Autumn Skin Care: Keep Your Skin Glowing!
Autumn skin care changes can make such a difference to your skin during the colder months. I recommend tweaking your skin care routine over the Autumn and Winter, to help protect it against the changing temperatures and the constant moving from being cold outside, to being heated indoors.
Here are my tips for Autumn skin care that will carry you through to the Spring, when we will tweak again!
Skin Care Tips for Autumn & Winter
Autumn skin care changes don’t just involve your skin care products. As you will no doubt know by now, your skin is the largest organ of your body, and entirely unique to you! It will respond to everything from the inside out to the outside in.
When you think about your Autumn skin care changes, think about other factors too. Such as your sleep habits, for example. Many of us can suffer from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) during the darker months, which can impact stress levels and also leave us feeling low. I highly recommend something like the Lumi alarm clock, which simulates sunrise and sundown, which help to balance our circadian rhythm and regulate our sleep.
It’s also a great time to focus on eating seasonal vegetables, such as pumpkin and squashes, as they contain essential nutrients that are vital for the production of healthy collagen – and therefore our skin health.
Here are my top tweaks for Autumn skin care…
Skin Care Tips
As well as the Autumn skin care tweaks below, Autumn can be a great time to start using retinol products. Retinol can make skin sensitive to UV rays for the first 6 months, so starting to build up your tolerance to retinol during the cooler months can make it much easier for your skin to adapt. Check out my blog on retinol, via the button below.
- Switch to a richer moisturiser. Your skin can really take a battering going between central heating and the cold chill of the wind. A richer moisturiser will help soothe and nourish your skin.
- Keep up with your sunscreen! You are still exposed to UV rays all year round, so keep the SPF 30 on, rain or shine. As UV rays are responsible for around 90% of premature aging - I'd say this is one of the best skin care tips I can give you!
- Go easy on the exfoliating during these months. 1-2 times a week is ideal, and avoid harsh and abrasive products. Skin is sensitive during the cooler months, over exfoliating can break down the skins natural barrier function and make your skin super sensitive.
- Wear lip balm, ideally with an SPF in. Your lips can often get chapped and sore during these months, so help them by keeping them nourished and protected.
- And the same goes for those hands! Get that hand cream on, and again - ideally one with an SPF (there's a theme here, I know!).
- An oldie, but a goodie - stay hydrated. Make sure you're drinking lots of water, to help your skin stay supple from the inside.
- Eat the rainbow. What I mean by this is, make sure you're eating varied diet that's full of antioxidants. Consume plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables - think squashes, berries, peppers, greens - literally, eat the rainbow!
- Check your sleep and stress patterns. Both of these ply havoc with your skin, as your skin needs sleep and relaxation to repair and regenerate. These two are the cause of many of my clients skin concerns.
Skin care tips - inside out
You’ll never hear me giving skin care tips that don’t include the ‘inside out’ too. Your skin is the largest organ of your body and entirely unique to you (incredible, I know). So ensuring that you nourish your skin from within, is so important. Quite often, when I work with clients to manage conditions such as acne or rosacea, we find the biggest improvements come from tweaking their diets. It’s powerful stuff, so it absolutely deserves a huge shout out for my top Autumn skin care tips!
Eating the rainbow is a great way to make sure you’re getting a good variety of nutrients. Autumn is abundant with squashes, such as pumpkin and butternut squash. They are rich in vitamin C and betacarotene, which are essential for healthy collagen products, and will leave your skin glowing!
WATER: I know you’ve heard it before, but that’s because it’s super important. Your body is almost 70% water and every single process in your body needs it. Aim for 2-3 litres per day, more if you’re exercising.
LEAFY GREENS: Increase your intake of green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, kale, broccoli and cabbage. These are super cleansing and nutritious.
BERRY GOODNESS: Increase your intake of low sugar fruits, such as blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Full of antioxidants and help to balance those blood sugar levels.
PROTEIN: Make sure you’re eating good sources of protein at every meal. Protein is important for the health of your skin and collagen production. If you’re struggling to find protein sources, then there are some great protein powders available.
VITAMIN C: Eat foods that are rich in Vitamin C, such as berries, oranges, sweet potato, papaya, and pumpkins/squashes. Essential to produce healthy collagen, and it’s a powerful antioxidant.
VITAMIN E: This is essential to healthy skin growth and protects your skin. Avocado, pine nuts, and hazelnuts are great sources.
SELENIUM: Great for your immune system and skin health. Find it in eggs, tomatoes, wheatgerm, shellfish, broccoli, and Brazil nuts.
ZINC: Helps your skin to repair and keeps it supple. Find it in lean meat, poultry, whole grains, fish, shellfish, nuts & seeds.
SPICES: Turmeric is a wonderful anti-inflammatory. Cinnamon is great for balancing blood sugar levels. Ginger is amazing for its ability to flush out toxins and aid blood circulation – it’s also said to increase collagen production and reduce inflammation. Add these little powerhouses to your cooking or soups!
Autumn Skin Care: Treatments
Autumn and Winter are the perfect time to have treatments for the following skin concerns:
- Sun damage, including freckles, sun spots and pigmentation.
- Vascular lesions, such as thread veins and port wine birthmarks.
- Active Acne.
- Rosacea.
The reason that these skin concerns are a challenge to treat in the summer months, is due to exposure to the sun. The best treatment for these conditions is IPL light treatment and fractional laser. Both of these treatments require your skin to be free from a sun tan. So Autumn and the Winter are the perfect time to address these concerns, strengthen your skin and have a good skincare practice in place, ready for the summer months again. Not only can you treat these skin concerns, but also reduce the risk of them reoccurring.
I no longer offer IPL treatments for sun damage or vascular lesions, but I can recommend practitioners that do, if this is something you are interested in. If you are struggling with acne or rosacea, then please get in touch and I would be happy to help you. I have had some fantastic results with both of these inflammatory skin conditions, using my tried and tested ‘inside out and outside in’ approach!
Some exciting news for this Autumn! I launched my online Skin School, Skinblissology in September. This was something I have wanted to do since Lockdown, and I am so pleased to be able to bring this to you.
I have launched with my Menopause Skin Care 101 course, for skin care. You can find out more by clicking on the button below.
All of my Skinblissology online courses are packed full of information, advice and guidance, to help you make informed choices on how to get your best possible skin. It’s fluff free, and I share my best tips to help you achieve beautiful skin.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed my blog on Autumn skin care tips. If you’d like to discuss your skin concerns, or discover how I can help you look and feel fabulous in your own skin, then please get in touch.
I offer a complimentary Zoom consultation, which you can book via the link below.
I look forward to welcoming you to my boutique clinic in Alton, Hampshire – which is at the heart of Jane Austen country. If you are planning a visit then let me know, and I’ll happily recommend some fabulous tea rooms near Jane Austen’s house, only 2 miles away – well worth a visit!