Summer’s blazing sun, hot dry heat and forgetting to apply and reapply sunscreen – it’s only mid-July and your skin has certainly taken a proverbial warm-weather bruising. And much like we might experience a craving for… oh, say… a hotdog or a pint of dark, dark espresso-chocolate gelato, your skin has cravings too. Only instead of being forth-coming about it’s needs and leading you to the kitchen, your skin likes to play passive-aggressive until it’s too late and flakiness, fine lines, even a breakout (or worse, brown spots) rise to the top level of your formerly smooth exterior to let you know that you have neglected your care-taking duties.

Your skin has needs and since August is nearly upon us, the latest issue of Cosmopolitan thought it was high time we tended to them. A recent article entitled “5 Things Your Skin Craves In August” addresses exactly that. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 things to undo the damage and pamper your complexion during the summer’s most sweltering month.



First and foremost on your skin’s menu of ‘yes, please’ are antioxidants. Sure, you smoothed on the SPF, but it only takes one too-thin application, or one neglected re-apply after a sweat or swim to trigger your body to release free radicals (you know, those pesky molecules that break down our good friend collagen.) As we all know, accidental damage does tend to accumulate. Antioxidants (like Vitamin C – or C-spiked serums) work to fight off the free radicals and prevent the formation of fine lines (Bonus: it also fades freckles – another sign of UV damage.) Apply this magic serum to clean, dry skin every morning and you can rest assured that you’re taking that first step towards pampering your summer-ravaged visage.

Which brings us to another late-summer dermis craving: Extra Exfoliation.

Even the smallest amount of sun exposure slows your supple skin’s ability to shed its dead-end top layer. Should your morning glance in the mirror produce a less-than dazzling appearance (read: dull, broken-out complexion.) it may be time to lather up with a nightly dose of 2% salicylic acid to keep you skin shine and flaky free.

And before we get too far into the numericals, let’s just hit the obvious… again. Sunscreen. I know, I know, I hit this often… and hard… but honestly, just do it. Applying sunscreen year-round is the best and most crucial way to fulfill your skin’s needs – and the end of summer, surprisingly, is the time when ladies slack off on their due diligence in this skincare department. Apply, apply, apply a quarter-size dot of (at least) SPF-30, every three hours. Just do it.

Retinoic Acid is another great vitamin-A based, anti-ager. Triggering collagen growth and increasing cell turnover, retinoic acid helps to erase fine lines, fades sunspots and pimples and creates a softer and more supple texture. Retinol is a great over-the-counter solution that contains nearly a tenth of the vitamin-A found in prescription retinoids.



And last, but not at all least – though probably least suspected: moisture. While you might be tempted to forgo the moisturizer in these warm-weather months, that’s not the culprit to your creepy, crawly, shiny skin. In fact, sun, wind and dry-air is one of the main reason’s for parched skin – which leads directly to the path to break-outs and nearly doubles the rate in which wrinkles develop.

The answer, according to Cosmo and its experts, is hyaluronic acid. Now before you panic due to the ‘a’ word… hyaluronic acid naturally exists in your body and, miraculously, absorbs 1,000 times its weight in water! (Wowza!) This acid pulls moisture from the air into the skin, so a thin layer goes a long way. Wait a good five-minutes after applying retinol, or any other substance, and then apply hyaluronic acid-spiked lotion – morning and night and you’ll find your skin looking just as good, if not better, than it did in the early months of June or July. (It’s not oil-based, so no need to worry about shininess.)

With these five easy steps you’ll fulfill you skin’s coy August needs and quite possibly undermine the early-summer damage. So thanks Cosmo!