Summer Skincare Essentials: Must-Have Products for Healthy and Hydrated Skin

As summer continues, your skincare routine might need a boost to maintain your glow in the high temperatures. With the heat and humidity, it’s crucial to have the essentials to protect your skin from the sun. To help you stay on top of your summer skincare products this month, we've created the ultimate guide to keeping your skin healthy and glowing.

If you experience hot summer months where you live, like we do here in New York City, your skin can change in various ways. Hot days can make your skin oilier, leading to clogged pores and breakouts. Increased UV exposure raises the risk of sun damage, causing fine lines, wrinkles, and dark spots. The heat can also dehydrate your skin, resulting in dryness and flakiness. Using the right products can help manage these issues.

So if you want to look and feel your best for the rest of the summer, stay with us to learn all about the key summer skincare essentials!

Our top picks for healthy and hydrated skin all summer

Light Day Sunscreen & Extreme Protect

Light Day Sunscreen — $55.00

Sunscreen is the most important product for summer skincare. Protecting your skin from the sun's damaging UV rays is crucial. While SPF is essential year-round, it's even more vital during summer when UV rays are stronger. Use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with at least SPF 30 daily and reapply often. SPF helps prevent sunburns, wrinkles, dark spots, and reduces the risk of skin conditions like melasma and skin cancer. Apply a 1/4 teaspoon daily and reapply every couple of hours if you're in the sun all day.

The Light Day Sunscreen is a chemical sunscreen with a light texture, perfect for oily skin, and can double as a moisturizer due to its antioxidants. Extreme Protect is a hybrid sunscreen combining the benefits of both chemical and physical protection. It has a slightly heavier texture and can also be used as a moisturizer.

Low Foam Cleansing Gel

Use a Hydrating Cleanser

Cleansing in the morning and before bed helps maintain a clean canvas for the application of other skincare products. In the summertime, choosing the right cleanser is crucial to keep your skin moisturized and refreshed. Sweating, increased oil production, and exposure to pollutants make thorough yet gentle cleansing a priority. Opt for a mild cleanser that effectively removes impurities without stripping away natural oils. Consider using a gel or foam-based cleanser, which helps control excess sebum and leaves your skin feeling refreshed. Our favorite Low Foam foaming gel cleanser gently removes impurities and excess surface oil while maintaining the skin’s natural moisture balance.

Revival Masque

Exfoliate, but Don't Overdo It

Exfoliating regularly during the summer is crucial for unclogging pores blocked by sweat and oil, and for keeping your skin smooth and radiant. But remember, less is more! Overdoing it can cause dryness, irritation, and even breakouts. If your skin feels extra dry, try exfoliating less often or switch to a gentle chemical exfoliant, which gently removes dead skin cells, unclogs pores, and promotes cell turnover. Stick to exfoliating 1-2 times a week to avoid sensitivity, and always follow up with sunscreen to protect those fresh, new skin cells. Our best-selling Revival Masque, often called a "face-lift in a jar," is a revolutionary product formulated with three powerful ingredients that enhance your skin's overall appearance. It helps minimize the appearance of uneven skin tone and moisturizes even the most problematic and sensitive skin types, while also promoting firmer, regenerated skin for a more youthful look.

Pro-Heal Serum & Super Serum

Use Antioxidant-Packed Serums

iS Clinical Pro-Heal Serum — $158.00

The sun, heat, and pollution can cause oxidative stress, leading to premature aging and skin damage. Incorporating antioxidants into your summer skincare routine can help combat free radicals and reduce inflammation. Look for products containing vitamin C, green tea extract, niacinamide, Vitamin E, or panthenol. These powerful antioxidants neutralize harmful molecules, promote a youthful complexion, and soothe irritated skin.

Vitamin C and niacinamide also have brightening properties that help reduce sunspots and other forms of hyperpigmentation, which are more prominent in sunny weather. Antioxidant serums can improve skin texture, tone, and firmness, making them essential for any summer skincare regimen. Pro-Heal Serum and Super Serum are packed with a powerful combination of antioxidants and 15% vitamin C. Pro-Heal Serum contains additional anti-inflammatory ingredients to further help the appearance of compromised acne-prone and sensitive skin.

Moisturizing Complex

Stay Moisturized

Keeping your skin hydrated during the summer months is crucial. The heat can dehydrate your skin, making a good moisturizer essential. As mentioned above, you can use some of the SPF moisturizers during the day, but for the evening, opt for a lightweight moisturizer with ingredients like hyaluronic acid, glycerin, and panthenol to keep your skin from becoming dry and flaky.

Our favorite? The Moisturizing Complex. This intensely hydrating, antioxidant-rich moisturizer is packed with powerful botanicals, natural vitamins, potent antioxidants, and essential bionutrients. These ingredients work together to lock in moisture and create a protective barrier against harmful environmental aggressors. It's designed for use in the morning or evening and is perfect for all skin types and ages. Truly versatile!!

