If you’ve just come back from holiday, you have a perfect summer tan. But without further UV radiation, your tan will soon fade. The melanin has turned brown due to the UV radiation and wraps itself protectively around the nucleus of the cells. This protective mechanism is very important for us and has another positive side effect in our latitudes: Tanned, even skin is considered attractive. The following tips will help you maintain your summer tan.
The skin needs daily care now
The sun’s rays stress and dry out the skin. UV radiation is pure stress for the skin, so it needs plenty of antioxidants to neutralise the free radicals. Every day you should use a rich skin care lotion with lots of moisturiser such as urea, glycerine or hyaluronic acid, witch hazel extract and panthenol. This way, the skin can replenish its depots and the summer tan stays healthy and radiant for longer. If you want to put the icing on the cake for your skin care programme, use a lotion with free vitamin E (“tocopherol”) and ectoin. Ectoin is used by many bacteria to protect themselves from the stress of dehydration and UV radiation under the most adverse conditions. We can also provide this property to our skin cells as an anti-stress programme for their skin.
Showering with plenty of moisturising substances
Showering now requires products with high lipid content rather than so-called replenishing substances. A skin-neutral pH value of around 5.5 is also ideal now.
Try shower products containing urea or shower oils with high natural oils.
Sulphate-free shower products (INCI = Sodium Laureth Sulfate) are ideal because they don’t dry out and irritate the skin as much, keeping the summer tan even.
Use at night
Sun-tanned skin needs more oil, so it’s ideal to support the skin’s nightly regeneration phase. A coordinated night care lotion with e.g., shea butter, squalane, ceramides and omega fatty acids provides the skin with summer tan with exactly what it needs now. With this care programme, the summer tan is fully utilised in the natural 30-day cycle. The skin needs approx. 30 days to shed the uppermost horny flakes and thus also the summer tan.
What harms the summer tan now
It is important to avoid everything that could accelerate the exfoliation of the uppermost horny scales: Sauna sessions, bathing in chlorinated water, peelings and skin care products containing alcohol.
Prolong your summer tan with self-tanning substances
Self-tanning substances, such as dihydroxyacetone or erythrulose, re-tan the uppermost horny cells to a brownish colour and can thus maintain your brown skin tone beyond the 30 days. For example, DHA is a colourless sugar derived from glycerol that is also found in human metabolism. DHA reacts with the free amino acids and proteins in the skin cell. This Maillard reaction produces brown pigments, so-called melanoids. The reaction starts immediately after application. The result is visible after about 1 to 3 hours, depending on the skin type: The achieved tint is lightfast and lasts between three and five days.
So the summer tan lasts (almost) until the next holiday…
