Throw It Out Thursday: Seasonal Skincare

Happy Throw It Out Thursday! This month is a fun one, and one of my favorite skincare topics to discuss: choosing the right skincare for the season. This may require you to switch out or switch up what you have been using, not necessarily throwing it out, and definitely using facial masks more to keep your skin balanced during this transitional time of year. 

“I’m a big believer in that if you focus on good skincare, you really won’t need a lot of makeup”

— Demi Moore, Actress

When the season starts to change, there are some things we naturally begin to do. Take down signs of summer (outdoor seating, umbrellas, etc.) and start prepping for the cold, take out our sweaters and long sleeves, and maybe even start filling your home with Fall aromas. But what do we do for our bodies?

So often, we are the last person on our list to think about. We already threw that negative self-talk out, so put yourself high on your priority list!

In this Throw It Out Thursday, I am breaking it up into sections; first, we will go over which skincare helps skin stay balanced during seasonal shifts, second, we'll discuss the magic of pumpkin! After your fall in love with pumpkin (pun intended), we'll discuss which products you want to swap in or out and why (don’t worry, you won't have to change your entire routine, just about half 😅) and get your skincare routine set, and finally we wrap it all up with masking.

Keep reading to learn what we can throw out during the summer to autumn shift!

Seasonal changes affect more than just our gutters and kleenex usage, they affect our skin. The delicate skin on your face, neck, and chest needs extra love and care to stay hydrated and balanced during colder temperatures. There are certain products and ingredients that you can focus on to help keep your skin balanced. Let’s start with what we can do in the shower to jumpstart our hydration.

You might not know this but there is something in most of our showers that expires but is not a liquid, product, or in a bottle at all! It's our loofas, and it needs to be switched out every 6 weeks. Make sure you're on top of this before diving into what products to use 👍🏽

Your body wash during Fall/Winter is the first step in helping the hydration process. There is also water, which we know even if it's not hard water will adjust the pH of our skin, our products are what help maintain that balance.

Switch to a cream based, or shea butter-infused body wash, there are some in-shower body oils that can be added after washing but I am not huge on the in-shower oils as I have an unnatural fear of slipping in the shower so I use my body oil after showering.

I love Farmhouse Fresh Citrus Cilantro Body Oil which I slather on post-shower after moisturizing. Remember that body oils go on top of your moisturizer as they are a great way to seal in hydration without suffocating your skin, and you can make your own! The one I use for my legs is in a Jojoba base with Geranium, Lemongrass, Rosemary, and Cypress essential oils and works great for visible veins and cellulite. Check out recipes on Pinterest here!

For your skincare routine, this is pretty straightforward forward and I will be going more into this later. Your cleanser and your moisturizer are the products that balance your skin type, so these will need to be less stripping and more hydrating during cooler months. This change won’t be super dramatic, just as simple as switching from a foamy cleanser to a creamy foam.

Try a heavier moisturizer or, if that is too much for you, add a hydrating serum to your current moisturizer. Your exfoliation for the most part will stay the same, as will your serums, eye cream, and toner. You might add in masking more frequently and maybe even some at-home facial steaming with essential oils and herbs once a week or twice a month. More on facial steaming here.

“The only thing I really get snobby about is - not food or wine or certainly not television - I would say I get snobby about skin-care regimens and people taking care of their skin in the right way.”

— June Diane Raphael, Actress on Frankie & Grace

Changing up your skincare for seasonal shifts shouldn’t be a whole skincare makeover, just a few key pieces that can help maintain balance. Think of it more as adding in instead of throwing out. Definitely store any product you won't be using in a cool, closed cabinet and check the shelf life. For extra brownie points, estimate the date of when it will really need to be tossed and write that in sharpie on the package.

There are other things that we can do that aren’t skincare related to helping with the transition in seasons. Work inside? Try a desktop humidifier to keep office air from drying you out. There's also up our water and Green Tea intake, facial steaming as mentioned above, and even dry brushing to help slough off our summer tan.

Sounds amazing right?!?!? Now, before you go out and slather pumpkin pulp on your face, a word of caution: Pumpkin is very, very strong and even in the treatment room we only use it on skin that can handle that level of exfoliation. I caution people away from making their own pumpkin exfoliants as it is pretty strong and can cause a whole mess of issues if you are not careful. So basically, see a professional for a pumpkin facial or use my Pumpkin Brightening Exfoliating Mask and use it as directed, and DO NOT MAKE YOUR OWN!

