How does exercise affect your skin? And how do you take care of your skin before and after exercising? Working out can make your skin glow but can also cause problems if not treated right. Here are our best tips!

How does exercising affect different types of skin conditions?

There are clear indications that stress negatively affects eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, etc. Exercising has proven to dampen the body’s response to stress which shows that a good workout may be the answer to alleviating the problem. However, if your rosacea is in a flare-up phase you should aim for a calmer workout such as yoga or pilates. Going outside for a walk or bike ride in the fresh air is also good for your skin.

Does exercising regularly help prevent aging?

Yes, it can actually. The increased blood circulation is good for the skin as it provides nutrition and oxygen to the cells while also boosting cell renewal and collagen production. The beauty of it all is that the circulation continues improving even after your session is done which makes the effect long-lasting. Exercising also makes it easier for the body to get rid of impurities and waste products it does not need.

Why do you get pimples from exercising?

When you work out your sweat mixes together with dirt, makeup, sunscreen, and oil, etc. which can easily clog your pores. The bacteria that cause small itchy bumps, thrive and enjoy the darkness within the inside of a pore. It is common with pimples on your back, shoulders, and your face from working out.

How to avoid getting pimples from exercising?

One way is to carefully cleanse your face after exercising. Equally as important is moisture – do not dry out your skin! The goal of cleansing is to remove dirt, sweat, and sebum. A deep cleanse with a clay mask etc. is also good to do from time to time. Our purifying mud mask contains Niacinamide and Zink, two ingredients that effectively treat pimples and enlarged pores. You will also find calming ingredients that work well for irritated and red skin. Another tip if exercising makes your skin break out is to dry off your sweat with a towel. However, the towel must be clean and fresh before every workout.

How to take care of your skin before and after exercising?

Exercise is important, it keeps your body happy and healthy. You obviously want your skin feeling the same way as well, without having to compromise. In order to avoid problems, some simple steps make a big difference. You need products that protect the skin while exercising but also ones that calms, hydrates, and restore balance afterward. Here are some tips:

1. A mild cleanser to remove makeup before exercising and dirt and sweat afterward is step 1. cleansing facial wash is nice but effective, works fast, and comes in a practical tube easy to bring along in your gym bag.
2. Always hydrate after cleansing, both before and after your workout. To avoid the feeling of a lid covering your skin when you start getting warm, we would recommend a lightweight product such as the treatment niacinamide formula. It has a soothing gel-like consistency containing Niacinamide, Hyaluronic Acid, and Salic acid that strengthen the skin barrier and work against small itchy bumps and enlarged pores while clearing your skin. You may also use it after a workout but make sure to cover up with a moisturising cream on top. Moisturising cream gel melts nicely on the skin full of moisture containing Niacinamide.

Should I wear sunscreen while exercising?

Sunscreen is incredibly important when exercising outside to prevent sun damage and aging of the skin. With our hydrating sun protection spf 50, you get a pleasant sweatproof formula that moisturises your skin leaving it nice and soft. Do you jog or ski outside during winter? Sunscreen should be applied even then.

Important!

Do you go to the gym? Be sure to wipe down machines and utensils before using them to avoid getting other people’s bacteria on your skin. You should of course wipe them down after as well, but unfortunately, not everyone does that.

Emma’s exercise tips

Plan your workout schedule the previous week and make sure to stick to your sessions. This will make it hard to find easy excuses. There are plenty of good fitness apps you can download, making it more accessible to fit in a 25-minute session between life and errands. You can find everything from yoga to cardio and they can be quite fun too!

Oops, did you sit with your face towards the sun during your entire lunch break outside? Were you at the beach and forgot your sunscreen at home? It is easy to burn your skin in the sun if you are not careful. So, what do you do when your skin is glowing red and painfully hot? Don’t worry, we will help you!

What should you do if you get sunburned?

