Lotions and Potions for Sexy Summer Skin

When you start shedding layers of your winter clothing, you may notice that your skin and scalp are shedding, too. While Winter’s cold weather works to dry your skin, Spring wants to detoxify it! You can bring your skin back in shape through cleansing your body internally and exfoliating your skin.

Sure, your Winter skin care worked wonders. But when the warm weather breaks, it can leave your skin looking less than flawless. Most dermatologists recommend changing your regimen with the seasons. The heavier creams you use in the Winter are usually too much for the Spring and Summer.

If you have oily skin, switch to a gel cleanser. Some of my favorites include Perfectly Clean by Estee Lauder, and Lancome’s Clarte mousse cleanser.

To help keep the oily sheen from coming back, follow your cleansing with an alcohol-free toner. I love the Blue Herbal toner from Kiehls – it  feels minty cool and fresh.

Don’t for forget SPF! Use a light oil-free lotion with an SPF of at least 15. Estee Lauder offers Daywear a moisturizer with SPF 30. It’s reasonably priced and smells like fresh cucumber!

Your eyes will show sun damage faster than anywhere else. I recommend LINK***Future Perfect eye cream by Estee Lauder because it reduces the look of lines and wrinkles and contains an SPF. 

Once a week, exfoliate your skin to gently lift off any dead skin cells that aren’t in a hurry to come off. This will take away the dullness and bring out your inner bloom! I love Estee Lauder’s Micro-D exfoliator. It heats up in the shower and leaves skin looking amazing and luminous when you’re finished.

For dry skin, try a lotion cleanser that you can rinse off or remove with a tissue because they are the gentlest cleansers. I recommend Estee Lauder’s Re-Nutriv cleanser and Lancome Gallate milk cleanser.

After cleansing, use a toner that has a softening lotion. These new toners are so thick you can just pour them in the palm of your hands and pat them on your face. Estee Lauder’s Renutriv Softening Lotion has little flecks of real gold in it, which helps to calm and heal skin.

Of course you should also look for a moisturizer with an SPF, but also consider switching to lighter cream-gel. Clarins has a great new one called Hydraquench. I also love Estee Lauder’s Future Perfect cream. This contains sunscreen and antioxidants to protect you from the sun and scorching heat of summer.

Don’t forget your eye cream! La Mer recently released a new cream, eye concentrate. It’s a bit pricey, but wow! It does it all. This Redbook 2007 MVP helps with puffiness and dark circles and firms your skin. It may even walk your dog if you’re really nice to it.

Even if you have dry skin, you still want to exfoliate once a week. I love Lancome’s Exfoliance. It’s gentle and pink and will leave your face smooth as a baby’s behind.

With both of these skin care routines, you’ll want to make them part of your lifestyle and stick to them so you always look as good as you do now. These routines should be performed both in the morning and evening. It doesn’t matter that you are using your SPF moisturizer at night.

And don’t forget you neck! Get in the habit of slathering moisturizer on your neck – you’ll thank me for it in 10 years!