It's that time of year again—seasonal changes often upset not only our lungs and brain, but also the skin, with external irritants. Particularly around May to July, blooming trees, grasses, weeds, and flowers deliver pollen into the air, causing a cacophony for the especially sensitive. On top of seasonal allergens, the month of June marks the official end of spring and the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, with temperatures shooting up in mid-July and mid-August.
During this time, your skin may feel tight and itchy from seasonal allergens, changing humidity, and increasing temperatures. Your skin may also feel dry, dehydrated, and flaky as it struggles to assimilate to its new environment.
As spring turns into summer, try looking for products that soothe and protect the skin barrier, while providing the skin with extra nourishment. Glowie Co has compiled the best Asian beauty products to keep your skin healthy and happy!
KEEP COOL Soothe Bamboo Toner
K-Beauty brand KEEP COOL combines natural ingredients with their specialized technology to create some amazing products for sensitive skin! In particular, their Soothe Bamboo Toner is 85% bamboo water, which has impressive healing benefits to soothe irritated skin. In addition, its pH level is 5.5, closely mirroring the natural pH level of healthy skin to strengthen your skin’s ability to bounce back from a tough seasonal transition.
What’s also great about KEEP COOL’s Soothe Bamboo Toner is that is contains not one, but two types of hyaluronic acid to deeply hydrate the skin, and even seals the hydration from the hyaluronic acid with polyglutamic acid for added moisturizing.
The toner includes Japanese honeysuckle extract, which has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties, making the toner a great choice if you’re prone to breaking out around the spring-to-summer transition.
But enough about all the great things in the toner. Let’s talk about all the icky stuff that’s NOT in the toner: KEEP COOL’s Soothe Bamboo Toner is paraben-free, mineral oil-free, fragrance-free, dye-free, and cruelty-free! Furthermore, there are NO comedogenic ingredients in the formulation, so rest assured that your pores will remain unclogged!
KEEP COOL recommends using this product as a refining toner, moisturizing toner pack, or a refreshing mist!
23.5°N Rice Soothing Active+ Moisturizer
If you’re a Glowie Co regular, you’ll know how much we LOVE 23.5°N for their nature-focused, comfort-based approach to skincare. Any of their products from the Rice Soothing Active+ line is a winner in our combating-seasonal-skin-woes book, but we really have to hand it to their Rice Soothing Active+ Moisturizer for not only dutifully moisturizing skin, but brightening while calming too! It’s difficult to find brightening products that don’t irritate the skin, as many use acid-heavy formulations to achieve a brighter tone, but where 23.5°N’s Rice Soothing Active+ Moisturizer differs is that it uses fermented rice essence to even out the complexion.
Also included in this moisturizer’s ingredients is job’s tears extract, which can help reduce melanin production to further the brightening effect, and reduce free radicals for anti-aging benefits too! We’re also a big fan of the way 23.5°N incorporates aloe extract and oat extract for maximum soothing effect, quite possibly the biggest benefit for pollen- and heat-irritated skin!
The product is alcohol-free, paraben-free, fragrance-free, dye-free, and cruelty-free, meaning that even the most sensitive skin will be able to thrive despite the spring-to-summer disturbance.
Beauty of Joseon Calming Serum: Green Tea + Panthenol
Honestly speaking, this serum is amazing year-round. But what makes it especially helpful for the coming summer is its high concentration of green tea. With a jaw-dropping 76.49% of camellia sinensis leaf water, Beauty of Joseon’s Calming Serum is effective in combating skin damage from UV rays. Coupled with the obvious soothing benefits from artemisia and centella asiatica extracts, green tea’s melanin production-stopping properties beat the scorching summer heat and its premature aging tribulations.
And let’s not forget about panthenol! Although the 2% panthenol might not jump out at you the same way 76.49% green tea does, panthenol is undeniably important in this serum’s formulation. Panthenol moisturizes dry and flaky skin while providing soothing benefits. Moreover, it aids in skin cell renewal to speed up wound healing and strengthen the skin barrier, no doubt essential functions for extra irritated skin.
Panthenol works particularly well with humectants like hyaluronic acid, so the inclusion of sodium hyaluronate (a more effective and stable derivative of hyaluronic acid) amps up the hydration factor of this Calming Serum.
Its cruelty free and free of fragrances, parabens, sulfates, artificial color, alcohol, silicone, mineral oil and essential oils, making it a no-brainer for sensitive and troubled skin.
Neogen Day-Light Protection Sunscreen SPF50 PA+++
We can’t possibly talk about a spring-to-summer transition without highlighting the sun’s longer, brighter presence. Sun exposure actually causes up to 90% of premature skin aging, so summer is often a dreaded season for skincare fanatics. While you should definitely be wearing sunscreen regardless of the season, as UV rays can penetrate through clouds, windows, and even get reflected by snow, summer months increase the risk of UV rays.
One of our favorite sunscreens of all time is Neogen’s Day-Light Protection Sunscreen, which weighs in at SPF50 and PA+++! SPF measures UVB protection, whereas PA measures UVA protection. At SPF50 and PA+++, you’re looking at high UVB and UVA protection—it would take 50 times longer for skin to redden/burn, and take 8 to 10 times longer for your skin to tan!
In addition to its sun protecting properties, the Day-Light Protection Sunscreen also soothes the skin with rose and honey extracts. It combines hydration and sun protection, so it’s great for those who are looking to skip moisturizer under sunscreen.
Final Recommendations
When looking for products to ease your spring-to-summer transition, make sure to check the ingredients list for possible irritants! Running products through CosDNA or EWG may be helpful in your search.
Keep an eye out for ingredients that soothe irritated skin or help repair the skin barrier as well. If you have a specific concern related to your skin type, such as oily skin becoming more unbalanced as summer approaches, add that factor into consideration.
We hope this article will help your skin thrive despite tricky seasonal changes!
Sources:
https://www.mpcp.com/articles/preventative-care/2021-allergy-forecast-a-bad-year-for-everyone/
https://thebrightside.supergoop.com/pa-sunscreen-rating-system/