You Better Work, Beach: Summer Skincare

Here in Barcelona temperatures are climbing. Every day you see a little more skin as you walk around the city, and the pull of the sea feels a little bit stronger.

As always when the weather changes, I adapt my skincare regime little by little to fit what my skin is asking for, and what I know it's about to need. Needless to say, I am currently incorporating sunscreen into my facial skincare routine every day, but I am also changing up my rituals and augmenting my products to suit the kind of issues that heat and dryness cause to skin.

It may not be quite the time to hit the beach yet, but it certainly is time to start thinking about sun and sand and all the good stuff that comes with them. So without further ado, I present my three basic rules for summer loving skincare.

1. Clean up after yourself.

SPFs, deep cleansing in the evening... it all seems like a lot of effort to keep your skin clear and healthy. But what if there was an easier way?

If you're actually on holiday at the beach or living somewhere where a lot of sun exposure is unavoidable, then you will need to use an SPF every day. Personally, I recommend investing in a simple SPF sunscreen, rather than a hybrid moisturiser, as these can be heavy and end up giving you the worst of both worlds.

But using SPF can play havoc with your skin, and it's vital to make sure you cleanse really well at the end of the day. Our award-winning natural cleanser works incredibly hard so you don't have to. It contains jojoba, a natural anti-inflammatory, which is great for post sun cleansing, as well as palmarosa oil and petitgrain, both fantastic for catalysing skin cell regeneration as well as leaving skin toned and conditioned.

Throw in an Exfoliating Powder like ours with fruit acids like papaya and pineapples, garnish with a swipe of face oil, and your skin will be cared for, beautiful and cocktail-hour ready in any climate.

2. Less is more.

Everybody looks good with a tan. Until they don't. The number one rule with summer skincare is: cover up. Get yourself an extremely stylish hat. Be a shy retiring beach flower under a billowing umbrella. Stick to the shady side of the street. Sun damage is irreversible, and no matter what the short-term gains, tanning is just a bad idea. If you spend a lot of the summer outdoors, you'll get a natural glow from the day-to-day exposure (even wearing SPF), and honestly, that is enough.

Avoid the Donatella Versace look, invest in a high quality tinted BB cream or a bronzer if you must, but be smart and think ahead. That deeply lined, leathery skin is not as many summers away as you might like to think. Embrace your natural skin tone - whatever it is - and take good care of it. You'll enjoy beautiful skin all year round.

3. Up your Apres Sol

After sun skincare is super important, but in warm temperatures, even a "light" moisturiser can feel heavy on your skin.

Our natural Balancing Face Oil combines beautifully with our Face Cream for a light but highly effective hydration injection, combined with an instant boost in skin's radiance and tone. The plant extracts in our all natural formulas give you the vitamin boost your skin needs and help balance the loss of moisture from sun exposure. As an after sun treatment this is a perfect formula, leaving skin feeling nude but nourished.

Using a balm like ours, packed with chamomile and shea and cocoa butter is also a fantastic way to give skin a luxe silk layer of rich nourishment. On damaged areas of skin, it provides the kind of restorative nourishment skin craves after being in the sun, as well as soothing and calming. I take mine to the beach with me and don't go to bed without giving myself a generous application of this miracle formula.