First of all, skip your active products until your sunburn has started to ease, and use very mild products to restore, calm and hydrate your skin. It is important to keep up with mild products throughout the day and not only apply them to your morning and evening routine. By carrying around a facial mist in your bag wherever you go, you are always ready for a moisture boost when needed. It also feels amazing and cooling on hot sunburned skin. Our favourite is the Soothing Facial Mist, which calms, hydrates, and strengthens the skin barrier. It contains a mix of Aloe Vera, Glycerin, Hyaluronic Acid, Coconut Extract, and Niacinamide. In our Sensitive Series, you will also find other mild and moisturising products that work well on sunburned skin. A perfect addition to your routine is a soothing serum. Our perfume-free Calming Serum contains Allantoin, Bisabolol, and Centella Asiatica Leaf Extract, known for reducing facial redness, restoring, and balancing irritated skin while also leaving the skin feeling nice and soft. To give your skin the chance to repair itself it is important to stay out of the sun until the redness and irritation is gone. Remember always to wear plenty of sunscreen so you don’t get burned again.

How dangerous is it to get sunburned?

It depends on how severe your burn is. Sun damage can range anywhere from red skin to sun rash and skin changes. First-degree burns only affect the surface of the skin and passes fairly quickly. Signs of a more serious burn is blisters, swelling, stinging sensation, hot red skin, and tenderness. If it cools down within a day or two you do not need to seek medical attention. But remember getting sunburned too many times can cause skin changes, which is something you really want to avoid. Our skin has a great memory, every sunburn it is exposed to is memorized. That is one of the main reasons why hyperpigmentation is hard to get rid of and why they recur. This is also why it is so extremely important to protect your skin with sunscreen.

Is it possible to get tan even when you are burned?

It depends on what skin type you have. It won’t usually get tan if your skin is pale and sensitive. More so the complete opposite, your skin will become more sensitive, red and might even develop sun allergy. If you on the other hand have a stronger pigment that easily tans while out in the sun, your sunburned skin will most likely become tanned skin. That is however something we do not recommend. It is always important to avoid getting sunburned in any case.

How do you reduce the risk of getting sunburned?

There are plenty of ways to avoid sunburn. Apply lots of sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30 before you go outside and reapply throughout the day. Many people don’t apply enough product when it comes to sunscreen. To be on the safe side, use at least half a teaspoon of sunscreen in order to protect your face and décolletage. You can also go by the finger trick which is when you push out a string of sunscreen alongside three of your fingers. Then you are covered. You obviously need more product when it comes to protecting your body, our advice is to use a handful. The best kind of sunscreen is the one you use, that is why it is smart to buy products you enjoy and like. Nice consistency, great ingredients, and a full load of sunscreen is what you get with our entire sunscreen series. Our pleasantly rich and fast absorbent Hydrating Sun Protection SPF 50+ Body or the soothingly light Hydrating Sun Protection SPF 30 Face that can be used as a regular day cream thanks to its skin-nourishing ingredients. Another great tip for reducing your chances of getting burned is hanging out in the shade under a parasol when the sun is at its strongest during the day. Keep an eye on the UV index so you know how strong the sun’s rays are at the moment. The higher the index, the higher the chances are of getting burned.

What causes a sun rash?

We don’t actually know for sure why some get sun rashes and sun allergies, but a strong theory is that you are probably allergic to the UVA rays. The body’s immune system reacts and creates inflammation in the skin. It is not dangerous but certainly not fun since it burns and itches. One way to avoid a sun rash is to always acclimatize the skin slowly when it has not been exposed to the sun in a long time, for instance, during spring or if you go on vacation to a warm and sunny country in the middle of winter. It is extra important with very high SPF during these types of circumstances. Try choosing one with calming ingredients, which all of ours in our Sun Protection Series do.

My skin usually has completely different needs during winter than in summer. A good rule of thumb is generally lots of moisture and a little less oil in my skincare routine. Another good tip I got from a knowledgeable skincare esthetician is that during warmer and sunnier days you should go for lighter skincare products and higher sunscreen!

Here are my best summer products for lively, fresh, and hydrated summer skin.

