E77: How to treat and repair a Fall or Winter Sunburn

Hello everyone welcome back to the podcast, Emilie here as usual better known as The Meta Fairy and this episode is always brought to you by Meta Esthetique, premier Ottawa skincare establishment since 1979, where we guide and educate our lovely clients on how to age gracefully and just on to manage their skin as they get older. So, something that happened to me this past weekend. If you guys follow us on social media, you will know I had a terrible sunburn on my skin and we are in the middle of November. So I figured you know what, I am not the only person that happens that this happens to so I’m going to talk about it on the podcast because it is such a common thing and you know, yes, we are estheticians and we tell our clients to put on their sunscreen and we do it as well. But we are humans, and it happens a lot of the times that we slip up and then we see the consequences of what we are, you know, teaching others and telling people what to do and then when it happens to us, we’re like okay, good job. You knew this would happen and you didn’t follow your own directions and look at you now.

So let’s just laugh about it for two seconds. I was outside all weekend long. I barely put on any moisturizer. I was really off grid so I didn’t really have access to a lot of you know, amenities and I did put on my sunscreen but only in the morning. And that’s because I was outside the whole day. Just you know, doing some activities and some adventures and I did not reapply my SPF and I got a terrible, terrible sunburn. In my face. The sun was not shining. It was snowing. And it just shows you guys that the UV rays still penetrate the clouds even if it’s snowing, even if it’s the middle of the fall, beginning of winter. It doesn’t matter you need to wear your SPF all the time and you need to re apply it. Re-application is really the most crucial key part of using a proper SPF.

A common thing that I hear and that really really bugs me is when people say well I have a moisturizer that has an SPF and it’s like well if you think about it the SPF factor of your very expensive moisturizer will expire after two hours. So no you are not protected all day long with it. You will need to reapply it. This is why I do not recommend and that’s a personal that’s like a you know a lot of skin professionals will have different opinions on that. But to me in the logic behind the SPF factor I prefer to have a separate SPF because it’s going to cost you way too much to reapply that fancy pantsy cream that has an SPF in it every two hours. It’s going to cost you way too much.

So in my opinion, you’re just buying a glorified SPF. I just prefer to have two separate products have your treating moisturizer, let it do its job and then put on your SPF on top and re apply it throughout the day. To me that makes much more sense and it’s more cost efficient as well. So now what did I do wrong this weekend? I didn’t put on my moisturizer regularly so my skin is really dry and I got a big bad sunburn. So my skin is irritated and red. So what do you do? What is the procedure to treat and take care of your skin after a sunburn that you weren’t expecting to get? Like, you know, when it’s the summer and it’s hot and humid you get a sunburn. You’re like, Okay, I knew this was gonna happen. And it’s okay but it’s really not okay, but when it happens in the winter in the fall, it kind of throws you back because you’re like “oh right, Emilie told me this, that the sun was still there, the UV rays are still there and they can still penetrate all the layers of the clouds in the snow in the trees and everything”. And it does damage your skin.

So what do you do? So what your I’m going to tell you what you do. You’re going to put aside all your actives. So your exfoliators your chemical peels, like your chemical exfoliators, physical as well. You’re not going to irritated more your very active sunburn.

You’re also going to just use calming, soothing and repairing products. Okay? So in my case, things that you can do at home just to switch your routine you’re not going to use hot water on your skin and you’re not. You’re well you’re going to try your best not to use a washcloth because the washcloth I use a washcloth personally when I wash my face at the sink, but to remove what I’m putting on my skin, but it does act a little bit as an exfoliator so if you have a raw sunburn, it will hurt your skin. So use your hands. There’s nothing that’s better than using your hands on your skin to skin on skin right so it’s soft, it won’t irritate. So you’re going to cleanse your skin with the softest cleanser that you have. And you’re going to use your hands to remove it. Okay, so no washcloth.

Now second, you’re going to do a week long cure of using your most calming repairing mask. In my case the one that I really really love is the Hydra Sensitive Mask in Guinot it is the one that I recommend for anyone that has a reaction anyone that has sensitive skin and has like this red, inflamed skin. It just repairs the skin. There’s barely any scent to it. It’s like a nice, thick, creamy texture. So it really replenishes that moisture barrier that has been totally attacked by the sunburn. So I’m actually doing it consistently every day, every day for the next week, just to give that skin the most repairing actions as possible and they put it on for like a good 20 minutes. So I put it on I do my things. Either I’m in the bath or I’m you know, cooking or whatever. And I kind of forget that it’s on my skin. 20 minute treatment with that mask will really help repair your skin, slowly as you get through the week.

