For much of the United States, spring has sprung, and we’re starting to look forward to the longer (and hopefully, lazier) days of summer. It’s time to start thinking about peeling off sweaters and revealing more of our skin as we don shorts, tees, and tanks. So, if you haven’t already begun your glowy skin regimen, it’s time to get started! And it’s especially critical if it’s been an exceptionally harsh winter, and your skin is looking dry, flaky, dull, and ashy.

What is glowy skin? Simply, it means that the skin on your face and body is soft, supple, hydrated, radiant, clear, and above all else, healthy-looking. While the change in weather can help—especially if you live in a warmer, more humid climate—it probably isn’t enough. You likely need to take steps to remove the build-up of dry skin to really let your healthy skin shine.

How to Get Glowy Skin for Summer

To truly nourish your inner glow and let your glowy skin shine, there are several steps you’ll want to take. It’s well worth the effort to make your skin look and feel softer and healthier!

Step 1: Get Serious About Hydration

You would be amazed by how important hydration is for glowy skin. Water helps clear inflammation and toxins and also helps transport nutrients and oxygen to the skin cells. Lacking hydration can make your skin look duller and even accentuate wrinkles and pores.

Start by ensuring you’re drinking enough water every day; after all, our skin is 64% water. While there’s surprisingly little research on the effects of water intake on skin health, professionals who get up close and personal with skin (like dermatologists and aestheticians) will overwhelmingly tell you drinking water makes a significant difference in the appearance and health of the skin. Water helps plump up the skin, filling in and helping reduce the appearance of those fine lines and prominent pores.

Hydrated skin is also more elastic, so it’s less likely to crack or get irritated, which can lead to blemishes. And hydrated skin also tends to heal faster. Finally, water is needed to support and stabilize collagen, which is the primary structural component of our skin.

How much water do you need? Start with 8 to 10 eight-ounce glasses per day, spread throughout the day, beginning with one glass first thing every morning.

Step 2: Keep It Clean

If you want glowy skin, you’ll need to remove the dirt, oil, and particles of pollution that can make the skin look dirty and dull. After enjoying your morning glass of water, massage a small amount of a gentle facial cleanser that’s right for your skin type into your skin with your fingertips, using a circular motion. If your skin is dry, a good cream cleanser can help remove the debris without drying it more.

Then make sure you rinse your skin well using lukewarm water (avoid using hot water, as that dries out the skin, stripping away beneficial natural oils).

And always make sure you wash your face before bed. Throughout the day, you’re exposed to dust, dirt, and pollution particles that can damage the skin and increase inflammation as you sleep.

Step 3: Exfoliate

A quick and easy way to instantly brighten the skin to look youthful and glowy is to exfoliate—once to three times a week (don’t exfoliate daily), depending on how sensitive your skin is. For drier skin, you’ll want to exfoliate more often. If you have more sensitive skin, you’ll want to do it no more than once a week.

Exfoliation helps remove the top layer of dead cells, so the skin looks smoother and brighter. You can use a physical exfoliant, such as a scrub that contains sugar or jojoba esters for sensitive skin or pulverized nutshells for rougher skin. Or, you can use a face peel that contains alpha- or beta-hydroxy acids. Look for products that also provide ingredients that help soothe the skin, such as aloe or green tea, to reduce skin irritation.

Step 4: Moisturize!

Now that your skin is “so fresh and so clean,” it’s time to make sure you’re hydrating the skin from the outside as well. Gently pat your skin until it’s almost (but not quite) dry, then smooth on your moisturizer.

Unfortunately, many of the most popular serums and lotions either don’t work, work so slowly you barely notice, or worse, contain harsh, toxic chemicals like parabens, phthalates, and sulfates that do more harm than good. So, you want to find a moisturizer that doesn’t contain any of these.

Two deeply hydrating ingredients to look for in a good quality moisturizer include Squalene and Sodium Hyaluronate, which are both found in BioTRUST’s Ageless Glow. This deeply hydrating serum helps replenish and rejuvenate the skin with a blend of safe, effective, naturally-derived botanicals to help the skin look firmer, tighter, brighter, healthier, and more youthful.

Take this time to also indulge in some self-care with a quick massage to stimulate blood flow, which also helps plump the skin to help it look more radiant and glowy.

