The atmosphere is one of the most overlooked influences on skin health. Here’s why you may want to start choosing products with your environment in mind.
A skin care routine is usually built around the person using it, not where they’re using it. But after years of seeing the toll that travel or relocating can take on clients’ complexions, esthetician Katelyn Rousselle thinks about skin in the context of environment. “I’d have a client whose skin was perfectly balanced all winter, then they’d go on vacation somewhere tropical and suddenly experience congestion or breakouts,” she says. “Others would arrive after a ski trip with skin that was tight, dehydrated, and irritated, despite using their usual products. I also experienced it myself. Living in different parts of Canada I realized my own skin never behaved the same way in every environment.”
Those observations eventually led her to create Atmosphera, a clean skin care line based on what she calls a climate-curated approach, where your surroundings guide your routine. “When developing Atmosphera, instead of asking, ‘Is this product for dry skin or oily skin?’ I asked, ‘What is the atmosphere asking the skin to handle?’” she says. “That completely changed how we formulated. I selected ingredients that support skin under different climate conditions.”
Dry air, humidity, altitude, pollution, UV exposure, wind, indoor heating, and air conditioning all place different demands on the skin barrier. “Two people with oily skin can need completely different routines if one lives in Phoenix and the other lives in Vancouver,” says Rousselle. “I like to think of skin type as your baseline, but climate is the condition your skin is living in every single day. Both matter.”
It’s also why a regimen that works beautifully at home can suddenly seem ineffective on vacation.
“Go from a humid climate into dry mountain air and your skin loses water much more quickly,” she says. “You may suddenly feel tightness, flaking, or increased sensitivity. Travel somewhere hot and humid, and skin feels heavier or more congested. Your products didn’t necessarily stop working. The environment changed, but your routine didn’t change with it.”
So how should your routine change?
“In arid climates and at higher elevations, I focus on supporting the skin barrier by increasing hydration and adding nourishing lipids,” says Rousselle. “This is also when richer moisturizers and facial oils become important. Many people are surprised that adding a facial oil doesn’t make their skin oily. In the right climate it’s often exactly what the barrier needs.”
Hot, humid destinations call for a different approach. “I recommend lighter hydration with breathable moisturizers. People often assume they should skip moisturizer entirely in humid weather, but dehydrated skin still needs water.”
Coastal vacations bring another mix of challenges. While humidity can help the skin, Rousselle says long days in the sun, wind, and salt water can make it unexpectedly dry. Her advice is to maintain hydration while adding antioxidant protection. For city travel, where pollution is a big concern, she recommends using antioxidants to help defend against environmental stressors and keeping the skin barrier strong so it can better withstand daily exposure.
Skin care has become increasingly personalized over the past decade, with growing attention paid to everything from the microbiome and skin barrier to hormones and stress. Rousselle believes climate belongs in the mix, too. The more we learn about skin, the more interconnected it appears to be with the world around us.