You’ll see that when you have a sunburn, depending on the degree of it, it can peel, right. So if you have a lot of flakiness, I will recommend that you do exfoliate how ever you’re going to wait a little bit you’re gonna wait at least five days. Okay, so you’re gonna wait until the inflammation is lower, but it doesn’t hurt to the touch or burn or tingle when you wash your face or anything like that. And then when that feelings stops, now you can exfoliate. Now I’m going to say you’re not going to use your 10% glycolic you’re not going to use your scrub. It’s going to be way too aggressive. You need an enzyme exfoliator. This is the softest way that you can exfoliate your skin so anything that’s enzymatic, you will use so if you know we have the collage be allergic. It is enzymes It’s really soft. There’s no physical grains or anything like that. It’s a nice little gel, and it works like a charm. So when you do exfoliate post having that really bad sunburn you will use this type of product. All the links are below so you can check them out. That’s basically what I’m doing.

Every every day I’m using the mask. And when I see that my inflammation has lowered and that my flakiness doesn’t hurt anymore. If you have flakiness, then I’ll use the ganache beautician you can use depending on the degree. It could be done the next day but in my case, I’m waiting a couple of days before I do exfoliate just so I don’t like completely attack my skin. And in terms of regular products, so like I said put your actives aside this includes your vitamin C This includes your retinol This includes your chemical acids like anything that’s too active. This is going to aggravate the situation with the inflammation. You will use your alcohol free toner or lotion that you’re using. And then you’re going to do either a calming serum, and a calming moisturizer so in my case, just to give you an example I’m only using the Peace Booster. This is I think it’s one of our best products that can target so many different things, especially inflammation any redness, any acne any left over red pigmentation. It is amazing to repair the skin.

So Peace Booster, Essential Serum, which really tells your skin how to be how to be healthy. It’s really it’s going to balance the oil in the water levels. It’s going to calm down the inflammation. It works also on the microbiome of your skin so it’s a great serum and so I’m using the essential serum at night and then the Aqua Calm Cream.

So using that these basic products will just repair the health of my skin after getting a really bad so this is what I recommend. Again, a very unexpected sunburn, but simple go back to basics, and it’ll be fine. You know, it’s the effects of having sunburns. You might not see it right away. But as you get older, you know the skin spins right? So the pigments will come to the surface. The you might have some surface wrinkles that show up way earlier than they should. So that’s all packed effects of getting regular sufferers which you don’t want to do. Right. So how can you prevent having a sunburn? Well, you know what I’m gonna say I’m just gonna say, pack your sunforgettable brush in your purse, in your backpack, in your pocket, in front of your laptop if it’s because you’re working all day in your by a window … and put it on every two hours. It’s as simple as that there is no magic trick up the sleeve to you know, not having there’s no other tricks to protecting your skin than using a UV protector every two hours specialist what you have to do.

So that’s the best advice I can give you if ever you do have a sunburn in the middle of the fall or the winter and when it comes to you know the skin being sensitive or being when burned because that that often does happen when you’re out there. In the winter days, the fall days and the you know the hair is so dry and it just rips the life out of your skin. So for anyone that’s listening that lives in a country or in a city that you do have harsh winters and harsh falls. You just have to be on top of your skincare and just make sure that you always hydrate that you always put a protection barrier on your skin before going out for the day and just reapply your SPF.

It’s just it’s just going to be the best thing to help your skin and if you need a little extra boost, go through your esthetician get an LED treatment. I love the new LightStim machine that we got it is amazing on the skin. It reduces inflammation so much there’s a clear glow and plump the skin after receiving a 20 minute panel. So I’m doing that three times a week now. I mean it’s at work so I can use it but for all the clients that we have on the membership, they love her 20 minute treatment in the LightStim lounge. It’s kind of being on the beach because it has a warmth coming from the infrared and it just you’re only missing the waves crashing in the background and then your skin is just absorbing all the good led action in the skin. So I’m going to be doing that this week a lot because of the sunburn but it’s just it shows you that we can do all kinds of different things. We can always help your skin. There’s always things that we can repair no problem there, but the trick is really to be preventive.

You know we want to prevent as much damage as possible. And that’s what age management is all about is prevention on what could possibly happen on your skin. So hopefully this gives you this gave you some tips. If you would like to have if you would like to check us out, check us out. Go on our Instagram @metaesthetique or if you’d like to send us an email to have a longer conversation hello@themetaesthetique.com. And until next time, we will chat very soon.