Summer holiday season. Three words that bring a smile to our face. But your complexion? Well, it might not be so happy. Summer can be a busy time, leading to a break in routine, more time outdoors, and a little less commitment to your usual skincare and can quietly take a toll. Suddenly, your skin looks dull, tired, or dehydrated – and faces greater environmental stress from heat, humidity, and pollutants – just when you want it to glow.
All this accelerates moisture loss and can even reactivate pigmentation you thought you’d left behind. Add in late nights, travel, and the occasional celebratory drink, and your skin can quickly become dehydrated, tired, and a long way from luminous.
The good news? With the right routine and a little consistency, it’s easy to keep your skin visibly balanced, resilient, and glowing all summer long – even when you're on the go.
As we build your summer routine, we’ll cover a few things that might surprise you – like why double cleansing matters, why retinol isn’t just for winter, and why pigmentation can return even with diligent sunscreen use.
And, we’ll show you five skincare essentials for summer-ready skin – plus a few smart ways to beat the heat without breaking your glow.
#1 Why Double Cleansing Matters in Summer
Sunscreen is non-negotiable in summer – but it does mean your skin needs a little extra care at night. Add sweat, excess oil, and long days outdoors into the mix, and a single cleanse often isn’t enough to thoroughly remove buildup. Without proper cleansing, pores may become congested, skin looks dull, and your other skincare products might not absorb as effectively.
That’s where the concept of double cleansing comes in: the first step removes the day (sunscreen, makeup, and pollution), while the second ensures the skin is clean, fresh, and visibly balanced and ready for your overnight serums.
What We Recommend: For the first step in your cleansing routine, you can tailor the choice depending on your skin type:
AHA Cream Cleanser is for dry, dehydrated, or sensitive skin types who need gentle exfoliation with added hydration.
Anti-Pollution Cleansing Oil is for those exposed to city environments, or anyone wearing heavier sunscreen and makeup, thanks to its ability to dissolve impurities while supporting the skin barrier.
Once you’ve completed your first cleanse, we recommend Aesthetics Rx® Revitalising Foaming Cleanse, a lightweight, refreshing option – lifting away impurities without stripping the skin, keeping it visibly calm and balanced.
The result? A clear, comfortable complexion that feels fresh, never tight, and is better prepared to absorb serums and moisturisers. Double cleansing may sound like a luxury, but this small extra step is the perfect way to maintain a visibly healthy complexion.
#2 Why Summer Skin Gets Dehydrated (and How to Fix It)
Summer brings more than just long days and warm nights – it also triggers extra stressors for your skin. UV exposure, heat, and air conditioning all compromise the skin’s protective barrier, making it harder to hold onto water. Add in social events, summer cocktails and late nights, and the result is the same: increased moisture loss, leaving skin feeling tight, rough, or lacking its usual glow.
And it’s not just dry or mature skin that feels the effects. Even if your skin tends to be oily or combination, trans epidermal water loss (TEWL) – the natural process where moisture escapes from the skin – can leave it feeling parched beneath the surface. In response, your skin may produce more oil to compensate, which can lead to a confusing mix of shine, dryness, and the occasional breakout.
What We Recommend: The solution isn’t just drinking more water, it’s additional barrier support. Aesthetics Rx® B Serum, rich in niacinamide (Vitamin B3), helps reduce TEWL, visibly calms redness, and helps to rebalance oil flow while supporting the skin’s natural response to UV. Pair it with our Daily Moisturiser Hydration, a lightweight but nourishing cream that locks in moisture without heaviness, making it suitable for all skin types through summer.
Hydration isn’t one-size-fits-all. The key is reinforcing your skin’s defences so it can adapt to seasonal stress – whether you’re naturally dry, oily, or somewhere in between.
#3 Why Retinol Belongs in Your Summer Skincare Routine
There’s a persistent myth that Vitamin A (retinol) should be avoided in summer because it can make your skin more sensitive to the sun. The truth is, your skin actually needs Vitamin A year-round – especially in the warmer months, when UV exposure depletes what's found naturally in your skin. Skipping your Vitamin A Serum, can leave your skin without one of its most important nutrients for visible repair.
Vitamin A helps keep skin functioning at its best: supporting normal cell turnover, refining tone and texture, and assisting the skin to recover from the visible effects of heat and UV. It’s not just about reducing the appearance of fine lines – it’s about maintaining healthy-looking skin every day.
