Summer is just around the corner and surely, most of you are excited to put away your warm jackets and jump in your bathing suits! We, at Belle Azul, can’t wait either! However, the summer does also bring with it a lot of potential damage to our skin, sucking out the life of it and making it look dry and dull.
Knowing how to keep your skin hydrated in the hot weather is extremely important for retaining its fresh and glowing appearance!
Why is Skin Hydration Important?
Every little cell, muscle and organ in our body needs water to function properly. As incredible as it sounds, more than half of our body is made of water! Our skin plays a crucial role in retaining all this moisture, so it’s important that we take extra care to nourish and protect it.
Hydrating your skin is one of the best things you can do to maintain its young and healthy appearance. Given it has the water it needs, your skin will always play in your favour! It will act as a barrier to nasty toxins and bacteria, and will carry crucial nutrients to your body cells.
On the other hand, neglecting skin hydration might make your skin more sensitive and susceptible to germs. Lack of moisture often results in dry, itchy and red skin, it could even speed up the process of ageing, encouraging the appearance of wrinkles and lines!
What Causes the Skin to Dehydrate?
Skin dehydration can basically be a result of two different case scenarios: insufficient water intake or excessive water loss. Now, there are several factors, internal and external, that may lead to those two scenarios. Here are some of the most common ones:
- High temperature
- Lack of humidity
- Strong UV radiation
- Aggressive cleaning methods or strong chemical products
- Intensive exercise
- Ageing
- Drinking alcohol, coffee and smoking
What Are the Symptoms of Dehydrated Skin?
Ok, you are now familiar with the contributors to skin dehydration. But how do you know if your skin is dehydrated? These are some of the symptoms you might notice, which can help you identify skin dehydration and take immediate measures:
- Rough skin with limited elasticity
- Redness
- Peeling
- Coarse thick skin
- Cracks that might occasionally bleed
How to Keep Your Skin Hydrated?
With the summer approaching and the sun rays becoming more and more powerful, the risk of skin dehydration is growing. Therefore, it’s imperative that you know how to protect yourself from it and retain the elasticity and radiance of your skin. You don’t want to end up with dry and dull skin, exhausted from the sun, do you? Just follow these tips and you can thank us later!
Tip 1. Drink plenty of water
You have probably heard this a million times, but please let us highlight its importance once again! Drinking water is one of the most straightforward and easiest ways of keeping your skin hydrated. It is especially important in the summer when your body tends to lose a lot of fluid due to sweating.
Same happens in the gym, while running like crazy on the treadmill and working hard to get that booty ready for the beach! Don’t forget to rehydrate after your workout! The water will help you get rid of waste products from your muscles, speed up recovery time and improve your flexibility!
Tip 2. Maintain a well-balanced diet
While it is very important to drink loads of water, it can be easy to fall behind your daily water intake target. Eating foods rich in water, can help you get back on track! What’s more, they will even keep you full on fewer calories, which could save you the guilt of chucking down a big, fat chocolate brownie!
Fruits and veggies provide tons of benefits for the body, supplying it with all the necessary nutrients such as vitamin C, E, zinc, etc. Remember your mum always used to tell you… “Five-a-day keeps the doctor away”? Well, guess what… it’s much easier to eat fruits and veggies in the summer. What’s better than a cold, sweet watermelon on a hot summer day?
Tip 3. Moisturise regularly
Moisturising plays a major role in keeping your skin hydrated during day and night time. In this respect, hyaluronic acid holds the key to a smooth and flawless skin. In fact, your own cells produce it naturally to maintain your moisture levels, but due to environmental causes and ageing, these levels may experience a fall.
To compensate for this, skin care experts often recommend using moisturisers rich in hyaluronic acid. At Belle Azul, we advise you to check out our Pure Swiss Collection, which is based on hyaluronic acid. You might want to have a look particularly at our Pro Hydrating Sorbet, very light moisturiser, perfect for the summer, and our Hyaluronic Acid Serum, an advanced solution for extra skin hydration and firmness.
Tip 4. Use sun protection
During the hot summer days, you need to take extra care to protect your skin from the damaging sun rays! Using a reliable sunscreen with the right sun protection factor (SPF) could save you from so many troubles such as sunburn, premature skin ageing, or even cancer! Generally, SPF varies between 15 and 50, and lighter-skin people often need a higher protection factor.
Before you go on your next summer holiday, make sure to check out our new Belle Azul Facial Sun Cream with SPF 50+, a high-performing sun lotion. It will not only give you a strong sun protection, but it will also leave your skin with a beautiful matte finish! Don’t forget to re-apply it after swimming or drying yourself with the towel!
