How to get your skin ready for spring
Does it feel like for the past several days, every interaction with a stranger or vague acquaintance opened with something along the lines of, “I can’t believe it’s already March!”? In many parts of the country, the weather has been all over the place — unseasonably warm in NYC and randomly cold in LA. As spring creeps closer, some of us still feel like we’re waiting for winter to arrive. But no matter how it feels, one of the most important symbols of spring finds us this weekend: we’re “springing forward” for Daylight Saving Time.
As the clocks denote the shift in the seasons, use the milestone as an opportunity to change up your skincare routine and get in a couple of key procedures before summer arrives. While winter tends to bring peak dryness and call for heavy moisturizers, spring is a good time to start to prep the skin for summer. Here are a few ways we love to “clean up” our skincare routine for spring.
1. Change up your face wash
In the dead of January, did you spend days at a time without setting foot outside? Just us? In all likelihood, you spend less time outside in the colder months than you plan to this spring, and so you were likely wearing less SPF. That maybe meant on many days, you could get away with splashing your face with cold water before bed or washing it with a very gentle cleanser. As you gear up for spring and summer, consider switching to a more potent face wash to wash off your daily SPF as well as any pollutants that come along with spending more time outside. Also, consider double cleansing at night!
2. Thin out your face cream
If you live anywhere that requires you to turn on your heat in the winter, you likely sleep with a humidifier on and wake up every morning with chapped lips unless you go to bed slathering on lip balm. You might also be slathering on a thick moisturizer to combat chapped or extremely dry skin. In the winter months, it’s not a bad idea to use a thick moisturizer with a butter-like texture–maybe even one that leverages ingredients such as shea or cocoa butter. But come spring, it’s best to switch to a lighter, more breathable moisturizer, especially during the day as temperatures warm up. Check out LaserAway Beauty Drenched Peptide Enriched Moisturizer, which is filled with peptides without being too thick, thanks to Hyaluronic Acid Complex being one of its primary active ingredients.
3. Add a (gentle) exfoliant to your routine
Adding an exfoliant into your routine can help remove dead skin from winter and brighten the complexion going into spring. It’s essential to be careful, however, as many exfoliants contain abrasives that are too harsh for most skin and are difficult to tolerate right after winter. A nice, gentle exfoliant can come in the form of a toner, or it may contain some of the following ingredients: Glycolic Acid (AHA), Lactic Acid (AHA), Salicylic Acid (BHA), or Fruit Enzymes. Again, avoid exfoliants that contain abrasives or feel gritty to the touch. Also, keep in mind that a little goes a long way–you can likely get away with exfoliating once or twice a week, and be sure to be mindful of how your exfoliation fits into your routine. For example, avoid this suggestion if you are using retinol or for a couple of weeks before or after any laser treatment.
4. Just for fun: incorporate florals into your skincare
Florals for spring? Not groundbreaking, but definitely cute and fun. There are lots of spring florals that are festive but also double as great, active ingredients in skincare. For example, rose white lemon can be used to brighten dark spots. There’s also a whole skincare line based around tulips, which are said to have high levels of growth factors that allow the flower to continue to grow even after it has been picked. These growth factors can send regenerating signals to our skin to help with fine lines and wrinkles. That skincare line, Bloomeffects, obviously comes from Holland–the tulip capital of the world.
5. Squeeze in one last laser appointment before summer
A laser treatment such as Clear + Brilliant can do wonders for the skin, especially after a harsh winter. By creating thousands of microscopic treatment zones in the upper layers of the skin, your face regenerates to replace damaged skin with healthy and younger-looking skin. This can address concerns such as dullness, uneven texture, and general signs of aging. There’s minimal downtime, and the procedure is fairly harmless. The only catch is that you need to avoid direct exposure to the sun two weeks before treatment and for several days after the treatment. That means Clear + Brilliant is best scheduled before any beach vacations (and if you schedule now, you can do a series before summer!)
Khalid El Khatib is a Brooklyn-based writer and marketer who tweets too much.
