summer skincare

Why You Should Refrigerate Your Skincare

This summer has been hot with a capital "H".

When the weather really sizzles, I always remember to chill my skincare (also when I travel to hot climates). This is important for a couple of reasons.

First, if you use natural skin care products but don't have air-conditioning, the heat can make your cosmetics go bad.

As a skincare formulator, I know this well. When using natural ingredients, strictly regulating our warehouse temperature is key. In the past I have literally torn my hair out as we've trashed thousands of dollars of raw material because increased temperatures have made precious ingredients go rancid or change texture; becoming susceptible to germs or separation.

You may have experienced this if you have poorly ventilated bathrooms (hot showers causing havoc on our medicine cabinets). If this is the case, there are a number of natural ingredients that are more resilient to the heat.

Second, knowing to refrigerate your skincare is to know a great beauty tip. It's a handy little trick that can help soothe inflammation, combat puffiness and keep skin feeling refreshed.

Here are three skincare items to keep in your refrigerator this season. 

1. Floral Water Toners  

Floral waters are also known as hydrosols and, when pure, are the water content extracted from floral petals or plant parts. When making essential oil, the hydrosol is the water that is separated from the essence making the aromatic, concentrated oil.

Floral waters make excellent toners, hydrators and after-sun misters. Each takes on the therapeutic property of the plant for your beauty needs.

Lavender hydrosol is a great antiseptic and oil-balancer while sensitive skins are tempered by rose, chamomile or melissa hydrosols. But pure hydrosols that do not contain added paraben preservatives can go rancid quickly in the heat. Room temperature is all good but anything above 25 degrees is prey to damage.

Furthermore, a cold hydrosol makes for a wonderful, refreshing skin quench. I love keeping a bottle of rose water cooled in the fridge - then spritzing it on after a long, hot day.

This is even better after a day in the sun. Mist yourself with a chilled hydrosol to prevent heat rashes, rosacea flareups and general skin inflammation.

2. Gel Masks  

Refrigeration is also great for our favorite hydrating gel masks. Gel masks are also high in water-content, making them more vulnerable to bacterial growth.

That's why the expiration date on water-rich products will be shorter than oil/ fat-rich ones.

But chilling your masks isn't only to help it keep, it can also help benefit your skin. If your skin is sensitive or is rosacea-prone, cold skincare is even more soothing to your skin during the summertime.  A chilled gel mask helps decrease redness while boosting hydration.

3. Eye Cream  

Ever put ice packs on your eyes? How about spoons from the freezer? Or gel-filled eye pads?

These are all common tips for reducing puffy eyes.

Cold has long been applied to our eye area after late nights, allergy season or a good long cry (the movie Stella Dallas should come with a cool eye compress).

So chill your fav eye cream to make an eye treatment that also combats eye bags.

The moisture and coolness will work synergistically to bring down water-retention and redness quickly!

Image by Mitra Mohammadi via Unsplash

Back to blog