Dermatologist Advice on Adjusting Your Routine and Products
Cooler windy outside air combined with heated indoor air always pulls moisture out of your skin, leading to dry itchy skin and even eczema [1]. As weather patterns, humidity, and activities change with the seasons, your skincare needs to adapt to achieve the necessary protection.
Follow the simple, yet effective dermatologist-approved tips in this guide on how to transition your skin care from summer to autumn. Learn how to choose the best products to maintain healthy, hydrated, and radiant skin throughout the season.
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When Should I Change My Skincare?
As fall shadows lengthen, leaves change color and when that subtle chill in the air has you wanting a light sweater before stepping outside—it’s time to change your skin care regimen for the autumn season.
Dermatologist-Approved Fall Skincare Tips
Your summer skin care routine, tailored for warmer weather, may not adequately protect your skin from fall dryness. Follow these fall skincare tips from Dr. Bailey for a comfortable glowing skin throughout the season.
There are 4 steps to your skin care routine:
- Cleanse – remove oil, dirt, debris, sweat, product residue from your skin
- Correct – products for skin problems like acne, crepey skin, rosacea etc.
- Hydrate – moisturizers designed to protect your skin barrier and prevent dryness
- Protect – sunscreen to prevent skin pigment problems, wrinkles, skin thinning and skin cancer
1. Go Gentle with Skin Cleansing
Washing your skin is the first, very important skin care step. How and what you cleanse ;it with matters.
Swap out your stronger summer cleansers with gentle ones for drier autumn conditions. Summer sweat, oil, and activities often have us needing stronger skin cleansers during hot weather.
Recommended pH Balanced Cleansers
The following products are formulated with a pH balanced base that creates the right amount of gentle fall skin cleansing plus the addition of non-drying levels of ‘active’ ingredients help you achieve your skin care goals.
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Natural Fragrance-Free Alternatives
If you are looking for 100% natural skin cleansing options, natural fragrance-free soaps are a great alternative. My fragrance free Best Natural Bar Soap for your face and body is phthalate-free, economical, good for the entire family, and kind to the planet. Keep the Bar Soap at every sink to ensure that your hands never get washed with dish soap or all too common harsh hand soaps!
Why Use Phthalate-Free Cleansers
Skin cleansers are a common source of allergens and phthalates (often included in products that vaguely list ‘fragrance’ as an ingredient). Phthalates are hormone disruptors that wash down the drain to ultimately damaging aquatic ecosystems. They are bad and I’m serious about keeping phthalates out of your skin care. All of my products are phthalate-free.
Avoid Washing Your Skin with Hot Water
In fall, avoid steamy hot water [2] when cleansing your skin. Yes, a hot shower feels great but remember how much better hot water works when cleaning the dishes compared to cooler water. You don’t want that when it comes to your skin. Hot water strips skin lipids and exacerbates skin inflammation.
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2. Add a Deeply Hydrating Serum
Correct skin dehydration and antioxidant depletion once the weather cools and humidity drops. Add a deeply hydrating serum and an antioxidant rich product to your skincare.
Serums contain intensified actives to target specific goals. In fall, that needs to include deep hydration to quench thirsty skin before it starts to get dry. Dehydrated skin becomes crepey, dull and starts to feel rough.
Key Ingredients to Fight Dehydrated Skin
Fractionated hyaluronic acid, sodium PCA (part of your skin’s natural moisturizing factor [3], NMF), and just the right amount of glycerin are dehydration prevention super heroes. Hyaluronic acid binds 1000 times its weight in water to help prevent dehydrated skin.
After daily washing, use my Instantly Luminous Multi-Action Serum. It’s made with fractionated hyaluronic acid (HA) that contains sodium PCA and glycerin. The varying molecular weight sizes of the famous HA ingredient will stratify into the layers of your skin to plump and hold water.
Add a Concentrated Antioxidant Serum
Green tea antioxidants are one of the best to achieve a glowing complexion and avoid skin problems that worsen in autumn. Many of my rosacea and seborrhea patients depend on my Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy to fight facial redness. These conditions are known to flare up in fall and winter.
