Your Sun Recovery Secret this Summer

Every summer, it seems there’s always one day or one event that can get past your ever-trusty SPF sunscreen.

Maybe it’s not an all-over burn, but every time just part of your skin gets burned, it can have lasting skin damage. Lasting skin damage means premature aging, which is something we always want to combat.

What is sunburn, really?

The skinny on it is that sunburn is a radiation burn - a scalding of living tissue from the harmful effects of UV rays. When it's too much, it turns red and painful. When it's a lesser burn, it can tan.

But it doesn't change the effect of the underlying damage from the UV rays that can turn into skin cancer and premature aging. Even if you tan, and it prevents you from getting more sunburned, what your skin is doing is creating more melanin, which is your skin's pigment protection (aka, natural defense) against overexposure.

Bad news alert - tanning isn't good either. 

Either way, both tanning (melanin production) and sunburning (overexposure) are a response by your body that you're having direct DNA damage from the sun's UV rays. That cell death means your skin changes and the skin is replaced either by peeling or tanning. Not ideal for a long-term ageless look.

That's why we always recommend staying out of the sun for long periods of time and using a sunscreen. Here's a recipe we've heard a lot about for natural sunscreen that blocks some of those damaging UV rays.

SNEAK PEEK: We're going to be talking about how you can use Lavender Water, Rosehip Seed Oil, Jojoba Oil, and Emu Oil to get you on the road to recovery pronto.

Ok, my skin is changing, now what?

The American Academy of Dermatology says that it's common for people to reach for pain relief when they feel the burn, but to not go the local anesthetics route, like benzocaine, which is a leading ingredient in sun recovery gels.

Other studies that topical steroids like hydrocortisone cream might help you feel better, it's not actually better for your skin.

Interestingly enough, studies have shown that your diet before, after, and during can help speed in your recovery with how choked full of antioxidants you are! (Sound familiar? Antioxidants are some of our favs that we talk about all the time.)

If you are doing well on the Vitamin C, E, and A (beta carotene) train, it could help you heal faster and protect you a bit from future exposure as well.

The Natural Way to Treating Sunburn

We know that 60% of what we put onto our skin gets absorbed into our bloodstream, which is why natural is so important. And damaged skin needs those natural vitamins just like our system does to help us recover from the radiation burn.

Cold-pressed oils and natural toners with no chemicals help our body, our largest organ, take up and absorb those benefits naturally. Hitting your skin when it's down with chemicals is counterproductive in the long run and ends up being more agitating.

As always, consult a physician if you have really bad burns or special skin conditions. For us, we believe in the natural route.

3 Steps to Healing for the Long Term

Here is what we recommend for toning down redness, irritation, dryness, and peeling and giving your skin the best chances at healing:

1. Mist Lavender Water to calm splotchy, irritated skin.

2. Massage Rosehip Seed Oil on every night and throughout the day to minimize long-term damage.

3. Use the Oil Cleansing Method to stay away from chemicals while your skin is healing.

Check out the why and how to below for each of these potent but natural solutions.

• Lavender Water - Lavender has been long known for calming inflamed skin and almost immediately taking away redness from irritation. When your skin has been hit with new chemicals (such as a sunscreen you're not used to wearing) or pool chlorine, it's common to look a little more flushed in a skin-cranky way.

Misting with Lavender Water when you see your red splotches show up will give you a peaceful pH balancing calm. Keep it in the fridge over the summer for an extra cooling treat.

• Rosehip Oil - This oil is is one of our skin-healing heroes. Here is a blog about how Rosehip Oil was used in a medical study to restore skin from scarring. Rosehip Seed Oil is one of the most vitamin-dense oils of all the cold-pressed oils, to give you the most saturated naturally-occurring deliveries of vitamins straight to your skin.

It's a heavier oil that your skin will still soak up when damaged, giving it needed moisture and the vitamins it wants to heal at a deeper dermal level.

• Oil Cleansing Method - This popular skin-cleansing method has one goal in mind - keep it natural. Here's a tutorial on how to use the oil cleansing method at home.

Keep oils close when healing! Even when you're washing your face.

TIP: Need an extra dose of sun help? (Especially if it's SUPER painful.)

Massaging Emu Oil onto especially red and sore places will help ease the pain and heal the lower skin levels. Emu Oil's molecular structure allows it to soak into a deeper dermis level to heal scars, ease pain, and limit intense damage. Check out our blog on Emu Oil's healing power here. 

ABOUT LEVEN ROSE

Leven Rose is an all natural beauty company in Colorado Springs, CO making the best in chemical free skincare and hair care products that you can trust. Our bestselling items have been rated #1 on Amazon and featured in GQ and Glamour. Learn more about Leven Rose and our full line of organic beauty products at LevenRose.com. Be sure to follow us on social media for the latest releases.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunburn
https://www.aad.org/public/skin-hair-nails/injured-skin/treating-sunburn