Your Best Fall Skin in 6 Steps

Posted on Oct 18, 2019 By askderm

Staying fresh as summer weather fades

The transition from Summer to Fall requires many changes in life. Our weekly schedules change as the kids go back to school (and traffic gets bad again), we dust off the rakes and leaf blowers as the leaves start to fall off the trees, we break out the sweaters and boots. But far too often we forget to update our skincare regimen to keep up with the change of seasons. As the air cools and the clocks “fall back”, it’s important that we don’t fall behind on keeping our skin healthy, fresh, and youthful.

Each of the four seasons present an opportunity for us to consider if how we have been treating our skin is how we should be treating our skin. Today we will go over the six ways to keep your skin fresh and healthy as the temps drop and the air thins.

The Six Skincare Changes You Should Make Heading Into Fall:

1. Replace Environmental Moisture

As Fall kicks into gear, not only does the temperature drop but so does humidity in the air. The skin on your face requires moisture to maintain its fresh appearance. Moisture in the skin equals elasticity, and elasticity is what makes us appear more youthful. As Mother Nature removes moisture from the air, we must replace that moisture with a bit of our own. Your mileage will vary, but it’s likely that whatever moisturizer you were using during the summer won’t cut it when the leaves start to fall. We recommend switching to a more robust moisturizer, such as the Rejuvenating Moisturizer by Visha Skincare which is formulated to include diosgenin from wild yam extract to specifically target skin characterized by dryness.

*Bonus tip – before packing away your summer moisturizer, check its expiration date. You’re probably using something with SPF (you should be!) so it’s likely that product will have a shorter lifespan. If it will expire within 6 months from today, toss it out and put a reminder on your calendar to check back at askderm in the spring for next year’s recommendation.

2. Don’t Neglect Your Body

We all know the skin is our body’s biggest organ, but are you treating it with the care your biggest organ deserves? It’s easy to look in the mirror, see a couple wrinkles, and attack them with full force! Too often we ignore our body’s skin at the risk of seeing the same symptoms. To get ahead of dryness and wrinkles, we should look to treat our larger areas with the same principles as our face. Besides, who likes getting itchy as our skin dries out? For this, we recommend a great body moisturizer or even body oil. Body oils can be great for some people who prefer a light application. For an everyday option, we recommend Coco Loco’s Coconut Oil Body Hydration Oil. It’s a terrific lightweight hydrating formula that doesn’t have the potent coconut smell of many similar products.

For a more premium option, check our Carter + Jane’s Everything Oil Body which is made from prickly pear seed oil.

3. Give Your Lips Some Love

When your skin dries out, your lips won’t be far behind. Of course we all want soft, plump lips, but these things can only happen if your lips are properly hydrated. To do so, we want to use only healthy, natural ingredients, and mostly avoid fragrances – after all, some of what goes on your lips ends up getting consumed! As our friends over at the 100percentpure blog say:

“Many common lip products struggle to prioritize health and quality over cheap and easy ingredients…If you stop to read the full ingredient list, you might be disappointed by what you find.”

Our current favorite is Dr. PAWPAW’s Original Balm (coming soon!) which is derived from the papaya plant. What’s nice is it can double as a quick moisturizing balm for around the nails and other cracked skin, and if you want a little color they have a few tinted versions too.

4. Help Your Skin from the Inside Out

If you’re anything like me, your skin likes to use any excuse it can find to punish you with breakouts and blemishes. For me, the changing of seasons is one of those excuses, so I like to throw it a curve ball by not just treating my skin from on the outside, but also from the inside. Keep in mind that stress and nutrition are big contributors to changes in skin appearance so drink lots of water, keep sugar intake low (apart from the big holidays of course!), and maybe ramp up on essential vitamins and minerals. When you may not be getting the right combination of essential nutrition for your skin, consider supplementing your natural food and beverage intake with a trusted nutritional supplement. We especially like the Murad Pure Skin Clarifying supplement, which is specially formulated for problem skin and preventing breakouts.

5. Sunscreen - Not Just for Summer

If you continue to spend time outside during the fall months, it’s likely that you could be getting sneaky exposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Far too often this harmful exposure is masked by colder temperatures and lower humidity. Although we’ve packed away the powerful stuff, keep a light SPF in your daily routine to keep your skin protected during those trips to the pumpkin patch and the apple orchard. Yes, there is such a thing as cold weather sunscreen! For this we recommend NEOVA DNA Damage Control [Silc Sheer 2.0 Broad Spectrum SPF 40] as it keeps us protected but doesn’t feel thick and oily for all-day use.

For a premium option, check out the Bio-Active Complex SPF15 by ATZEN which is perfect for sensitive or allergic skin.

6. Keep that Summer GLOW

Last but certainly not least, we want to keep that precious summer glow on our skin alive and well through the autumn months. More importantly, we must find healthy ways to stay tan that don’t involve harmful artificial UV rays (looking at you Palm Beach Tan). We’ve found the best way to do this is by using a simple solution you can add to your favorite daily moisturizer, like the Beach Glow Tan Drops by Crystal Clear. You can even add these drops to your existing night cream to let it work its magic overnight.