I’ve been using Dr. Bailey’s Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy for several months now, and I can confidently say it has become a staple in my skincare routine. This product promises a lot, and it truly delivers on its claims. Within a few weeks, I noticed a significant reduction in redness and inflammation, which has been especially beneficial for my sensitive skin prone to rosacea. The calming effect is evident, and I feel more confident going makeup-free. I’ve received compliments about my skin’s overall brightness. It’s an exceptional product for anyone serious about skincare. If you’re looking for a professional-strength solution that really works, I highly recommend giving this a try. Thanks Dr. Bailey! D. J.
How to Layer a Serum
Top your serum with your rich facial moisturizer and know that your facial skin is well prepared for fall’s dehydrating air.
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3. Use Richer Moisturizers and Don’t Skip Body Lotion
Hydrate your skin as the weather cools by using a rich moisturizer every day. Light moisturizers feel good in summer but aren’t enough once the weather cools and humidity drops.
Key Ingredients to Look For
- Look for skin quenchers like glycerin in your moisturizers. Replenish lost lipids [4] with ceramides [5], squalane [6], and botanical oils for your skin.
- Boost hydration at the earliest sign of dryness by adding a few drops of a facial oil to your favorite rich moisturizer–or use the oil straight for a real healing treatment against dry skin.
Best Natural Creams and Oil Moisturizers for the Fall
My Daily Moisturizing Face Cream for All Skin Types contains squalane, ceramides, and glycerin.
My Omega Enriched Booster Oil sooths dryness and irritation with organic plant-based oils including sea buckthorn to enhance skin water-holding capacity and borage oil which is rich in the essential fatty acid gamma-linoleic acid (GLA) that is important for healthy skin barrier. Your skin can’t make GLA, making this a natural 911 remedy for dry skin.
Rich botanical oils and glycerin in the Natural Face and Body Lotion prevent dry arm, leg, and body skin when applied within the magic 3 minutes after getting out of your daily bath or shower. It never feel greasy, is fragrance-free, and ideal for the entire family.
Follow the 3-Minute Rule
Applying moisturizers within 3 minutes after washing your face or bathing.
Prepare for the Changing Seasons with These Guides
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4. Be Generous with the Lip Balm
A simple lip gloss won’t cut it for your lips in fall. Stock up on handy lip balm made from protective ingredients that lock in lip moisture. Botanical oils combined with natural beeswax [7] will protect lips well.
Best Practices
Apply my certified organic Natural Lip Balm at bedtime and many times throughout the day to proactively fend off chapped, cracked, and painful lips.
Keep a lip balm everywhere. Purse, backpack, car, bathroom, bedside table, desk–wherever you hang out so that it’s easy to reapply throughout your day.
Did You Know?
Lips chap because they are structurally more vulnerable than skin. They have a much thinner and weaker barrier layer than the rest of your skin, resulting in a rapid dehydration, damage, and chapping.
5. Take Good Care of Your Hands
Cold, flu, and COVID season have you hand sanitizing and hand washing many times a day–all to the detriment of your hand skin! Add in fall’s lower humidity, cool windy air, and indoor heated air and you’ve got the perfect storm for chapped hands. Once chapped, hands take months to heal.
2 Steps to Prevent Hand Chapping
- Wash your hands with a gentle soap or hand cleanser that rinses off easily. Rinse until you feel no soap residue, especially under rings and between fingers, where chapping often starts. Retained soap residue pulls out precious lipids to allow protein damage to your important hand skin barrier.
- Moisturize your hands often throughout the day fall after washing them. This is really important.
Recommended Hand Products
The right hand skin care products are so important for preventing painful chapped hands that I’ve created a kit to make it easy to have dermatologist-approved preventative care for your hands:
Natural Survival Kit for Busy Hands
6. Wear a Broad-Spectrum UVA Blocking Sunscreen on All Exposed Skin
Summer is over but UVA isn’t. Nope, UVA is equally intense all year. Sun feels softer because the sunburn UVB ray is less intense, but the longer UVA wavelengths are still strong and they penetrate more deeply into your skin to cause wrinkles. UVA breaks down collagen and elastin, leading to sagging, wrinkling, crepey, and thin skin. It also darkens sun spots and melasma. Just because the sun is less likely to burn does not mean it is benign.
Key Ingredients to Look For
Protect from UVA by using a sunscreen that says “broad spectrum” on the front label. Zinc oxide is a great UVA blocker, look for 5% or higher concentration. All of my sunscreens are broad spectrum zinc oxide products perfect for year-round protection – of course!
To really fight skin pigment problems, you also want to block visible light. Products with 3.2% or higher iron oxide do this, though it is almost impossible to find that noted on product labels.
