Skincare Travel Essentials: What You Should Pack

Do you have vacation plans this summer? Are you ready to jet to sandy beaches and soak up the sun? The summer months are an excellent time to plan getaways, whether it’s flying to the closest beach town or to some far-flung locale. We all like to daydream about fruity cocktails and lounging by the ocean! Before you get to enjoy the vacation though, you have to make it through the flight. Airplanes can take more of a toll on your skin then you realize, which is why I have collected the travel essentials every girl needs before takeoff.

Sunscreen

I know what you’re thinking: “I need sunscreen in an airplane, too?!”

As an experienced aesthetician who has seen the damaging effect of UV rays on skin, I highly recommend always wearing sunscreen. It never hurts to wear sunscreen, and it can make a world of difference for your skin.

UVA and UVB rays have an incredibly wide and harmful effect on the skin which can include burns, age spots, dehydration, hyperpigmentation, and free radical damage that leads to wrinkles and sagging skin. All of these effects can keep you from a glowing complexion on your vacation.

The Risk of UV Exposure

Sun rays can do more than enhance signs of aging. They can also lead to skin cancer if you’re not careful to protect your complexion.

According to the American Cancer Society, people with fair skin, people who vacation in tropical climates, and people who work indoors all week and get intense sun exposure on the weekends are all at risk for skin cancer.

Many of us work in offices and save up our vacation time to get out to the beach — which is why sunscreen is one of my top travel essentials. Remember that anyone of any skin tone can get skin cancer, even if they don’t get a sunburn.

You might not realize you need sunscreen inside an airplane. However, because planes fly so high in the sky (typically 31,000 to 38,000 feet), they are much closer to the sun and thus you have a higher exposure to UV rays. If you are sitting by the window, you won’t feel the heat of the sun like when you’re laying by the pool, but the UV rays will reach you!

That’s why it’s important to wear a broad spectrum sunscreen that will protect from UVA and UVB rays like HD Beauty Defend. This product will shield your skin from the strong UV rays, prevent skin damage, and work to correct existing damage. A powerful blend of zinc oxide, anti-aging peptides, and aloe vera, this is one of the travel essentials I always wear on the plane!

It also works as a tinted moisturizer, so it can be worn as a lightweight foundation while you travel. Get ultimate skin protection with the added benefits of hydration, skin-firming peptides, and tinted moisturizer.

Eye Cream

Eye cream is one of my staples on or off a plane, but it is especially important while traveling. When we think about vacation, we often imagine the end result: laying on the beach in our bikinis without a care in the world. But there’s often a grueling day of travel to get there. Waking up early, standing in line at the airport, terrible airplane food, the recycled air in the airplane cabin, deboarding and waiting for luggage, and struggling to find the hotel and check-in.

I’m exhausted just thinking about it! After a long day like that, it’s easy to see how dark bags could appear under your eyes and stay there for the duration of your trip. Lack of sleep, stress, and dehydration can lead to dark undereye circles and puffy skin around the eyes.

Fortunately, there is something you can do about it. Putting on HD Reverse Lifting Eye Cream before you even get on the plane can help keep the eye bags away. This dynamic product visibly smooths and firms the contour of your eyes while minimizing the appearance of dark circles and puffiness.  

Puffy eyes are due to fluid buildup caused by poor drainage, fragile capillaries, and loss of elasticity. The fluid then leaks into surrounding tissues and produces bags. The active peptide complex targets the conditions that lead to puffy eyes by promoting drainage and helping to reduce capillary fragility and irritation while visibly increasing skin firmness and elasticity while improving the appearance of dark circles.  

Don’t arrive on vacation looking tired and drained. Wear HD Reverse on the plane to keep the skin around your eyes smooth, even-toned, and looking youthful.

Intensive Moisturizer

One of the reasons airlines started handing out drinks was because there was a serious concern over people getting dehydrated on the airplane.

The air inside the cabin is recycled and about half the humidity level we’re used to. That means that even on short flights we can start to get very thirsty and our skin can start seeing a dramatic loss of moisture.

The low humidity in the recycled cabin air can dehydrate skin, leaving you with flakiness, dullness, and dry patches. The best thing to do to combat the dryness? Try wearing an intensive moisturizer like the HD Youth Oxygen Mask on the plane.

This hydrating mask can be worn while you are on the plane and rinsed off either in-flight or when the flight is over. The mask contains glycerin, which helps the skin’s efficiency in pulling moisture from the air and attracting water to the skin. This is especially important in a low humidity environment.

HD Youth also contains Vitacell®, a  botanical yeast complex that assists the skin with oxygen intake. By intaking more oxygen, your complexion will become firmer, brighter, and more youthful-looking.

O2 is Good for Your Skin

You might be wondering about an oxygen mask since we have discussed the damage that oxygen free radicals can have on your complexion. I want to be clear that oxygen free radicals are a different molecule completely.

Oxygen free radicals represent three oxygen atoms that come together to form an unstable molecule which in chemistry is represented as O3. The O3 can lead to many destructive changes in cells including cell aging and skin cancer. When I talk about skin oxidizing, that is a specific term used by aestheticians and skincare professionals to refer to O3 damage.

The oxygen in the mask is O2, which we breathe constantly and need to live. In fact, the HD Youth helps reduce the effects of skin oxidation, dramatically improving skin tone and elasticity. It also adds a blast of hydration to the skin, visibly plumping and lifting your complexion.

Be sure to include this among your travel essentials so that you can have smooth, soft, and radiant skin when you land! It is also helpful to wear after the flight to continue the hydrating effect.

Don’t let skin issues plague your complexion before you’ve even started your vacation. Bring these travel essentials with you on the plane and land with a glowing complexion!