five tips to maintaining healthy skin while traveling

Being a frequent traveler means that I’ve experienced it all when it comes to my skin on the road! I’ve traveled with some of my *best skin ever*, and I’ve also experienced those trips when my skin experienced horrible breakouts or a seriously dull complexion.

Over time, I’ve incorporated a few “best practices” to keep my skin as healthy as it can be — even with a hectic travel schedule. In this post, I’m listing my five favorite tips for keeping your skin glowing and breakout-free while traveling!

 

1. Be prepared to adjust your skincare routine!

Depending on where you’re going, the possible change in climate could impact your skin and change what products you’ll want to use. If I’m going to Texas in the middle of summer, for instance, I’ll leave our Matcha Face Moisturizer at home and simply bring our Golden Elixir or Chia Oil as my moisturizer, and our Rosewater or Raspberry Vinegar Toner. I may bring our Cleansing Oil, but on very light days of makeup, I’ll simply cleanse my face at night with one of our toners on a cotton pad.

On the other hand, if I’m going to the Midwest in the winter, I’ll make sure to bring my dry skin arsenal! I love doing masks while I travel, and if I’m in a dryer / colder climate, I’ll always do a moisturizing mask by mixing our Cleansing Oil with our Chlorophyll Mask. In addition to this mask, I’ll use the MYMATCHA a few extra times (besides just the am and pm normal routine), and I might bring our Facial Repair Serum for the day and Matcha Face Moisturizer for the night.

What you use may be specific to you – it’s necessary to keep learning about your skin to understand how to be flexible and adjust!

 

2. Prep your skin before, during, and after your flight

As we mentioned in a previous post about what happens to your skin on airplanes, taking care of your skin during transit is extremely important! Humidity levels on airplanes can be as little as one HALF of the humidity levels in an average home; this makes for the perfect environment for dry skin build up, a worsening complexion, and breakouts.

We recommend doing a moisturizing mask BEFORE you get on the flight (mix our cleansing oil with our chlorophyll mask), and then touch up with our MYMATCHA, Golden Elixir travel roller, and Travel Rosewater during your flight as needed. I wear very little makeup when I fly, giving myself room to moisturize and moisturize again if I need to while I’m flying! After flying, it never hurts to exfoliate to make sure no dry skin is building up and clogging your pores.

 

3. Make sure the lids are on tight and use a reliable makeup / skincare bag

With all the moving around in your bags, your skincare products are prone to getting shaken around. My favorite bags to store my skincare are Stasher bags. They close firmly and are water proof. I have the large one, which can fit 7-8 cocokind products (any less is no good for me!). You’ll need your skincare products to help you maintain your glow, so protecting them is the first step.

 

4. Don’t skip out on sleep

The best thing you can do for your skin while traveling is to get a good night’s rest. For me, it’s all about the first night. If I don’t adjust quickly, I won’t adjust at all. There are a couple of things I do to help me get a good night’s sleep on Day 1 of travel:

  • I don’t eat for four hours before bed. Eating late and then trying to go to sleep is never a good combination for me when I’m traveling (or ever).
  • I bring ear plugs and eye masks. I use these tools to eliminate external factors that may wake me up too early or in the middle of the night.
  • Magnesium. I take magnesium glycinate or I’ll have a cup of Natural Vitality’s Calm (Travel Packs) about 45 minutes before bed. This helps me relax and let go of the stress from my day.
  • Read a book. Ever since I started committing to reading every night before bed (instead of staring at my phone), my sleep quality has gone up significantly. Less blue light + more relaxing page turning = better sleep….whether I’m at home or traveling.
  • No napping on Day 1 – I just sleep early! Even if I land in a foreign country at 5AM, with only 5 hours of sleep, I try NOT to take a nap during that first day. I’ll keep myself busy and then fall asleep around 8-9pm that night (and that means no eating after 4-5pm for me).

 

5. Have fun but be mindful of your food choices 

I’m a firm believer that diet and lifestyle are 95% of true “skincare”. Over the years, I’ve made conscious decisions to eliminate certain foods from my diet. When I’m on vacation, however, I tend to allow my usual restrictions to fall by the wayside. This is because I am actively and consciously choosing to have these foods without any guilt! Even though I do avoid sugar on a day to day basis, when I’m on vacation or if it’s my birthday (or someone else’s), ummm yeah I’m going to have a piece of cake.

Knowing that sugar, dairy, or gluten-full foods really do affect my skin and lead to acne (I tend to see it within 3-7 days on my forehead and cheeks), I still try to be mindful and eat a ton of GOOD skin foods too! So while I may eat some dairy and sugar-rich dessert, I’ll be eating a ton of greens and omegas before that, and drinking 10-12 cups of water a day! No matter what, however, I always remember to choose my best life from a holistic perspective vs. a life that is revolved around obtaining perfect skin any day! If that means making some decisions that I know will end up on my skin a few days later, I’m ok with that.

We hope you’ve loved these tips! Tag us in your summer skincare travels using the hashtag #cocotravels!