A European summer holiday can be rough on our skin — you’re wandering around in the heat all day and exposing your skin to salty water, trail dust, dry airplane air, aircon… So, how do you take care of your skin throughout your holiday ensuring it’s still looking as healthy and happy as possible while travelling? Let’s go through my ideal travel skincare routine.
I’ve worked in cosmetics, in particular skincare, for 6+ years and love to travel, so over the years I’ve whittled down my holiday skincare routine to a key list of essentials. I like to focus on just maintaining skin health and happiness while travelling as, generally speaking, this isn’t the time to be trying to get the high-impact results from your actives like retinol, LED masks etc.
European summer, especially in the Mediterranean, tends to be exceptionally hot and sweaty so the name of the game is light hydration, deep cleansing and SPF (and don’t you dare forget to reapply).
The overall routine will differ depending on your skin type and skin concerns but in the summer heat and humidity, even dry skin doesn’t typically need too much rich hydration — however, you know your skin best and please choose products that best address your skin type and concern.
With those disclaimers out of the way, there are a few things I like to consider when designing a travel skincare routine in terms of packaging: weight, leakage, and I prefer not to put my fingers in tubs. I also like to keep it quick and easy as my focus in the morning is getting out the door and making the most of the day — chances are, you won’t want to spend 30 mins doing your skin and makeup each morning. Finally, my last few trips have been during heatwaves and most days were close to 40 degrees meaning I ended up sweating half my skincare off within minutes of walking out the door so I like to focus the majority of my routine in the evenings and just keep things light during the day.
My General Routine
Below is my general European summer skincare routine with explanations or considerations for each step. Adapt it as you need.
Morning
- Cleanse: This actually isn’t an essential step and it depends on how your skin is feeling. If you have a dry skin type, you my find cleansing in the morning leaves your skin feeling tight and stripped so rinsing your face with water in the morning is likely sufficient. No matter your skin type, if you wake up feeling a bit oily or like there’s residue on your skin from last night’s products, feel free to cleanse.
- Hyaluronic Acid: Apply to damp skin. This makes such a difference in the plumpness and overall look of my skin. Consider it a drink of water for your skin.
- Lightweight Gel Moisturiser: You can go for a gel-cream if you’re dry and want a little more hydration.
- SPF: No matter the day, weather or activity — apply your sunscreen as the final step in your skincare and reapply regularly throughout the day. If you’re applying makeup afterwards, let the SPF sit on your skin for a few minutes before starting your makeup routine
- Is the above too many steps for you? No worries. Drop the serum, you can even drop the moisturiser. If you’re looking for a one-step morning routine, find yourself a hydrating SPF that you love to use. You can skip moisturising, especially in the summer, but you cannot drop the SPF.
Night
- First Cleanse: Use a balm or oil cleanser. I prefer balms for travel as less messy but some oils can work well, depending on their packaging
- Second cleanse: This step is most dependent on your skin type but for summer most skin types can benefit from a gentle gel cleanser. No matter the exact product, a double cleanse is a must — it’s hot, you’re sweaty, you should have been wearing layers of SPF, maybe makeup, and depending on the day’s activities you may even be covered in dust or salt.
- Hyaluronic Acid Serum: Same as the morning routine, I find this step really makes a difference to my skin when many hotel rooms have aircon which can be super drying.
- Serums for Skin Concerns: This is where things get interesting as, depending on the product, you may need to be extra conscious of the sun the next day (e.g. exfoliants, retinol etc). If so, you likely wouldn’t be using them every night anyway so try and line it up so you use them on nights you’re going to be inside more the next day e.g. if you’re going to a museum. If you’re hiking in the dolomites or going on a boat cruise around the greek islands – don’t use your heavy duty actives the night before as they can make you more sensitive to the sun. I prefer to just eave these at home but know these products can make a big difference in people’s skin and if you’re travelling for a few weeks you may not want to interrupt your routine too much.
- Moisturiser: If you’re a dry skin type and want to load up on hydration, now is the time to do it. Otherwise, you can use the same moisturiser as the morning.
My Exact Routine with Product Recommendations
My exact products are below, noting many of these are purchased from Mecca in Australia. I’ve tried to provide similar recommendations from more global brands. My skin type is balanced to dry.
Morning
- Summer Fridays Amino Gel Cleanser or Korres Greek Yoghurt Foaming Cleanser (only if needed)
- Kiehls hyaluronic acid serum
- Mecca Max Night Duty Mask (I know it’s meant to be a night mask but it works really well as a lightweight daily moisturiser — trust me on this.)