I will talk DIY in a second, but for an ingredient as amazing as pumpkin, you want to make sure it is stable and can get through the dead skin and acid mantle and work its magic without damaging your skin. For this you need science, chemistry to be exact! Skincare companies formulate products for optimal delivery of key ingredients. If your favorite product line comes out with seasonal treats like the pumpkin exfoliant or mask (like the one I tagged above), invest and use it up! They have made sure that the ingredients are safely introduced to the skin and able to perform.

So back to our original point, now that we are excited about seasonal treats, what should your Fall/Winter skincare routine look like? Let’s refresh on what our “regular” routine should look like first:

• In the morning, you want to cleanse, tone, serum, moisturize + SPF every morning, no matter what.
• In the evening, we add in the power-hitter products: cleanse 2x, exfoliate, tone (unless your exfoliant doubles as a toner) serums (up to three if using in different areas of your face, or two if overlapping) eye cream, moisturize, facial oil as needed
• Weekly: Mask it!

There is not much that changes to this routine when you switch seasons, it’s more of a product selection that changes. Remember that Fall/Winter is a time of dryer air and even dryer air inside our offices with artificial heat blasting at us. Keeping it all hydrated is the name of the game, so check your product selection and adjust accordingly. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Does at least one of your serums have Hyaluronic Acid in them? That is a super hydrator and great addition to winter skin.
• Retinols and stronger exfoliants are great for adding to your evening winter routine, add them in gently, don’t use them every night!
• Cream-based cleansers help balance oil and water levels in Combination and Normal/Dry skin types. I like to use my cream cleanser in the morning with my manual facial brush to wake my skin up!
• Go up a step! Take your moisturizer to the next level by getting one step heavier. Like I mentioned before if that scares you then add your Hyaluronic Serum to your existing moisturizer
• When in doubt and your skin freaks out slather your skin in a hydrating mask or even an overnight mask. Hydrate, soothe, and treat your skin to ingredients like yogurt, chamomile, aloe, or avocado.

It's always good to keep both hydrating and detoxifying masks on hand. While we are on the subject, let’s talk about masks!

I've been a little skeptical about DIY masks before, an incident with a friend's bridal shower and a mayonnaise mask still haunt me 😶, but I am coming around to DIY masks and learning they can be great.

For the body, I am all about scrubs and oils and making those myself, but when it comes to the face I tend to be more cautious. Masks are amazing though and so easy to make if you dare DIY them. So why masking? What is the big deal and why should we be doing it?

1. Masks are like an at-home spa treatment for your skin to supplement your skincare routine
2. They can help with hydration, excessive oil, acne, rough skin, and redness depending on the mask used.

Also great for bonding with the kids or a well-deserved Girls' Night, you can even make it spooky with a variety of sheet masks everyone can choose from, and don't forget to tell them it's BYOFR (bring your own facial roller) to use on top of sheet masks!

To acquire your ingredients, check out more organic markets like our Sacramento Food Co-Op here locally or Whole Foods or Sprouts. Here are some fun recipes I found on Pinterest, my favorite place for DIY:

Honey Masks:

• Hydrating: 2 tbsp. honey + 1 banana + 1/2 avocado + 1/3 cup yogurt

• Anti-Inflammatory: honey + matcha powder + coconut oil

• Brightening: honey + baking soda + turmeric + lemon juice

I love honey so much! It has amazing properties like being anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and soothing so it is great for all skin types. Fighting acne can be a tough battle, try some of these fun DIY acne masks to make the battle more enjoyable:

Now that last one… I am pretty stingy with my eggs and might not use them on my face! One thing you might notice though is the similarity between ingredients and what they are used for. We typically will find Tea Tree, Lemon, and Charcoal as key ingredients for acne and Yogurt, Honey, and Avocado for hydration. Remember when selecting your skincare masks or products for the season shift.

I know we didn’t talk so much about throwing anything out this blog and more about what to bring in. Just know that you are tossing out some products that won’t serve you in this season and welcoming in those that will. Enjoy your last Thursday in September and your new skincare routine!

Till next time, be good to your skin and even better to yourself,

xx eri