As summer fades and autumn arrives, it's time to update your skincare routine. After months of sun, seawater, and chlorine, your skin needs repair to stay healthy and glowing through the cooler days. The key to this transition? Your skin barrier—the outermost layer that locks in moisture and keeps irritants out. Summer can weaken it, and autumn brings new challenges like colder air and dry indoor heating. Here’s how to repair the damage and adapt your routine for the new season, so your skin stays radiant and resilient.
How Summer Impacts Your Skin Barrier
Summer brings environmental stressors that affect all skin types. UV rays damage the protective barrier, causing dehydration, hyperpigmentation, and free radical damage. Saltwater and chlorine strip natural oils, leaving skin dry and irritated. For oily skin, excess heat boosts sebum production, clogging pores and triggering breakouts.
Autumn introduces new challenges: colder air and lower humidity sap moisture from your skin, compromising its barrier. Dry skin can become flaky and sensitive, while oily skin may struggle with a tricky balance—dry patches and continued oiliness.
Tailoring Your Routine for Autumn
Strengthen Your Skin Barrier: Choose the Right Ingredients
Dry Skin Types: If you’re prone to dryness, summer’s sun and sea can exacerbate this, leaving your skin feeling rough and flaky. In autumn, focus on strengthening your skin barrier with barrier-repairing ingredients like ceramides, fatty acids, and peptides. These help restore your skin's natural moisture shield, locking in hydration and keeping out irritants.
Oily Skin Types: Even oily skin can experience a weakened barrier after summer, resulting in dehydration beneath the surface. Opt for lightweight, non-comedogenic hydrators like squalane and glycerin, which provide deep hydration without clogging pores. Incorporating niacinamide can also help to regulate oil production while improving your skin’s overall resilience.
No matter your skin type, antioxidants are essential during this time of year. Vitamin C is a powerhouse antioxidant that helps neutralise free radical damage caused by UV exposure, while also brightening dull skin. Antioxidants also play a key role in protecting your skin from environmental aggressors, like pollution and indoor heating, which can exacerbate dryness and sensitivity in autumn.
Adapt Your Cleansing Routine
As the temperature drops, it’s time to reconsider your cleanser. While gel-based or foaming cleansers are great for the summer months, they can be too stripping in autumn.
Dry Skin: Switch to a creamy cleanser that removes impurities without disrupting your skin’s moisture balance. A gentle, hydrating cleanser will leave your skin feeling soft and nourished, not tight and dry.
Oily Skin: You may not need to completely ditch your gel cleanser, but make sure its gentle to ensure your skin stays balanced.
Hydrate and Nourish: Focus on Moisture Retention
Hydration is key for all skin types, especially as autumn brings cooler air that tends to suck moisture out of your skin. Keeping your skin barrier intact is crucial for maintaining hydration, and the right moisturiser will play a big part.
Dry Skin: Use richer creams with occlusive ingredients like shea butter, squalane, and glycerin. These help create a protective layer over the skin, preventing water loss and giving you long-lasting hydration throughout the day.
Oily Skin: While you will still deal with shine, your skin can become dehydrated beneath the surface, leading to overproduction of oil. A lightweight, oil-free moisturiser with humectants will ensure your skin is hydrated without feeling greasy.
Repair with Antioxidants and SPF
While it’s easy to think SPF is just for summer, your skin still needs protection from UV rays year-round. UV damage doesn’t just cause sunburn—it weakens your skin barrier, contributes to premature ageing, and causes hyperpigmentation. Incorporate an SPF of at least 30 into your daily routine, even on overcast days. This helps repair your skin’s barrier by preventing further damage while you work to restore it with nourishing products.
Antioxidants, particularly in the form of serums, are vital for post-summer skin repair. Vitamin C and ferulic acid are excellent at reversing the effects of sun damage, boosting collagen production, and strengthening your skin barrier. They also improve the effectiveness of your SPF, offering a more comprehensive defence against environmental stressors.
Focus on Night-Time Repair
Autumn is the perfect time to focus on repairing the skin overnight. Your skin regenerates as you sleep, making your night-time routine perfect for autumn recovery.
For both dry and oily skin types, retinoids are excellent for repairing summer’s damage, increasing cell turnover, and helping with pigmentation and fine lines. Follow this up with a moisturiser optimised for your skin type.
Dry Skin: Opt for richer, reparative night creams that contain ceramides and peptides.
Oily Skin: A lighter night cream, possibly paired with a hydrating serum or mist if required, can work wonders without feeling too heavy.
Your skin’s needs evolve with the seasons, and Sekkeizu’s AM Serum is here to help you adapt. By understanding your skin type and how your barrier reacts to summer and autumn elements, you can create a tailored routine that keeps your skin healthy and radiant. Whether you're managing dry patches or excess oil, the AM Serum works for both – hydrating, repairing, and protecting with its powerful blend of barrier-strengthening ingredients and antioxidants.