Moisturizer is essential and applying sunscreen should be second nature by now, but there’s plenty more you can do for your skin to effectively recover from sun exposure. There’s a difference between a golden glow and looking cooked, and ultimately, you’re the one who’s going to feel it: damaged skin can often be painted over with make up, but cracks, peels and burns don’t fade without a fight, and it’s best to head them off before they occur. Fortunately, there's lots more to after-sun care now than just dipping into a vat of aloe vera. Depending on how your skin reacts to sun exposure, we’ve listed 10 face masks that will keep your skin supple throughout summer. Remember that overworking your skin can be just as dangerous as under-protecting it—find your ideal fix below, and enjoy the rest of your summer with healthy, well-loved skin.
Sheet up
Sheet masks are your best after-sun friends for when you’re travelling, or even when the day takes an unexpected turn. It isn’t uncommon for beauty enthusiasts to travel with sets of sheet masks in both their luggage and carry-on: the sheet mask is the perfect pick-me-up to turn midday naps, lengthy transit journeys and lounges under oversized umbrellas into bona fide recovery sessions. Oily skin havers unable to find the perfect nourishment can rejoice, because TonyMoly’s I’m Real Tea Tree Face Mask ($5) balances the acidic intensity of tea tree with a more caring base of banana extracts to deliver a treatment that’s effectively soothing while still lightly clarifying. Meanwhile, paler, drier or delicate skin needs consistent sheet masks to ensure that moisture isn’t leaking out to the air without replenishment. For cases like that, it’s best to invest in a galley of emergency sheet masks which plump up skin with hyper-nutritious ingredients, not unlike the five that come in Too Cool For School’s Egg Cream Sheet Mask set ($30), which tends to dryness and enlarged pores with fatty egg yolk and protein-heavy egg white extracts.
