Too much sweat, painful sunburn, makeup meltdowns — summertime beauty woes plaque even the most pulled together people. While an easy solution might be to lock yourself into an air conditioned room and not come out until the end of September, there are ways to get your beauty problems under control this season and still enjoy the fun of summer, whether that is lounging by the pool, going on a picnic or visiting the beach.
Tame the Sweat
In the summer, it can often seem as though you sweat from places you didn’t even know you could sweat from. If your antiperspirant isn’t doing the trick and you’re getting tired of showing up to work in a sweat-soaked blouse, you do have options.
One option is Botox. The injection, commonly used to reduce forehead and frown lines and crow’s feet, can also reduce excess sweating. The main ingredient in the injection prevents certain nerves from signaling certain sweat glands, so you sweat less. Results tend to last for about six months, after which you can repeat the injection or, if sweating’s only really an issue in the summer, go back to using antiperspirant.
If you’re not ready for Botox, or if you don’t sweat that much but still like to keep your armpits relatively dry, changing up your antiperspirant routine can help. For example, when you apply it makes a big difference. Antiperspirant tends to work best when you put on before you start sweating. For that reason, it’s often best to apply it before bed, when your armpits are dry, rather than in the heat of the day or right after your shower, when things are already a bit damp.
Cope with Sunburn
When it comes to sunburn, an ounce of prevention is really worth a pound of cure. Wearing SPF 30 (or more) daily helps protect your skin from the sun, not only from burns, but also from the aging effects of the sun’s rays. Reapplying sunscreen every two hours means it will keep working.
But, maybe you didn’t wear sunscreen when out in the sun or you wore it but it wore off and now you’ve got a nasty sunburn. You can cope with sunburn in two ways. First, you want to ease the actual heat from the burn. You can do that by applying a washcloth soaked in cool water to the area or by soaking in a bath of cool water. Aloe vera gel can also reduce the heat and burn of a sunburn.
The second part of coping with a sunburn is reducing inflammation and easing pain. Cooling it off reduces inflammation somewhat. Another option is to take ibuprofen, which will reduce swelling and help with the pain.
Clear Breakouts
Sweat, pore-clogging sunscreens, and a number of other summertime beauty woes can also make you more likely to break out on your face and body. If summer means body acne to you, it can help to switch to using a body wash with salicylic acid or another acne-fighting medication in it at the start of the season. Also take a close look at the sunscreen you’re using. Some, particularly water- or sweat-resistant varieties, tend to clog pores or lead to break outs since they form a barrier on the skin that traps in sweat and oil.
If preventing acne isn’t enough to keep breakouts away, in-office acne treatments can help. Depending on the severity of the acne, treatments can range from a deep cleaning facial to a chemical peel or laser treatment.
Stop Makeup from Melting Down
You might wonder why you even bother to put on makeup in the heat of summer — it just ends up sliding right off the minute you step outside. When the weather heats up, it helps to switch up your makeup routine. Go the powder route instead of liquid foundation, for example. It’s lighter and helps create a matte surface on your skin. If you don’t want to give up your liquid makeup, try using a mattifying primer first. Some primers contain ingredients that absorb excess oil on your skin, giving your makeup a smooth, dry surface to cling to.
Fix Freckles and Spots
A few freckles across your cheeks and nose might have looked cute in the summer when you were younger. But, these days, it seems as though the freckles are larger and definitely not as cute looking. Or worse, they’re no longer confined to your cheeks and nose but now appear all over your body, including on the tops of your hands.
Sunscreen can help keep spots and freckles from forming in the first place and there are things you can do to fade them afterwards. An in-office treatment that helps exfoliate the skin and increase cell turnover, such as microdermabrasion, can help minimize the appearance of freckles and age spots. The great thing about microdermabrasion is that it is a very minimally invasive treatment. While you should avoid sun exposure afterwards and you will notice some pinkness during the first day or so, you can go back to your regular activities pretty much right away.
Whoever said the living was easy in summer never spent hours reapplying makeup, mopping up sweat or soothing a painful sunburn. Fortunately, you don’t have to do those things either, once you learn how to cope with common summertime beauty woes.
To learn more about ways to keep sweating to a minimum, to avoid sunburn, and to deal with other skin woes, make an appointment at Mirror Mirror Beauty Boutique in Houston, Texas, today. The boutique offers a variety of skin treatments to calm red or freckled skin as well as Botox to help you less. Call 281-810-9083 to schedule a consultation now.