A FEW THOUGHTS ON SUMMER MUST-HAVE PRODUCTS! (Originally from this post!)
If you're travelling, you'll want to make a few bars for easier packing! I never leave the house without a shampoo, conditioner, body scrub, or foot scrub bar. I don't have to shave my legs (I know, envy me) but I like to bring along a shaving bar if I'm doing a lot of swimming! (If the idea of a shaving bar is weird to you, then try a shaving lotion!)
There are many ways you can adapt your products for summer fun. You can add more aloe for apres sun soothing, you can increase the humectants to draw more moisture to your skin, and you can change your oils to increase the linoleic acid oils to help with any barrier damage you might incur! I know I always need products for my feet - a foot lotion, a more intense foot cream, and modified body butter that becomes a foot cream - thanks to my habit of never wearing socks in the summer! And I know I need some serious exfoliation this time of year, and nothing works better for me than an emulsified sugar scrub in a zingy summer scent (Jewelled Citrus and Hello Sweet Thang are always favourites, although I'm really enjoying Melissa's Froot Loops blend - 1 part lemon curd, 1 part cream cheese frosting!)
I love my summer lotions to be light, although sometimes I need something a little more intense, like a body butter, for after swimming and camping fun!
- Adapting a lotion for summer - including more hydrosols and lighter oils.
- Adapting a body butter for the summer.
- My summer time camping fun lotion!
- And another light lotion idea.
IDEAS FOR HOW TO ADAPT YOUR CURRENT PRODUCTS FOR THE SUMMER! (Original post found here.)
You probably change your fragrances for the summer months, so why not tweak your ingredients to suit the climate? (In fact, you probably already do this in adding humectants and the like, so think of it as a possible selling feature if you're in business!) I'm not a fan of hot weather, humid or not, so I like to re-formulate my products to maximize my cooling and moisturizing.
What are my summer needs? I don't really get out into the sun that much as Raymond has vitiligo and we have to be very careful with his sun exposure (although we do use more than our fair share of sun screen!) I don't tan - I go straight to burn, so I want something to soothe my skin when I have been silly enough to spend time outside without sun screen. (In my defence, I am an outreach family counsellor, so I go to people's homes and other places all day long. I might end up going for a long walk and my sun screen might not be effective a few hours after application. I do need to be more vigilant, but I never know what's going to happen!) I get warm very quickly, so I want to feel as cool as possible. And my hair gets very oily very quickly, so I want maximum degreasing power in my shampoo! Keeping these needs in mind, how can I modify my products for maximum summer awesomeness?
Hair products: I notice my hair gets oilier faster in the summer months so I modify my shampoo bars for maximum degreasing. I switch to all DLS mild and Bioterge 804 and leave out the Amphosol CG, and switch from cocoa butter to orange butter for its wonderful degreasing properties. For the conditioner, I skip the intense conditioning - only on the ends - and go for more detangling properties. (I usually have to keep my hair up in the summer, and it gets really really tangled!)
If you're the swimming type, you might find your hair is drier than normal. Tweak your favourite conditioner by adding more BTMS and cetyl alcohol or add more oils.
Body products...
Oil choices: I switch out to lighter oils that are very moisturizing or good for post-sun exposure. I also use a lot more olive oil in the summer - I like the resemblance to human sebum, but the humectant-y qualities are a big bonus! For my summer sugar scrub, I like to go from about half sunflower, half olive oil to about 90% olive oil, again for the moisture retention.
Butter choices: I like to use a lot of aloe butter in my summer body butter. And I generally use fewer butters in my day time moisturizing lotions so they're less occlusive.
Hydrosols (scroll down a bit if you click the link): I like to switch a lot of my water portion to aloe or lavender for anti-inflammation, cell regeneration, and soothing. Oh, and Voyageur just came out with a few more hydrosols - peppermint, chamomile, and rosemary - so you know I'm going to use the peppermint in my new summer cooling spray! The chamomile will be great combined with the lavender in a toner, and the rosemary will offer extra goodness to a liquid shampoo or conditioner!
Humectants (here and here): I live in a humid area, so the more humectants, the better. For moisturizing lotions or sprays, I go for maximum humectancy! I go nuts combining various humectants - hydrovance, honeyquat, glycerin, and sodium lactate in this spray, condition-eze 7, cromoist, and propylene glycol in another. Go wild with humectants! (But remember that over 3% sodium lactate can make you sun sensitive, so it's always a good idea to stay at 2% or lower!)
Hydrolyzed proteins: I like my hydrolyzed proteins, and I include them in everything to begin with, but in the summer I use them as film formers and moisturizers in place of heavier, more occlusive oils or butters. My summer spray uses the proteins in place of oils and I find it very moisturizing.
Body wash: I like to increase the conditioning agents in my body wash to act as a moisturizer throughout the day. So I'll include up to 5% condition-eze 7 or honeyquat, and I increase the proteins in it to about 4%.
For a light lotion suitable for summer, please check this post from April 6: Make a light lotion.
Join me tomorrow for another blast from the past!
Join me tomorrow for another blast from the past!
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