The sun-drenched days of summer are upon us and you’ve probably noticed that your skin is operating a little differently these days than it was during the winter/spring months – and that’s a key sign that it’s time for a routine refresh! Many patients have asked us for this and today we’re finally spilling on Skin Iowa’s own PA-C Michon’s summer skincare routine to give you an idea of how the professionals do it themselves, and spoiler alert – it’s not as complicated as you may think!
Morning Routine – While it can be tempting to hit the snooze button and rush through that morning routine to get to work on time, we encourage you to give yourself extra time to give your skin a little more love and set your day (and skin) up for success! For Michon, each and every morning following cleansing and exfoliating, she first applies her favorite ZO® Skin Health Firming Serum, followed by the ZO Daily Power Defense antioxidant serum. These help to reinforce and promote skin health, hydrate, support visible improvement in skin elasticity and firmness and improve the appearance of lines and wrinkles. She finishes up by generously applying the ZO Tinted Sunscreen + Primer which helps to further hydrate, protect from the sun’s harmful rays and doubles as a makeup primer for a smooth matte finish, diminishing skin imperfections. This amount of SPF typically works for Michon, because her daily routine doesn’t include a lot of time spent outdoors. If she has an active day outdoors planned, she will double up (and double up again!) on the SPF, paired with the largest brimmed hat she can find because as we all know, prevention of sun damage is one of the absolute BEST things you can do for your skin!
Night Routine – Similar to the morning routine, we encourage you to stop Netflix (or scrolling on your phone) a little earlier than usual and give yourself time to wind down, cleanse off the day and nourish your skin for a good night’s sleep. After all, a well-rested body makes for more hydrated, balanced, and healthier skin! Michon’s PM routine starts like the morning routine, with gentle cleansing and more of the power packed ZO Skin Health Firming Serum, but at night she follows with the ZO Skin Health Retinol Skin Brightener and her favorite eyelash darkener and growth serum, none other than LATISSE®! This keeps her skin cells turning over regularly as well as stimulating collagen synthesis and the lovely LATISSE keeps her gorgeous lashes long, full and sky high!
Medical Aesthetic Treatments – In the summer (and year-round, really) Michon continues to keep up on her neuromodulators (alternating between XEOMIN®, Dysport® and BOTOX® Cosmetic), as needed. In addition to keeping up on her incredible muscle relaxer results, Michon also treats herself to monthly HydraFacials® and occasional microneedling to keep her skin looking and feeling fresh and stimulated. Because this is a face forward, sun-filled time of year, she opts to save her more aggressive, correcting procedures for the winter months.
While the dog days of summer might leave you thinking you don’t need the same level of skincare you did during the winter months, that’s simply not the case! This is just a time to shift gears and give your skin the TLC it’s looking for when those Des Moines rays are out in full force. So, should your routine mirror Michon’s? Likely very similar, yes! But nothing replaces a one-on-one skin care consultation at Skin Iowa, PC where we will take the time to analyze your skin type and apply our years of knowledge and experience to find you the perfect summer skin routine. Give us a call today and let’s keep you glowing during these sultry summer months: 515-223-0119