What We Recommend: Aesthetics Rx® Vitamin A Serum delivers a clinically proven form of retinol, combined with six complementary ingredients to visibly support renewal and resilience. It helps smooth and refine the skin’s appearance, improves visible elasticity, and improves the appearance of lines and wrinkles – while also addressing pigmentation and uneven tone that often become more noticeable in summer.
The key takeaway? Stick with your Vitamin A Serum. With consistent nighttime use – and diligent broad-spectrum sunscreen during the day – retinol remains a cornerstone of healthy, visibly radiant skin throughout summer.
#4 Summer Pigmentation: Why It Happens & How to Minimise it.
You wear your broad-spectrum sunscreen every day – and you should – but still notice your skin getting darker, or uneven patches of pigment reappearing as summer goes on. Confusing, right? The truth is, even with diligent SPF, pigmentation can still be triggered.
UV exposure sets off a natural process called the melanogenesis response, where pigment-producing cells (melanocytes) work overtime to defend the skin. But UV isn’t the only culprit – heat and inflammation can also stimulate melanocytes, meaning pigment changes can happen even without a visible burn or tan.
What We Recommend: Consistency with sunscreen is your best defence. The Aesthetics Rx® Face & Body Sunscreen SPF50+ goes beyond everyday protection, combining very high SPF with advanced skin care support.
Face & Body Sunscreen SPF50+ – a lightweight, fast-absorbing chemical formula designed for all skin types, including sensitive. It features patented Activated Vitamin D SPF™ technology, formulated to support the skin’s natural Vitamin D activation while still providing very high protection.
Vitamin B Serum – delivers a daily dose of niacinamide (Vitamin B3), a proven ingredient that helps slow the transfer of melanin within the skin – offering added protection against unwanted pigmentation beyond your sunscreen.
By interrupting pigment reaching the skin’s surface, it helps soften the look of dark spots and keeps skin tone visibly more even. This lightweight serum layers easily under your daily moisturiser and SPF, while reinforcing the skin’s barrier, visibly calming redness, and easing the effects of heat-related inflammation during the warmer months.
Bonus Tip: If you’re struggling with an emergence of pigmentation this summer, our NEW Aesthetics Rx® Everbright Day & Night Cream provides targeted support to visibly brighten and refine uneven tone. Its fast-absorbing gel-cream texture helps restore skin radiance without adding extra weight or shine in the summer heat.
Hyperpigmentation is always easier to prevent than correct – but with the right protection and consistent use of brightening skincare, your skin can stay clear, visibly calm, and luminous all summer long.
#5 Boost Your Summer Glow with Hydration on Demand
Even with the best summer routine, skin sometimes needs extra support – whether it’s after a long flight, a day in the sun, or simply when your complexion feels flat and tired. That’s where a hydrogel sheet mask can make all the difference: a quick, intensive reset for hydration and visible radiance.
Hydrogel technology creates a cooling, gel-like layer that seals against the skin, locking in moisture and enhancing the delivery of active ingredients.
What We Recommend: Aesthetics Rx® Hydrogel Sheet Mask is made in Korea – renowned for its sheet mask expertise – and formulated exclusively for Aesthetics Rx®. This cooling, gel-textured mask creates a moisture-sealing barrier that visibly restores balance, hydration, and comfort to sun-stressed skin.
Infused with calming botanicals and moisture-binding ingredients, it’s your go-to for an instant, radiant reset – especially after sun exposure, long-haul flights, or busy summer days. In just 15 minutes, skin looks visibly plump, refreshed, and ready to glow.
Your Essentials this Summer for A Glow on the Go!
Summer skin when you’re travelling or on holiday doesn’t have to be complicated. With the Aesthetics Rx® five summer essentials – a thorough double cleanse, hydration support, year-round Vitamin A, targeted brightening protection, and an instant hydration boost on demand – you can keep your skin clear, balanced, and visibly radiant all season long.
If you want all your skin essentials in a neat pack for when you’re on the go, we’ve put together two exclusive kits; ready-made collections of seasonal must-haves. Perfectly sized for holidays, gym bags, or simply streamlining your bathroom shelf, they take the guesswork out of summer skincare.
Because glowing skin isn’t about overloading your bathroom cabinet – it’s about the right products, used consistently, wherever summer takes you.
Explore The Overnighter and The Weekender travel sets today and give your skin the hydration, visible balance, and protection it deserves – on the go, and all summer long.
And, if you’d like a more comprehensive guide to summer skin that explores antioxidants, microbiome support and more, you might like on our blog, The Skin Issue: Our Summer Staples: The Aesthetics Rx® Products You Can’t Live Without.