The Apprentice winner Dr Leah reveals how to prepare your skin for a bare-faced summer

Dr Leah offers up her expert tips on how best to strip back before you kick back
Dr. Leah6 April 2017

There’s a quiet revolution taking place in the world of beauty and, as we approach the longer and warmer months, the secret is out – revealing less is more, with the bare-faced look on-trend for summer.

Choosing to go make-up free is really liberating. I am sure I am not alone when it comes to taking delight in the end-of-the-day skincare regime. Removing make-up, cleansing and exfoliating, toning and then luxuriating with a freshly moisturised face is pure joy. I embrace this simple ‘back-to-natural’ process daily.

Our capital city is notoriously unkind to our health and beauty - London's ultra-low emission zone cannot come quickly enough - and while environmental factors cause untold damage to our skin, leading to uneven pigmentation and skin redness, visible light and pollution can lead to an uneven tone, especially in darker skin types. Even during days with cloud cover, the sun can reduce collagen production, resulting in wrinkles and sagging.

With our pores (and lungs) clogged with all this toxic pollution - and our skin suffering as a result - seeking a positive boost to our health and wellbeing with a little summertime ‘downtime’ has enormous appeal. So, while we flick through those glossy beauty pages and surf holiday options online on the daily commute into work, let’s consider how best to strip back in readiness to kick back this summer.

The naked truth is that the ‘barely there’ look is not without a little effort. A tinted lip balm and a natural flush make for a healthy summertime glow but there are a few lifestyle habits we can effortlessly tweak to help improve the chances of looking and feeling confident without make up.

Tinted lip balms - in pictures

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I have already embarked on my schedule to replenish and detox in readiness for the summer. Part of my plan includes enjoying a healthy diet and I factor into my menu of meals a rainbow of colourful and nutritious fruit and vegetables to help improve radiance. Their antioxidants are important for skin cell development and healthy tone and can replenish skin cells to help perfect a ‘peachy’ complexion.

I am also drinking plenty of water to hydrate. Health experts recommend eight glasses of eight ounces of water (roughly two litres) for optimal health benefits, plus it can ensure clear skin and stops it drying out and becoming tight and flaky. To make it easy to keep track, I make a note of the number of glasses I am drinking on my iPhone!

It is also essential to regularly exfoliate. A gentle touch is all that’s needed to slough off that dead skin and expose the new and radiant skin underneath. Look out for ingredients such as lactic acid and enzymes. Bright and balanced is the appearance we are aiming for.

5 best microbead-free exfoliators

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Achieving a natural summer blush may also require a little indulgence to help enhance skin clarity. Once we have the healthy appearance we desire, it’s good to complement it with an inner glow of confidence, helped by a few treatments.

Which is why I recently launched my Bare Faced By Summer treatment plan which blends in-clinic treatments with a regime of home care prescription-strength products available at my Cosmetic Skin Clinics. The 12-week programme is staged to improve the visible signs of sun damage and remove skin blemishes, treat red marks, improve scarring, correct uneven skin tone, and lift the complexion to give a healthy glow which will ensure the confidence to go make-up free this summer.

To begin with, we use facial laser treatments to even out skin tone, reduce redness and pigmentation and follow this with a new Obagi CRX System which is designed to clear and brighten the skin. This complete skin care regimen is specifically formulated to reduce hyper-pigmentation and other essential ingredients to help address the signs of skin ageing caused by photo ageing.

The intense, medical grade transformation includes five appointments at one of my clinics in London or Essex, as well has the home skincare regime. One of the first to embark on it is Lauren Goodger who we are helping to prepare to bare all in a few weeks’ time.

And once summer is here, we must also be aware of the damage the sun can wreak on our skin health – and this doesn’t simply mean sitting in the shade.

Scientists have revealed that hiding from the sun’s harmful rays under a beach umbrella is definitely not sufficient protection. Extended UV exposure runs the risk of skin cancer and we all need to ‘go high’ when it comes to SPF. A recent Norwegian study found that sunscreen with an adequate factor reduces our risk of melanoma by some 33% compared with low factor sunscreen. Therefore, combining multiple sun protection measures is likely to achieve optimal protection and, as the much-used saying goes, prevention is better than cure.

Whether you are light-skinned like me or have a darker skin tone, it is important to wear a minimum of SPF 50 and, for additional protection, why not use a broad spectrum SPF that contains vitamin C and E? These vitamins repair the skin and also increase the effectiveness of your sunscreen – just remember to reapply regularly!

Let’s face it, there is no better way to anticipate the upcoming summer than excitedly preparing for it – especially if you are about to embrace a flawless natural you in twelve weeks’ time.

Please visit our website to find out more about the Dr Leah 12 week transformation and going bare faced by summer

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