How to Keep Your Skin in Top Shape While at the Beach


The beach can be a tough place for tender skin. Sunscreen, salt water, and sea breezes can all contribute to grimy skin and clogged pores. In addition, long hours spent playing in the sun and the Sunset Beach surf in combination with vacation eats and treats have consequences for your skin as well. If you're looking for ways to keep your vacation skin in tip-top shape, keep reading here! 


Keep It Clean

Have you ever thought about all of the things that come into contact with your face over the course of an average day? A quick list for the typical mom may look something like this:

  • makeup
  • hands (yours and others)
  • cell phones
  • tissues
  • glasses and sunglasses 
  • fabrics

Your face is your personal billboard to the world, and as such it’s important to keep it as fresh and presentable as possible. Excessive scrubbing and obsessive cleansing can cause skin irritation, so the best routine to follow is just gently washing with a mild facial cleanser twice a day. Wipe down any objects that routinely touch your face as well, and try to keep any and all hands away from your face. 


Wear Sunscreen

Whether you're at the beach or not, sunscreen should be a non-negotiable part of your skincare routine. The sun's ultraviolet radiation is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to premature skin aging, wrinkles, and splotchy hyper-pigmentation (i.e. freckles or dark spots). 

Note: it's important to stay alert when purchasing sunscreens, as they often contain chemicals that may irritate sensitive skin. An alternative to chemical sunscreens may be found in mineral sunscreens. It’s always best to research all of your options and test a sample using a small patch of skin before applying any new or seldom used product to your face and/or body.


Stay Active

Have you ever caught a glimpse of yourself in a mirror after you’ve spent a few minutes wrestling around on the floor with your kids, or after playing kickball with them in the front yard? Your cheeks were probably flushed, and your eyes were bright and lively. You may have even been glistening (ahem, sweating) a little bit.

You looked A-MAZ-ING! The reason for this is that healthy skin is one more thing to add to the seemingly endless list of ways in which exercise does a body good. 

Exercise gets your blood pumping, which is what leads to those gorgeous pink cheeks. Exercise also flushes toxins out of your system, which helps your skin get rid of anything that may be tough to remove from the surface.

Looking for a couple of ideas on how to stay active while on vacation in Sunset Beach? Read one of our previous posts here.


Get Plenty Of Sleep

Your body is a marvelous machine, and is capable of a miraculous amount of self-repair. One vital component that it needs to achieve success is an adequate amount of rest, specifically sleep.

While you're sleeping, your body naturally starts to repair damage done to your skin throughout the course of your day. Getting more, high quality sleep is one of the best things that you can do to keep a youthful countenance. However, even a quick nap will help manage skin issues like dark, puffy eyes if you can't manage a solid nine-hour stretch.


Stay Hydrated

Staying hydrated is another great skin rule of thumb. Dehydrated skin is loose, dull skin, which is not the same thing as tip-top vacation skin!

But how much water should one woman really drink? While there's not a single best answer that suits everyone, you've probably hear the recommendation to drink eight glasses a day. This is an achievable standard, although it can get overwhelming. Consider adding in snacks with a high water content, such as grapes or oranges.  

The other thing you can do to stay hydrated is to avoid substances that are naturally DE-hydrating, such as alcohol and caffeine.


Eat Clean

While it's not exactly true that "you are what you eat," there's enough of a correlation between the food that you ingest and the state of your skin that it's worth paying attention to the relationship between your plate and your face.

At a minimum, you should avoid or limit the following categories of food:

  • fried or greasy foods
  • dairy
  • sugar


Don't Worry, Be Happy

This final vacation skin rule one may be the easiest one to follow! Smiles abound on Sunset Beach, which is great for healthy, glowing skin. Smiling people also tend to be less stressed out people, and this is really the point of our final tip.

When we’re stressed, our bodies release a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol can wreak havoc on our bodies in lots of ways, not the least of which may show up on our skin. This “stress hormone” has been linked to unpleasant skin conditions such as acne, increased appearance of wrinkles, and skin dullness. 


We know that you want to look and feel your best while visiting Sunset Beach! Follow our tips for great skin and you can rest assured that you'll be putting forth your best vacation face!


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