Can I Skip Moisturizer in Summer?

You might be tempted to skip moisturizer during the summer, but we don't recommend it. Even though moisturizing might feel counterintuitive if you are prone to sweating, a lightweight moisturizer can help regulate your skin biome without being too heavy for hot weather. Your skin can still become dehydrated even if it is humid out, so you need to keep it hydrated and protected from environmental stressors like the sun, pollution, and harsh temperatures. Look for light, water-based moisturizers specifically designed for summer skincare that won’t leave your skin feeling greasy.

Lip Protect SPF 35

Protect Your Lips

Often overlooked, our lips need special attention during the summer. While the lips need moisture daily, many people mistakenly use lip gloss or lipstick with petroleum jelly and oils that lack SPF, exacerbating sun damage. Essentially, you are frying your lips under the sun when using these ingredients, leading to dry, thin, and discolored lips over time. Optimal lip care includes using products that nourish and plump the lips while protecting the mucous membranes from sunburn. Pay special attention to the lower lip, as it receives the most direct sunlight.

For comprehensive lip care, we also recommend a lip treatment that includes exfoliation and hydration. Exfoliating your lips removes dead skin cells, allowing lip balms and treatments to penetrate more effectively. The iS Clinical Lip Duo, combining the restorative Lip Polish and the Youth Lip Elixir, offers a complete system to renew, nourish, and protect the lip area.

How does the environment affect the skin?

While genetics do play a part in our skin's health and appearance, environmental factors are equally crucial. Understanding how external factors affect our skin is key to maintaining its health. This means we can take the right actions to manage our skin condition effectively.

iS Clinical Lip Duo — $60.00

The environment you live in significantly impacts your skin. Whether you're in a warm or cold climate, the surroundings influence how healthy your skin is. These factors go beyond just climate and season—they determine what your skin needs to stay protected and healthy.

By recognizing these environmental influences, you can adjust your skincare routine to ensure your skin remains resilient and radiant, no matter where you live.

The sun and UV radiation

UV radiation is the most significant environmental factor in skin damage and aging. UV rays trigger free radicals in the skin, leading to DNA damage and the breakdown of collagen and elastin, causing wrinkles and skin discolorations. The harmful effects of the sun are one of the leading causes of skin damage, even if you don’t burn or tan. Up to 90 percent of visible skin changes commonly attributed to aging are caused by sun exposure. Unprotected sun exposure causes DNA damage in skin cells, leading to genetic defects, skin cancer, premature aging, and pigmentation.

Think back to your last severe sunburn—your skin turned red, itched, and eventually peeled. Even in colder climates, the sun can still have harsh effects on your skin, including hyperpigmentation. Remember, you’re exposed to UV rays not only outside but also in the car, by your office window, and at home. Always protect your skin with sunscreen, even when indoors near windows.

Pollution

Air pollution doesn’t just affect how you breathe; it can also damage your skin. Particulate matter, composed of soot, smoke, chemicals, and other pollutants, creates oxidative damage that increases inflammation. These microscopic particles, more than ten times smaller than our pore size, penetrate deep into the skin, triggering eczema, acne, rosacea, and pigmentation issues. This is why it’s important to use an antioxidant serum to protect against daytime free radical damage. Pollution causes skin irritation by clogging pores and increasing bacteria, leading to spots or acne. Invisible chemical pollutants can disrupt your skin’s natural protection system, breaking down oils that maintain moisture and leading to skin sagging and wrinkles.

If you live in an urban area, it’s even more important to double cleanse every evening to remove these particles. Always cleanse your skin every morning and evening to wash away pollutants and impurities.

Weather and seasonality

Our skin thrives on consistency, so when the weather changes, our skin can suffer. As the weather shifts from summer to autumn, temperature and humidity drop quickly, making it harder for our skin to stay hydrated. On the other hand, increased heat often comes with higher humidity, leading to oily skin and clogged pores. Choosing the right cleanser, exfoliator, and maintaining hydration year-round is key to keeping your skin in top shape. While drinking water doesn’t directly hydrate the skin, it helps hydrate your body and flush out toxins, so internal hydration is important too.

Rapid climate changes force our skin to cope with extreme temperature and humidity shifts. In winter, it can be cold, windy, and wet outside, then warm inside. Similarly, in summer, it's blazing hot and muggy outside but cold and dry indoors due to air conditioning. These shifts can be tough on the skin.

Although skin can adapt quickly, continuing to moisturize and keep your face clean will help maintain clear pores and transition smoothly between different climates.

Given the various environmental factors affecting your skin’s health, it’s crucial to take preventative steps. 

Get in touch with JE’DERM skin atelier for your summer skincare needs

At JE'DERM skin atelier, we offer professional-grade skincare products such as IS Clinical, Environ, and Circadia to help you maintain vibrant and healthy skin despite the challenges posed by environmental changes.