Most people assume summer skin problems come from forgetting SPF, switching products too fast, or something environmental like humidity or sweat. Those things can be factors. But the most common cause of summer skin reactivity is the routine you’ve been faithfully following all year.

When the skin barrier is compromised — stripped by acids, depleted by stress, dried out by environment, or quietly irritated by ingredients it was never suited for — it becomes the dry sponge. Tight, red, reactive, flat. It stings at things it used to tolerate. It flushes at temperatures it handled before. It reacts, seemingly, to everything.