1. I always wash my face every morning with my Cleansing Facial Wash for a good start.
2. I then pat the Vitamin C10 Booster into my skin to boost it with energy and antioxidants.
3. My Moisturising Serum is a great way to hydrate and prep before following up with the Hydrating Sun Protection SPF 50 Face. A sunscreen with skin-nourishing ingredients that easily absorbs into the skin for fresh and healthy skin.
4. If you are not using sunscreen during the day, try going for a real moisture bomb and apply plenty of Moisturising Intense Cream. If you have oily skin, use our Moisturising Cream Gel which has plenty of hydration and less oil.
5. Hydrate your skin wherever you are throughout the day by bringing with you our Moisturising Facial Mist. You can also store your facial mist in the fridge for a nice, cooling sensation.
6. I will cleanse my face with our Melting Cleansing Balm in the evening. This oil-based cleanser is mild and will leave your skin soft, clean, and moisturised.
7. Lastly, if you feel like properly restoring your skin during the night, try using a repairing night mask. My Repairing Overnight Mask contains calming oat oil, lots of moisture, peptides, and algae extract that works on your skin while you sleep.

Who doesn’t want nice healthy skin with a natural glow? The thing that was once known as peach skin is nowadays called glow, but how do you get that natural freshness and perfect dewy look? For me, it’s the right exfoliator, a great moisturiser, oil, and a couple of tricks along the way that really helps my skin to a perfect glow.

Add these simple steps to your skincare routine.

1. Start by giving your skin a smooth and clean surface with a good exfoliator. The AHA- and BHA acids that are in my Treatment Enzyme Peel get rid of tired and dull skin in one minute by dissolving dead skin cells. You will see the result on your skin right away.
2. Boost your skin every morning with our Vitamin C10 Booster. Massage a small amount of serum onto your face as a first step, preferably under your eyes as well. Vitamin C gives your skin a more even skin tone and a great dose of energy.
3. I make sure to give my skin plenty of moisture by using a serum and a moisturising face cream. If you’ve never used a serum before, I recommend trying my Moisturising Serum, which fits all ages and skin types. The moisturising serum contains medium- and low-molecular hyaluronic acids. When you pat in your face cream, make sure your face gets properly and evenly moisturised. Sometimes, if your skin is very dry, you might need to apply more cream than usual.
4. Lock in your hydration with a couple of drops of Botanical Glow Oil. The skin barrier needs both moisture and oil to both look and feel healthy. Prickly pear oil, avocado oil, and carrot oil protects your skin with antioxidants, hydrates and gives an amazing glow.
5. As a last step, I always cheat a little by adding a luminous highlighter. Apply onto your cheekbones, nose, chin, forehead, and directly under your eyebrows before or after makeup.
6. Don’t forget to take care of your inside as well. With a healthy diet, lots of antioxidants and some exercise, your glow will come naturally, and you will feel great!

Are you vegan, planning on becoming or just curious and want to make more sustainable and conscious choices when shopping beauty products? Then you should go for vegan skincare, a trend that is definitely here to stay. But what does it really mean and how do you know if a product is vegan? We are now going to help you navigate through it all.

What is vegan skincare?

Long story short, the general definition of vegan beauty is to make products that do not contain any animalistic ingredients and also not produced by animals, such as beeswax or propolis. A common misconception, however, is that vegan skincare is completely natural. That is not true. A vegan skincare product can contain both natural and synthetic ingredients.

Is cruelty-free and vegan skincare the same thing?

Not quite, even though they often go hand in hand. Cruelty-free means that the products and ingredients have not been tested on animals, but may for example, still contain beeswax. There are strict rules in the EU regarding testing on animals and how it is not allowed, while in China it is the complete opposite. There, they are laws pushing for animal testing. So, if you buy a product in China, it has most likely been tested on animals. Emma S. has always been a cruelty-free brand.

Is there a vegan certification for skincare?

The answer is yes, but it might be good to know that there is no statutory regulation of what vegan skincare is, nor is there a government agency that controls who receives a certification. The most well-known and recognized organization is the Vegan Society, they provide information on whether a product is vegan and cruelty-free or not.

What is the difference between a vegetarian and vegan face cream?

