April showers bring May flowers, as well as a myriad of skincare challenges as we transition from cold, dry air to kind of cold but more humid weather. As you may have already started switching out your winter clothes for warmer weather apparel, it’s also a good time to rethink your skincare routine. It’s time to set aside your wintertime lotions and potions and start making space for new products to amp up your skin for the sun and sweat to come.
If your winter regime focused on building up and protecting your skin barrier, then wonderful, you have the right approach to cold weather skincare!
Now, as we turn to spring, you can leave off the thicker, heavier moisturizers and clear out those pores with some exfoliation.
Clinique’s Exfoliating Scrub works best for oily skin to refresh and refine your skin’s texture. For an anti-aging option, check out CereVe’s Skin Renewing Nightly Exfoliating Treatment with its blend of glycolic and lactic acid for gentle exfoliation to smooth fine lines and accelerate skin cell renewal. And don’t just exfoliate above the neck. Glycolic Body Scrub from Frank Body, available at Ulta, will tackle dryness, rough patches, and body bumps as you prep your skin for more exposure with the warming season.
Speaking of the body, give your heavy body balms a break and switch to a lightweight head-to-toe lotion like Cetaphil’s Moisturizing Lotion for normal to dry skin. The added bonus of this hydrating cream is that if you haven’t been taking care of your skin’s natural moisture barrier, this product will help restore it in a week with daily use.
For those of you who run hot, look to Jack Black’s Cool Moisture Body Lotion at Sephora to refresh while nourishing your skin on sweaty days.
And if you’re ready to dive right into the lazy days of summer, then consider Mountain Ocean’s Skin Trip Lotion, which combines coconut oil, aloe vera, and lanolin for a sensory experience that delivers long-lasting moisture.
Getting back to faces, if you’ve been applying face oil to protect your skin this past season, you can set it aside and now reach for a revitalizing serum. A seasonal serum will keep your skin glowy and plump without clogging your pores, as oil can tend to do in warmer, aka sweatier weather.
BYOMA’s Phyto-Mucin Glow Serum from Ulta gives your skin an instant glow and can also work as a primer for daily makeup. To feel a bit more luxuriant, there’s Essence De Beate’s Revitalizing Serum II-15, which combines glycolic acid with seed extracts to radiate and soothe skin.
For any serum, I enjoy applying it with a face roller or gua sha tool. Get the pair as a bundle from Natural Gua Sha’s online shop. They have rollers and gua sha stones in rose quartz, jade, amethyst, obsidian and stainless steel. I can’t decide whether to put jade for eternal youth or amethyst for tranquility on my Mother’s Day wish list.
Next up, cleansers. No matter the time of year, I’m always cleansing my face twice, if not more often during the hotter months. Removing makeup first and then washing my face. For the former, there’s Mario Badescu’s Cleansing Oil to remove heavier makeup. For sensitive skin, check Sulwhasoo’s Gentle Cleansing Foam over at Nordstrom.
For any makeup remover, you want it to also hydrate your face, not leave it dry or rough. For daily washing that also hydrates, check out Avene’s Tolerance Control Extremely Gentle Cleanser, a no-rinse gel that calms, soothes, and acts as an overnight serum. There’s also the Face Shop’s Rice Water Bright foaming wash, which is a vegan product that cleans, brightens (as the name suggests), and hydrates.
If you haven’t been, now is a good time to start using a daily hand cream. During the winter, to stave off dry skin, I use a few pumps of CeraVe or Vaseline’s Mature Skin lotion after washing my hands. In the spring and summer, I like to carry hand cream with me to apply as needed throughout the day, especially when I’m out and about.
Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez’s Find Comfort Hand Cream, available at Sephora, is great for on-the-go. First, it’s a fast-absorbing, non-greasy hand cream with a bright, uplifting scent. Second, it comes in a super-cute container that fits easily in your handbag. While La Roche Posay’s Cicaplast hand cream soothes dry, cracked hands and is semi-water resistant.
Lastly, SPF. I’m sure you’ve all been using a daily SPF during these winter months, as dermatologists recommend (wink wink). Sure, there have been plenty of gray days when I skipped SPF, but more often than not, this past season, I utilized a setting powder sunscreen when leaving the house. Now, with longer and brighter days ahead, I’ll be using more products with built-in Sunscreen/SPF, like Supergoop’s Glowscreen primer. This tinted lotion boasts SPF 40 and works like a non-makeup makeup for days when you’re not in the mood to beat out a full face. I’ll also add Sunbum’s Mineral SPF 30 Sunscreen Lip Balm to my makeup bag to hydrate and protect. And then, of course, swiping on actual sunscreen, like good old Banana Boat SPF 50 Broad Spectrum.
As we move into warmer weather, definitely take some time to review your beauty routine and swap wintertime favorites for spring and summer-focused beauty. If you don’t already have go-to products, maybe you’ll find some of these suggestions or brands helpful in building up your springtime skincare.
