The long-awaited signs of spring are here. The days are lengthening, the birds are singing, and the weather is doing its typical fickle dance. It’s very exciting! And this time of rebirth everywhere is also a good time to take a step back and review your skin care regimen. During the winter months, you likely weren’t exfoliating as often. It was important to use heavier creams to help your skin retain moisture when the weather outside was cold and dry, and the weather inside was warm and dry. Using products with an SPF was probably an afterthought since you weren’t spending as much time outside.
But now that the weather is warming up (mostly) and the days are getting more humid, it’s time to rethink your skin care regimen. Let’s review our top recommendations for switching from winter to spring to give your skin the care it needs to weather any weather!
Why Start a Daily Skin Care Regimen?
If you don’t already have a dedicated daily skin care routine, now is the perfect time to start. There are a number of benefits to keeping a regular regimen:- A routine helps you remember to use the skin care products that keep you looking and feeling your best.
- Many skin care products work in conjunction with each other, so when they’re used together, you’ll get extra benefits that you wouldn’t get by using them separately or not at all.
- A dedicated skin care regimen protects your skin from harmful UV rays, pollution, and other environmental challenges with free radicals that can accelerate aging. Starting a routine as soon as possible means you’ll have fewer issues down the road.
- Beauty is more than skin deep, and healthy skin everywhere starts with a healthy body; a good skin care routine can benefit all of your skin, not just your face and neck.
At the Advanced Center for Plastic Surgery, we proudly offer a line of ZO skin products that are specifically designed to help your skin thrive during every season. Since spring does not have the drier winter air that causes dull skin and chaps skin and lips—but does increase our exposure to the sun, we recommend the ZO skin products specifically formulated to handle these concerns. By implementing these three changes, your regimen will keep you fresh-faced for the new season.
1. Out with the Old: Exfoliation
Just like with spring cleaning, your skin continually sheds old dead skin cells. These typically build up on your face, neck, and body, often clogging pores and producing dull, tired skin. Many people don’t exfoliate as much in the winter for fear that it can further dry their skin. With spring’s greater humidity, our skin is better adapted to handle the chemical peels and more abrasive ingredients of exfoliants—and better reap the benefits.
Chemical exfoliants will stimulate collagen production, too, an added anti-aging bonus. Exfoliating two to three times a week is a good rule of thumb. After a long winter, exfoliation removes the dullness and revives your skin for a healthy glow.
The ZO® Skin Health line offers a number of excellent exfoliators for your entire body:
- ZO Skin Health Enzymatic Peel: For all skin types, this at-home peel smooths uneven rough textured skin and revitalizes dull skin to improve signs of sun damage.
- ZO Skin Health Exfoliating Polish: The Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab named it one of the “6 Best Face Scrubs to Exfoliate Your Way to Smooth Skin.” With ultra-effective magnesium oxide crystals and a vitamin C ester, we agree!
- ZO Skin Health Exfoliating Cleanser: A purifying gel containing jojoba esters, salicylic acid, and vitamin E beads makes this gentle cleanser perfect for oily and acne-prone skin.
2. Lighten Up: Get Airier with Your Moisturizer
In the winter, our dry skin needs heavier emollients and creams to help us retain what little moisture we have. In the spring, these creams are just too heavy. Since we’re usually outdoors more and working up a good sweat, the creams sit on our faces like greasy lotions. We recommend switching to lighter moisturizers that contain humectants like glycerin and hyaluronic acid. These still help your skin retain moisture but won’t leave a sticky, greasy residue.
ZO Skin Care offers several lighter creams that do the trick:
- ZO Skin Health Hydrating Créme: This lightweight formula was awarded the Seal of Acceptance by the National Eczema Association. Use it to restore hydration, smooth skin, and soothe redness.
- ZO Skin Health Pigment Control Plus Blending Créme: With specialized ingredients like glycolic acid and ascorbic acid to hydrate skin, even skin tone, and reduce irritation, this special cream helps correct skin pigmentation disorders.
3. Catch More Sun: Bump Up the SPF
With spring’s longer days and stronger UV rays, you’ll need to increase your SPF too. Not only is excessive skin exposure unhealthy for your skin, protecting it is one of the most powerful anti-aging steps you can take in your skin care regimen. Even if you used a product that contained SPF in the winter, you need to make sure you’re using broad-spectrum products that provide at least SPF 50+ for proper protection in spring.
ZO Skin Health’s innovative and technologically advanced Triple-Spectrum Protection® sunscreens are up to the task. They’re engineered to counter the harmful effects of UVA, UVB, infrared radiation, and both natural and computer screen-derived HEV blue light, as well as pollution—while providing antioxidants, hydrators, and lipids benefits.
They include:
- ZO Skin Health Smart Tone Broad-Spectrum SPF 50: This lightweight sunscreen has a self-adjusting tint to give you the perfect glow. With antioxidants to protect your skin against the aging effects of harsh rays and other pollutants, it was awarded the Seal of Recommendation by the Skin Cancer Foundation.
- ZO Skin Health Daily Sheer Broad Spectrum SPF 50: A light, non-greasy hydrating sunscreen, it dries quickly with a sheer finish, is water and perspiration resistant, and protects against harmful rays. It was also given the Seal of Recommendation by the Skin Cancer Foundation.
Spring Time Skin Care
These products are specifically formulated to help you keep your skin looking and feeling its best for years to come. We’re happy to help you put together a skin care regimen that works for you during every season of your life. Talk with us today about your skin care goals, and we’ll help you welcome spring with a smile—and some beautiful skin!
