It’s time to talk about how to take care of skin during hot weather. Welcome to Klog Chat, a series where we ask you to tell us how you do skin care and beauty. Here, we want you to share your best to for beating the heat during summer. How do you take care of your skin when the humidity is at an all time high? Let’s talk about it in the comments section!
Hello Klog readers! It’s Renee, and this past week in New York City has been literally hellish. No joke—I walked out of the office this past Tuesday at around 12pm for lunch and I almost couldn’t breathe. The heat was so intense and heavy, it felt like I was inhaling flames.
And did I mention I easily sweat? Yeah, I’m one of those people who walks as slowly as possible down a block during a 95 degree day in an effort to not make too much movement to cause sweat and yet still find beads of sweat dripping from my forehead and arms that are sticky, and damp by the end of my walk.
I’m somewhat OK with my body sweating (I just use a lot more body scrubs during the summer and use a more powerful deodorant), but when it comes to my face, I am not down for that constant pore-clogging. I felt so challenged to keep my skin clean during this week-long heat wave on the East Coast (sorry West-Coasters, I hear it’s heading your way now). I was reaching for so many different exfoliators to deep clean my skin. But I made a rookie mistake. We all know that over-exfoliating actually makes your skin look really bad (think: peeling, acne from irritation, and just red skin).
After scrubbing my face way too much during the first few days of the heat wave, I told myself to get a grip. I could still exfoliate every day without going crazy. Here’s what my face-cleaning plan turned into when I got home after a day out in the sticky sauna that is NYC: Exfoliate every other day with a physical exfoliator but also still use an acid toner every single night.
The details: On some nights I would use my trust Neogen Bio Peel Gauze Peeling Lemon pads for a good bout of physical scrubbing (I seriously can never get over how silky my skin feels after using these) and the lemon infusion makes my skin feel really clean and fresh after being pummeled by literal hot trash air. I then follow that up with my favorite acid toner ever: The Pixi Glow Tonic. On the other days, I amp up my chemical exfoliation and go in with the Dr. Oracle A-thera Tea Tree Peeling Sticks. My blackheads go into overdrive when I’m sweaty and these sticks really dive in there and loosen up all the gunk inside my pores. They’re the best. I follow those sticks up with a swiping of the Glow Tonic with a cotton pad.
But I haven’t even figured out a way to help my skin in the middle of the day when I’m sweating so profusely that it’s kind of scary. Do you have any great tips on how to keep your skin sane when you’re standing on the subway platform in 95 degree weather that the weather app says actually feels like 105 degrees? How do you deep clean your skin when it’s been sticky and gross all day? I’m always down for more tips.