Vegetarian beauty is not a very popular category, but you could compare it to how a vegetarian vs a vegan chooses their food. A vegetarian does not eat meat but might drink milk and use honey, while a vegan diet excludes all animal products.

Vegan favourites for face and body

At Emma S. you will find Swedish vegan skincare where every ingredient is consciously chosen. On the contrary to other products where beeswax is common in e.g face masks, cleansing balms, and hand creams. We use peptides, oat oil, and shea fruit oil in our Reapiring Overnight Mask. In the Melting Cleansing Balm you will find apricot kernel oil, rapeseed oil, and glycerin. Our Warm Fig & Bergamot Hand Cream contains rosehip oil, rapeseed oil and shea butter. Two common skincare ingredients that can either be synthetically made or come from animals is glycerin and retinol. The type that can be found in our products, e.g our Hydrating Sun Protection SPF 50 and our Retinol Facial Oil, are synthetically made in a lab.

Have brown spots started to appear on your skin? Hyperpigmentation is very common, some get more and some less. We are now going to explain why they appear and give you some of our best tips and advice on how to remove these dark spots.

What is hyperpigmentation?

You might have heard different names for these infamous spots, such as hyperpigmentation, sun spots, pregnancy mask, melasma and age spots. The latter, age spots, received its name due to the spots increasing and turning darker throughout the years. There can be various underlying reasons as to why they appear but what they all have in common is that they always consist of the body’s own pigment. Mainly, they appear on the face, back of the hand, and on the décolleté.

Why do we get hyperpigmentation?

The type of pigment that gives colour to our skin and works as the body’s natural sunscreen is called melanin. It is produced by melanocytes in the epidermis and then starts its journey up towards the surface of the skin. The dark spots come to life when the body produces more melanin than what is needed which causes the pigments to clump together. The overproduction might be the result of too much sun or inflammation in the skin, so-called post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation that is common with acne. You can also get hyperpigmentation from hormones, e.g during pregnancy.

Can I get rid of my hyperpigmentation?

Some disappear on their own, but most spots might need a helping hand to fade away. This requires patience since they don’t disappear in a week’s time. With the right products in your skincare routine, it is very much possible to fade hyperpigmentation while also evening out your skin tone. A small improvement can make a big difference.

Prevent hyperpigmentation!

The best way to prevent hyperpigmentation is sunscreen. It is also important to keep using sunscreen even if you have gotten rid of the spots. The skin has an incredible memory and hyperpigmentation will come back faster if you start skipping your Spf while out in the sun. That is why it’s a good idea to combine sunscreen with a sunhat or a cap and to avoid the sun when it’s at its strongest during the day. A comfortable, hydrating, and safe sunscreen is our hydrating sun protection that offers both Spf 30 and Spf 50. A bonus is that they also smell amazing.

What is the best skincare routine against hyperpigmentation?

An important key is exfoliation. When peeling, you get rid of dead skin cells and kickstart the cell renewal process. It speeds up the whole process. Another important factor is including Vitamin C and Niacinamide in your routine. They have a proven effect when it comes to fading hyperpigmentation. They also smooth your skin tone and also helps rebuild your skin’s structure and collagen production. Vitamin C is in our vitamin C 10 booster and is a good option to use in the morning due to its antioxidants that will boost your sunscreen. Niacinamide from our treatment niacinamide formula can be used in your morning- and night routine under your face cream. During the day it is good to use a day cream containing Spf. At Emma S. you get Spf 15 in the ageless day cream, ultimate day cream and moisturising day cream.

Is hyperpigmentation dangerous?

In most cases, they are completely safe. Are you worried? Google the ABCDE method, it is an easy way to check your spots. If you are uncertain about a spot – contact a skin doctor!

A recurring question we get is if you need to use all the products from the same series to get visible results. The answer to that is both yes and no. Yes, because products, such as day creams, night creams, serums, and eye creams from the same skincare series usually contain specific active ingredients that work well together, but that doesn’t mean that it is dangerous or wrong to combine different series and brands. Take a look at our ageless series for example. It is a series we recommend as a first series when the skin starts maturing. The Ageless series contains a unique active ingredient called Spilantes Acmella. This ingredient works specifically on strengthening and nourishing the skin. We also included retinol in the serum and night cream, but in a slightly smaller dose than in the Ultimate series.