Step 5: Use Sunscreen Appropriately

A sunburn can make you glow, but that’s not what we mean by glowy skin. You’ll want to avoid getting burned as that can permanently damage skin, but that doesn’t mean you need to slather on sunscreen all day every day. Some non-burning sun exposure offers a host of benefits, including reducing the risk of death from all causes, including cancer, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer’s, and more.

Still, if you are going to be spending more time out in the sun and are at risk for a burn, you’ll want to cover up by wearing a hat, long-sleeve shirt, and a good pair of sunglasses. Remember, the skin under the eyes is the thinnest on the body, and it’s also the most susceptible to the signs of aging. Protect that delicate skin while decreasing the risk of squinting that causes deeper wrinkles around the eyes with a quality pair of polarized glasses that shade the entire eye area.

Finally, make sure you have a good quality sunscreen for when you need extra protection. For the full lowdown on what to look for (and avoid) in a good sunscreen, check out this article.

Step 6: Use Skin-Brightening Ingredients

There’s an endless variety of skincare products on the market for glowy skin, including moisturizers, serums, oils, and more. Some are designed to help the skin look brighter and more even, which also helps the skin look younger.

To help the skin look even more glowy, BioTRUST’s Ageless Bright provides DermalRx SRC to naturally and gently loosen coarse, keratinized cells and help refine and restore skin texture and tone. It also contains Bellis perennis (Daisy) flower, Niacinamide, Brightenyl, B-White, SymWhite, and Gwennis, which all have been shown to help reduce the appearance of age spots and help even out the skin tone for a brighter, more youthful-looking appearance within just weeks with daily use.

Step 7: Consume Plenty of Antioxidant-Rich Foods

Just as what you drink can affect the appearance of your skin, what you eat can also enhance (or diminish) your skin’s glow. Antioxidant-rich foods, especially those rich in polyphenols, like vegetables, fruits, and even nuts and seeds, can help fight free radicals to protect the skin from UV damage and the hyperpigmentation that it causes. Add antioxidant-rich foods to every meal of the day and be rewarded with brighter, fresher, more glowy skin.

Some of the top antioxidant foods to include in your diet include blueberries, grapes, red berries, dark green vegetables, and orange vegetables along with nuts (especially pecans), beans, and green tea. So, eat the rainbow!

Step 8: Add Collagen to Your Daily Beauty Regimen

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that collagen is a crucial component to help slow the signs of aging. After all, as we age, collagen levels naturally decline, explaining (at least in part) why the skin begins to sag and wrinkle.

If you want to look beautiful, radiant, and glowy on the outside, you need a healthy foundation on the inside. And there’s arguably nothing more important than collagen, the most abundant protein in the body, when it comes to a healthy foundation and supporting beautiful, younger-looking skin, nails, and hair.

Because how we eat has changed drastically over the generations (once upon a time, we ate nose to tail, ensuring we consumed collagen in our diets), we no longer eat many sources of this key protein. That’s why supplementing with a collagen protein powder that provides, at a minimum, types I and III is so vital to glowy skin.

Step 9: Get Your Beauty Sleep

This advice is as old as time for good reason. If you want your skin to look its best, you need to be well-rested. If you only get a few hours of shut-eye, circulation is reduced, the muscles in your face don’t have a chance to relax, and you end up looking washed out with raccoon eyes. Not exactly a recipe for glowy skin!

Missed pillow time also leads to higher cortisol levels, which can break down collagen and elastin, two proteins that are vital for full, radiant, healthy-looking skin. In other words, your cellular renewal team works the nightshift, and you want to give it enough time to do the job right.

Take care of your skin (and the rest of your body) by saying no to that Netflix binge and going the F to sleep. Shoot for seven to nine hours a night—but if you’ve been burning that candle on both ends for a while, you may need to pay back some of your sleep debt first by hitting the sack even earlier.

Step 10: Keep Your Hands Off

Many of us are twitchy and unconsciously rub our hands through our hair and over our faces throughout the day. This not only increases our risk of catching a cold, the flu, or whatever other viruses are floating around, but it can also transfer dirt, pollution, and gunk onto the delicate skin on face. If you find that your skin, especially around the chin and jawline, regularly breaks out, you may be unknowingly touching your face throughout the day.

How to Get Glowy Skin by Summer: A Recap

Don’t put off your summer skin routine until the first day of summer. Your skin needs time to re-acclimate from winter/early spring to the long days of summer. And it takes time for those changes to show visible results. Fortunately, within just a few weeks, with the slight summer skincare routine changes, you’ll start noticing how glowy your skin can be. Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Recommended