8 Best Skincare Travel Tips To Achieve Healthy Skin

The joys of travelling can also take a toll on our skin cells, body and overall health.  Here are eight best skincare travel tips to achieve healthy skin and travel like a globetrotter. It’s important to be diligent on how we treat ourselves before, during and after our flights to enjoy our destinations.  

Keep Your Hands Off Your Face

It is particularly important to avoid touching your face throughout the day. And especially while travelling, to avoid getting sick and irritating your skin leading to acne breakouts.  If you have to, only touch your face after you wash your hands with soap.

Here are travel tips from dermatologist Erin Welch, MD: To minimize breakouts while you’re on vacation, avoid touching your skin while you travel. “You can pick up any number of unknown bacteria that can result in any number of skin problems after you arrive,” says Welch, a professor of dermatology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. If you’re going to apply makeup while you’re in transit, Welch says use hand sanitizer on your hands first to further protect your skin.   

It is particularly important to avoid touching your face throughout the day. And especially while travelling, to avoid getting sick and irritating your skin leading to acne breakouts.

Germs that threaten your health can be washed away by cleaning your hands and under your fingernails with soap.  It will lower your risk from illness (Source: University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor).

Wear Sunscreen

Even on the plane there is UV ray exposure. Plane rides are the closest you’ll ever get to the sun and therefore it is important to wear sunscreen as you’re more vulnerable to its rays coming through the windows while up in the air.  

Repeat After Us: Reapply your sunscreen with broad spectrum protection every few hours with clean hands. To prevent premature signs of aging and wrinkles caused by UVA rays.

As we already know, UVA rays are the number-one cause of premature aging. And ultraviolet light from the sun, even through clouds and windows, can still break down collagen and elastin allowing your skin to crease and droop. With clean hands, reapply sunscreen every few hours after moisturizing.  Try Soul Story’s light-weight, non-greasy Sun Warrior Sunscreen with SPF 50+ Broad Spectrum protection.

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Drink More Water

Flying dehydrates you—a lot. You probably know that it’s a good idea to drink more water before, during, and after a flight to hydrate your body.  The same holds true for skin cells. Dehydrated cells cause dry skin, and longer-term dehydration can cause fine lines, uneven skin tone and wrinkles. Best way to remember to drink more water is to think that the sky is like a desert since the plane’s air circulation produces very little humidity (roughly 10 to 20%). Drink one cup of water for every hour you are in the air to keep yourself and your skin hydrated (Source: Dr. P Hackett, M.D.)

Skincare Travel Tips: You probably know that it’s a good idea to drink more water before, during, and after a flight to hydrate your body.

Extra Time, Extra Care

For many people, a holiday is a chance to go “au-natural”, to allow the skin to breathe and avoid spending time applying makeup. Whether you fall into this camp or still maintain your normal beauty regimen, the extra time you have is a lovely opportunity to pamper yourself.  For example, apply a face mask (aka sheet mask) during your flight as it will provide extra moisture for your skin. Make sure to apply the face mask on clean skin. After your treatment, lock in your skin moisture by applying your moisturizer and protect your skin by applying healthy sunscreen right away.

Take Your Face Cleanser with You

For overnight flights – pack a travel size gentle cleanser.  Try Soul Story’s gentle pH balanced Purifying Cleansing Foam.

The best quick-fix is to use a gentle face cleanser and wash your face to help you wake-up and feel refreshed.

When you get the “breakfast wake-up”  after being hunched in the same position for hours, there really is no better word than “rough” for how you’re probably feeling. The best quick-fix is to use a gentle face cleanser and wash your face to help you wake-up and feel refreshed.

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Moisturize Your Face and Neck

Since being on a plane will literally suck the hydration from your skin, reapply your moisturizer throughout your flight to help hydrate and nourish your skin and prevent signs of aging skin. “Not only will you get the benefits of the moisturizer itself, but you’ll help seal in the hydration from the water,” Dr. Kraffert explains. “If you wait too long and that water evaporates from your skin, it can take some of your body’s natural moisture with it” (Source: Dr. Kraffert).

Stay Positive

Travelling can be stressful with unexpected delays and long flights can be exhausting.  It’s important to stay positive to help boost your immune system. It is commonly known that there is a connection between chronic mental stress, increased cortisol level and physical illness.  For this very reason, meditation and deep breathing are highly recommended to relieve stress levels. Cortisol helps the body fight inflammation and disease. The constant release of this stress hormone, in people who are already chronically stressed, can result in increased inflammation and a less effective immune system that makes them vulnerable to catching diseases (Source: National Academy of Sciences).

Be Kind to Your Hands

You can further protect your skin from getting dry by remembering to pack hand cream in your carry-on and apply generously after washing your hands while travelling.  Never leave home without a tube of your favourite hand cream in your handbag or purse, and use it throughout your trip, says aesthetician Maxine Siegel. This will not only keep your hands from drying out, says Siegel, but in the event you do need to wash them, it can help counter the effects of harsh commercial-grade soaps found in public restrooms.

Hope you will find these skincare travel tips helpful to achieve healthy skin while globe trotting.  If you want to stay healthy and fit while travelling, check out our previous blog – Stay Healthy & Fit While Traveling