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Fall is my second favorite season (Summer is my first). I mean, who doesn’t love wearing boots and sweaters? But, the fall also brings colder, drier, and more unpredictable weather. With this shift in temperature, our skin has to adapt, and so does our skincare routine. So, let’s talk discuss some fall skincare tips to ensure your skin is prepared for cooler temperatures and drier air.
Why does skin change in the fall months?
The water in the air affects the hydration in your skin. So, in the summer, when it’s more hot and humid, it’s easier to keep your skin soft, plump, and healthy. We also tend to eat better and be more active in the summer, which increases circulation and helps skin stay healthy.
But in a drier climate, your skin can quickly become more dehydrated. And when our skin is dehydrated, our skin barrier can be disrupted, causing drier, duller, and more sensitive skin.
So, here are a few few skincare tips when changing your skincare routine from summer to fall:
Fall Skincare Tip #1: Think About Switching Up Your Cleanser
You all know how I feel about cleansing. It’s one of the most important steps in your skincare routine.
In the summer months, I feel more comfortable using gel cleansers due to the heat and humidity. But, those same gel cleansers can make my skin tight in the colder months. So, I tend to use creamier cleansers and nourishing oils in the colder months.
Skin Tip: If you find that your summer cleanser feels a bit too harsh, look for one that will leave your skin more moisturized. You want to avoid that dry feeling going into fall and winter.
Fall Skincare Tip #2: Layer More Antioxidants, Humectants & Emollients Into Your Routine
As we talked about, your skin can quickly become more dehydrated in colder and drier weather. And since I have eczema, transepidermal water loss, and a compromised skin barrier are familiar to me. So, I recommend a skincare routine with lots of hydrating and moisturizing ingredients. Look to layer skincare ingredients like:
- Antioxidants: Antioxidants like sunscreen, niacinamide, vitamin C, vitamin E are basically free-radical fighters. Free radicals are responsible for breaking down the collagen in our skin, which plays a role in premature aging, hyperpigmentation, and triggering inflammatory conditions like eczema and acne.
- Humectants: Humectants like glycerin and hyaluronic acid are basically “water-binders.” They attract water from their surroundings to hydrate. So, skincare products with humectants are going to re-hydrate your skin and increase your moisture levels.
- Emollients: Emollients like ceramides and fatty acids help smooth the surface of your skin by filling in all the cracks produced by rough, dry, and flaky skin. Emollients fill those rough, dry, and flaky spaces with fatty substances called lipids. Lipids play a crucial role in maintaining your skin barrier’s strength, keeping in moisture, keeping out dirt and impurities.
I also make sure to have products to help with any skin irritation or eczema flare-ups.
Here are a few products I love:
Fall Skincare Tip #3: Invest In A Humidifier
Drier air correlates to drier skin. When it’s cold, and there’s less moisture in the environment, the atmosphere draws moisture from wherever it can, and that includes your skin. Using a humidifier helps counteract the dry air, so our environment is less likely to pull moisture from our skin. And for our skin to properly do its job, it needs to be sufficiently hydrated.
Having a humidifier is an easy way to curb some of the dryness and irritation of cold weather. And there are so many humidifiers to accommodate any lifestyle. There are mini ones that you can fit on your desk, big ones that humidify entire rooms, and silent ones that won’t mess with your sleep schedule.
Check out a few of my suggestions on Amazon.
Fall Skincare Tip #4: Moisturize Those Lips
The colder months can be brutal for our lips too. So, I use thicker lip balms, and I tend to apply sleeping masks at night. Sleeping masks are great at locking in the moisture and helping heal cracks and splits in the skin.
A game-changing tip I learned from @withsaj is to exfoliate your lips with a chemical exfoliant. Exfoliation helps reduce lip flakiness, and I tend to experience a lot of flakiness in the colder months.
A few lip balms I’m enjoying right now are:
- Bioderma Atoderm Lip Balm ($9)
- Aquaphor Lip Repair ($10)
- Naturium Phyto-Glow Lip Balm ($12)
- Drunk Elephant Lippe Balm ($18)
- Paula’s Choice Hyaluronic Acid & Peptide Lip Booster ($29)
Fall Skincare Tip #5: Take Your Vitamins
Given the drier weather, omega oils are great to help your skin internally. Fall and winter also mark the start of cold and flu season. So, eating foods rich in vitamin C can help boost our immune system.
Colder months can also pose nutritional challenges. We spend less time outdoors puts us at increased risk of vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D helps keep our bones and teeth strong.
Lastly, your sleep can easily be affected, given the shorter days and time change.
Get your sleep and take care of yourself. You only get one body!
What do you do to transition your skin from summer to fall? Let me know in the comments below.
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a humidifier sounds like a good idea, for my skin, in cold weather. how often should it be used? does the humidifier have to use warm air?