- La Roche Posay invisible fluid SPF 50+
- Naked Sundays SPF mist top up spray
- Bondi Sands lip SPF (love the coconut flavour)
- Nivea Sun Sensitive Protect (dries down really nicely and doesn’t feel like you’re wearing sunscreen)
Night
- Frank Body oil cleanser
- Summer Fridays amino gel cleanser or korres greek yoghurt foaming cleanser
- Khiels Hyaluronic Acid serum
- Mecca max night duty mask
- Dr Dennis Gross peel pads (original) – 1x a week, after cleansing and before serums.
Essentially, I try to keep my European summer skincare routine as close to home as possible. Your skin is adapting to a lot of changes while travelling so try not to make any radical changes to avoid any skin freak outs or surprises.
Plan of Attack: Break Outs
If your skin does have a bit of a freak out, I like to have a spot treatment and pimple patches on hand to take care of the sitch quickly. The Mecca Max Spot Dots are great and low cost but the to be honest any standard pimple patch does the job. Plus the Tower28 SOS spray is a travel essential for me these days – it’s so great at calming my skin when it gets a bit stressed out travelling and its bad bacteria defeating properties make it ideal when travelling in hot and humid countries. Depending on how long you’re travelling for, you can just grab a mini and use it when needed.
My all time favourite spot treatment from Dr Dennis Gross was discontinued (SOB) and the new one just doesn’t hit the same sadly. But I’ve been eyeing off the Medik8 Blemish SOS Target Gel which has niacinamide and salicylic acid — my favourite combo in a blemish treatment — it’s effective and gentle without drying out the area. I like to pop the spot treatment on, leave it for a little bit, and then finish up with moisturiser and a pimple patch.
SPF
The most important thing in your entire skincare routine, especially during the summer and especially when you’re going to be out and about more than you would at home. Find one you love and you can afford to repurchase/use a lot of each day. SPF is notoriously pricey in Europe so I always recommend buying it before you fly. Also, ensure you’re using enough SPF when you do apply it — you need 1 teaspoon for your face, neck and ears. I find the La Roche Posay Invisible Fluid the best SPF for European summer as it’s super lightweight, doesn’t add to much glow or shine and doesn’t sting my eyes.
Plane Skincare Routine
Find that your skin dries out on long flights? Same. Thing is, I’m anti plane skincare routine as it’s unnecessary, often unhygienic, takes up valuable bathroom space, and you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble by doing it in the airport bathroom before takeoff. So with that in mind, I like to do my skincare routine (above) and swap the lightweight moisturiser for a generous layer of a richer moisturiser. As you’re using this less regularly, I like to find something in a mini tube — my personal faves are the Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask or the La Roche Posay Cicaplast Baume. These thicker moisturisers are also great to have on hand in case you do accidentally catch a bit too much sun and need something soothing. For a short internal flight, just do your daily skincare routine as normal.
Masks
Another little bonus I like to keep in my back pocket is a hydrating sheet mask in case my skin is feeling particularly dry after a long flight. I like the La Roche Posay Cicaplast sheet mask but the Dr Jart Ceramidin™ ones are also fantastic.
The Full Packing List
- First cleanse
- Second cleanse
- Hydrating serum
- Lightweight moisturiser
- SPF
- Daily
- Reapplication
- Lips
- Body
- Everyday
- Beach
- Treatments (vitamin C, exfoliants…)
- Spot treatment
- Pimple patches
- Calming/hydrating mist
- Mini of a richer moisturiser
- Hydrating sheet mask
- Body SPF
The Golden Rules
In case you didn’t already catch it, my key rules for any European summer skincare routine:
- Don’t make significant changes to your routine unless necessary
- Skip the actives if you can. If you can’t, be aware of the sun and use them wisely
- Keep it simple and focus majority of the routine in the evenings
- Don’t skimp on the SPF
Hopefully my list has given you a clear idea of what you need to be including for your European summer skincare routine. While the focus of your holiday will no doubt be the amazing places you get to discover, our skin can be such a huge factor in our confidence and worrying about frazzled or congested skin isn’t exactly a highlight so I’m all for doing whatever lets you enjoy your trip most.
But I will know if you skip the SPF xxx
Also, if you’re headed to Europe and need destination inspo, check out my 7 things to do in Barcelona and top tours to do in Dubrovnik — both are cities that really helped me perfect my travel skincare routine.
One response to “Your European Summer Skincare Essentials”
I love this! What a superb blog