:Remove impurities from the skin: Active charcoal as the ability to absorb bacteria and toxins from the body, which helps it in removing impurities from the skin. This removal leads to a healthy, brighter complexion.
Remove blackheads and acne: The activated charcoal also absorbs dirt and blackheads when appropriately used. This also leads to the removal of acne.
Eliminates excess oil: Using charcoal face wash works on the excess oil of the skin, the potent charcoal extracts go into the pores and cleans up the oil, which leads to oil-free flawless skin that looks more radiant. It leaves the skin refresh and keeps it hydrated.
Makes skin Tighter and Firmer: Charcoal tightens the skin perfectly as it cleans and closes the pores so that other impurities would not affect the skin, and it stays firmer.
Use a sunscreen all the time
Sunscreen should be your best friend during summers. Choose one that has a broad ultraviolet spectrum (between 30-50 SPF and covers UVA and UVB rays). Reapply every three hours if you are spending all day in the sun. Make sure to cover your hands, feet, shoulders, and neck as well. You should be using a shot glass full for your body and a full teaspoon just on your face. Reapply it every 1-2 hours that you are in the sun to ensure a summer full of safe sun fun.