My Sheer Strength Pure Physical Matte Tinted Broad Spectrum SPF 50+ with over 3.2% iron oxide to block visible light that contributes to skin pigment problems. Some mineral makeup is rich in iron oxide. So use my sunscreen and know your skin is protected from fall’s UVA and visible rays.
Your skin changes with the seasons and your skin care should too. – Dermatologist Dr. Cynthia Bailey
Why Does My Skin Get So Dry in the Fall?
As outdoor temperatures drop so does the humidity. Indoor heaters pull water out of your skin, hot showers also pull lipids out of your skin. This leads to damage to skin barrier protein.
Remember that your skin’s insulating barrier is a brick and mortar structure of protein-filled bricks mortared together with lipids. – Dermatologist Dr. Cynthia Bailey
Damage to skin lipids [8] and protein results is dry, itchy skin with increased transepidermal water loss (TEWL) that is prone to cracking and eczema. Head it off before it starts.
As a dermatologist, I know that proactive skin care [9] will counter the negative seasonal impact on your skin, protecting a healthy skin barrier so that you will have comfortable and problem-free skin through the fall and winter.
Use These Fall Skincare Tips to Protect Your Skin
Don’t wait until dryness begins, start now. Take the steps in this guide to keep skin hydrated, prevent barrier damage from harsh cleansing, use seasonally rich moisturizers that replenish skin lipids, and protect skin from damaging UVA rays. It’s simple, it’s seasonal, and it’s easy with these fall skin care tips.
Your Complete Fall Skin Care
My Complete Skin Care Kit gives you my top fall skin care products to keep your skin comfortable as the weather cools. I take care of picking the cleanser, antioxidant serum, moisturizer, and SPF. Rely on my years of experience. This routine easily accommodates your other favorite products, such as a hyaluronic acid serum, retinoid, etc.
Add a Natural Lip Balm, my Survival Kit for Busy Hands and Natural Body Lotion and you will have all the basics that I depend on for my own fall skin care.
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References
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- Sethi A, Kaur T, Malhotra SK, Gambhir ML. Moisturizers: The Slippery Road. Indian J Dermatol. 2016 May-Jun;61(3):279-87. doi: 10.4103/0019-5154.182427. PMID: 27293248; PMCID: PMC4885180.
- Kurek-Górecka A, Górecki M, Rzepecka-Stojko A, Balwierz R, Stojko J. Bee Products in Dermatology and Skin Care. Molecules. 2020 Jan 28;25(3):556. doi: 10.3390/molecules25030556. PMID: 32012913; PMCID: PMC7036894.
- Imokawa G, Kuno H, Kawai M. Stratum corneum lipids serve as a bound-water modulator. J Invest Dermatol. 1991 Jun;96(6):845-51. doi: 10.1111/1523-1747.ep12474562. PMID: 2045673.
- Rawlings AV, Harding CR. Moisturization and skin barrier function. Dermatol Ther. 2004;17 Suppl 1:43-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1396-0296.2004.04s1005.x. PMID: 14728698.
Engebretsen KA, Johansen JD, Kezic S, Linneberg A, Thyssen JP. The effect of environmental humidity and temperature on skin barrier function and dermatitis. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2016 Feb;30(2):223-49. doi: 10.1111/jdv.13301. Epub 2015 Oct 8. PMID: 26449379.
Park EH, Jo DJ, Jeon HW, Na SJ. Effects of winter indoor environment on the skin: Unveiling skin condition changes in Korea. Skin Res Technol. 2023 Jun;29(6):e13397. doi: 10.1111/srt.13397. PMID: 37357654; PMCID: PMC10264749.
Yoshida-Amano, Y., Nomura, T., Sugiyama, Y., Iwata, K., Higaki, Y. and Tanahashi, M. (2017), Dry skin conditions are related to the recovery rate of skin temperature after cold stress rather than to blood flow. Int J Dermatol, 56: 176-183. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijd.13436
Jin Y, Wang F, Payne SR, Weller RB. A comparison of the effect of indoor thermal and humidity condition on young and older adults’ comfort and skin condition in winter. Indoor and Built Environment. 2022;31(3):759-776. doi:10.1177/1420326X211030998
M. Llamas-Velasco* and A. García-Díez,Climatic Change and Skin: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Challenges, Actas Dermosifiliogr. 2010;101(5):401–410
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