Our ultimate series was developed keeping in mind what actually happens with your skin while going through menopause. Your skin becomes drier, thinner, and recovers much more slowly than before, which is why we have chosen other active ingredients than in the ageless series. A unique bioactive ingredient in the ultimate series is an extract from the Ayurvedic herb Getania which helps build thickness to the skin from within, to fill in fine lines and wrinkles. Getania also has a positive effect on vertical wrinkles around the lips, which tends to be more prominent on more mature skin. We also have a somewhat higher amount of retinol in the Ultimate serum and night cream.

So, to answer the question, there are many benefits to using products from the same series, but it is also absolutely fine to mix. Perhaps some people prefer a more active eye cream while using hydrating products from a different series for the rest of the face. Whereas somebody else might want the ultimate night cream with retinol in the evening and his or her favourite ageless day cream in the morning.

However, what you should be aware of is if you use products from different skincare brands, is the content of active ingredients you apply to your face. Especially when it comes to acids, vitamin c, or retinol since there’s a risk you might be using too much.

Why do we need sunscreen?

We need sunscreen to protect ourselves against the sun’s harmful rays. Without sunblock it is easy to burn your skin, get pigmentations, age in advance or in the worst case, suffer from skin cancer. That is why it is so extremely important to use sunscreen but to also avoid sunbathing in the middle of the day when the sun is at its strongest.

Pigmentations from sunbathing

When the production of the skin’s pigment melanin rises because of age etc., it creates dark spots (melasma), age spots and freckles on your face, on your hands, and on your body. Mostly it is due to sunbathing, ageing, and genetic factors. To avoid these spots, you should always use a high protection SPF factor and preferably a hat that protects your head and face.

“My own personal love for the sun has started to reveal itself more and more lately through dark spots showing up on my face, on my neck and around my cleavage. In hindsight, I simply should not have sunbathed as much as I did when I was younger and of course used sunscreen.” – Emma

Skin cancer rises in Sweden

The biggest risk factor there is for malignant melanoma and other types of skin cancers are ultraviolet (UV) radiation, mainly from the sun. The number of skin cancer cases in Sweden has increased by almost 60% in the last 10 years. Something important to keep in mind and be aware of is that it isn’t just active sunbathing that damages the skin but to also use sunscreen in the form of clothes and SPF when you are working in the garden or taking a walk.

https://www.stralsakerhetsmyndigheten.se/press/nyheter/2021/nara-60-procentig-okning-av-hudcancer-i-sverige/

How often and how much Sunscreen is needed?

Use plenty of sunscreen and make sure to reapply throughout the day. They say you should use half a teaspoon of SPF on your face, but it’s okay to apply in two layers if it feels too sticky all at once. It is sometimes tricky to reapply SPF on your face if you use makeup, in that case, there are plenty of good SPF mists that get the job done.

Above all, make sure to find a sunscreen that works for you and your skin type. There are a lot of different types of sunscreen formulas – creams, mists and mousses. Once you find your favourite, it should feel like an easy addition to your normal skincare routine.

Sunscreen in your skincare routine

To add SPF to your skincare routine as easily as possible, choose a day cream with SPF or add SPF as the last step in your routine. Do not forget to clean your face thoroughly in the evening, preferably twice, to get rid of dirt, sweat and sunscreen properly.

It might feel a little bit overwhelming when trying to figure out how to use and combine all the skincare products in your bathroom cabinet. Even more so with products that are not just your regular day and night creams. All our serums are included in one of our skincare series Moisturising, Ageless and Ultimate. Finding the right serum depends on your age and skin type. Our boosters are flexible and easy to combine with your chosen skincare series. We get a lot of questions from our customers on how to use our serums and boosters, so we thought it would be a good idea to go through some of the most popular ones.