Cool for the summer: ingredients to look out for in your summer skincare

Summer, according to me, is the most challenging season of the year. In Mumbai, you have two seasons practically speaking--summer and monsoon. You can no longer feel the winter cold possibly because of climate change, so skincare is geared more towards being sun-proof and summer-friendly.

One of the best things to do to your skin topically is to hydrate it and keep it cool. Mists are a great way to do that. And if you keep yours in the fridge, even better! Another way to keep the skin cool is to use products that contain cooling ingredients, such as peppermint, eucalyptus, cucumber, green tea, aloe vera, bamboo, rose and possibly many others. The products can be anything from cooling masks to hydrating toner mists. Here are some of my favourite cooling skincare products:

1) Fresh Spa Imperial Caviar -30 degree Cooling Mask
This hybrid between a night cream and a face mask is my holy grail skincare product. It contains arctic peppermint oil, which gives an instant cooling and toning effect together with other ingredients such as caviar and snow cladonia found in the most pristine Russian landscapes. 

2) Aroma Magic Activated Bamboo Charcoal Mask
This face mask is loaded with Himalayan clay and bamboo charcoal powder along with cooling ingredients such as panthenol, red sandalwood and aloe. Lately, this has become my favourite skincare product but for a very different purpose. Watch this space to know what I use it for. :)

3) Aloe Derma After Sun Repairing Mask
This aloe-enriched gel face mask is uber cooling, especially when you leave it in the fridge and use it after you return home from a hot, humid day. It also contains other cooling super ingredients such as mint, chamomile and purslane, a herb that is also used in salads! Sadly, I don't think Aloe Derma sells this mask anymore. I tried finding an active link for it but couldn't come up with anything.

4) Leejiham Tea Tree Toner Mist
Leejiham is a renowned Korean skincare brand and this spray mist is my first purchase from them. This power-packed mist contains 70 per cent tea tree extract along with other skincare goodies like niacinamide, witch hazel, cucumber, aloe, grapefruit extract, orange fruit extract, apple fruit extract, lemon fruit extract and lime fruit extract. A skincare cocktail, in short!

5) Whamisa Organic Flowers Eye Essence
Whamisa is another well-respected Korean skincare brand. Their packaging is drool-worthy but what's most exciting is that they carry some really well-formulated products that work. I had never used eye cream in my life so buying this was a gamble. I did not know what to expect. However, in the first use itself, I noticed how the eye cream left my eye area feeling cool and tingly, not in a menthol sort of way but in a very subtle and refreshing way, thanks to cooling ingredients like aloe and green tea.


More information about cooling skincare ingredients can be found here.