Skincare and haircare routines differ from a country to another. Does this sound a little strange? Let me break it down for you. Yes, it’s obvious that you need to consider factors like your skin type, skin problems, your food and daily habits. However, if you consider all these factors without paying attention to the weather, then you’re doing it wrong! The climate in Europe in general and the UK in specific is cold and less humid compared to Asia. While in Asia, it is hot most of the year with high levels of humidity. This definitely would affect your skin in a way that cannot be ignored!
Skincare Essentials for Asians in the UK
Let’s begin with the very first thing you notice the moment you land in the UK. Your skin will beg you to heavily moisturize it. On the contrast of what you get used to in Asia, which is light moisturizers with a light texture as well. Here you need heavy moisturizers with a high level of hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid, glycerin, ceramides and squalane. Although COSRX is a Korean brand, but they came up with a game-changer product that made it harder on big brands to compete with. I think you already know what I’m talking about. It’s the Advanced Snail 92 All in one Cream with 4.4/5 rating from over 39,000 users only on Amazon UK. To be honest, some people don’t like the texture since it’s heavy with long lasting formula, but HELLO you’re in the UK. You do need that deep and intense hydration.
The importance of intense hydration made me jump to the last step of the skincare routine. So, let’s step back and start from the beginning. For face cleansers, unlike moisturizers, you need to look for light formula with hydrating ingredients. In Asia, humidity makes your skin excess more oils and strong oil-control cleansers with salicylic acid and niacinamide are much needed. In the UK, you must choose hydrating cleansers like CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser and Hydro Boost Water Gel Cleanser by Neutrogena.
Now let’s talk about the little bottles with precious treasures. Serums are essential in your daily routine, but choosing the right serums is not an easy task. For Asians moving to the UK, you have to use fewer exfoliating products. As the weather already dries your skin and strong exfoliating products will cause irritation or inflammation.
When it comes to using serums, there are some essential ingredients that no matter where you live and how the weather is like, you should never skip them if you dream of glazed skin. For example, vitamin C serums, retinol and niacinamide. While in the UK, you have to look for vitamin C serums combined with hyaluronic acid and here COSRX bloomed again with The Vitamin C 23. Retinol could be a bit complicated to find one that can work on both exfoliating and hydrating your skin at once, as retinol on it own is a derivative of vitamin E and it’s meant to be exfoliator. CeraVe did great job on this and came up with Anti-Aging Retinol Serum. Save the best for last as they say, Glow Recipe has one of the best niacinamide serums in the skincare market. It’s one of the fast-selling products in the history of the company Niacinamide Dew Drops. To conclude and jump into the haircare, as an Asian living in the UK, you have to choose your daily routine carefully. You still can choose your favourite ingredients wither vitamin C, niacinamide, peptide or anything else, but you have to consider the formula as all.
Haircare Essentials for Asians in the UK
No need to start this point with a long introduction, as you now have a clear idea about the differences in climates in the UK and Asia. When it comes to haircare, again the weather in the UK dries your hair. Yet, it’s not the only one reason that makes your hair dry and dehydrated. It’s the type of water as well! The type of water here in the UK is hard water, which contains high levels of minerals like magnesium and calcium. Hard water leads to hair damages in so many ways. It causes hair loss due to the dryness, not only your hair, but your scalp as well, which is even worse. minerals in hard water cause limescale deposits on the hair, which causes scalp infections and long-term damage. Other hair damages are expected like hair breakage, split ends, thinning, tangles, dullness and fizziness.
In order to avoid these damages, you must exfoliate your scalp once a week using light exfoliating shampoos like Scalp Revival Exfoliator Charcoal Shampoo by Briogeo or Scalp Relief Shampoo by REDKEN. Moving to super hydrating shampoos and conditioners to save your hair from hard water damages, I would like to introduce you to the star of the day Pureology Hydrate. Buy it now and thank me tomorrow! It always receives high-rating reviews and it’s worth it. As it’s formulated not only for dry hair, but color treated hair as it’s sulphate free and gentle on scalp. For hydrating conditioners, there is one that most of people with curly, wavy or coils hair know very well, which is Cantu Hydrating Cream Conditioner. The second one is for all types of hair and it’s known for its hydrating formula that is infused with argan oil, vitamins A and E and red algae. I’m talking about Moroccanoil Hydrating Conditioner which detangles, conditions and balance your dehydrated hair.
Aside from haircare products, there is one key element to enable all the mentioned products do the magic. Shower filters will help you protecting your hair from hard water, because by the end of the day, you will rinse your hair with hard water to remove the shampoo and conditioner that meant to fix your hair! There are a lot of options to choose from and here what I recommend In-Line Shower Filter by Philips Shower Head High Pressure by StoneStream.
This article is not meant to scare you, but to guide you on how to enjoy living in the UK with flawless skin and healthy hair. I mean skin and hair reflect us and once they’re happy, we will be happy too!
