4 Superstar Fall Skincare Ingredients + a Free Serum Recipe

Whether you’re getting (or giving) a facial at the spa or at home, fall is a great time to pamper the skin with fall skincare ingredients. While excellent to use year-round, regardless of your climate, these are especially useful in the fall, following summer sun exposure.

Even with sunscreen use, the skin works very hard in the summer to protect itself from damaging UV rays, in addition to environmental factors such as high chlorine exposure and direct skin exposure to outdoor air pollutants. Nature helps the skin recover naturally by providing an abundance of antioxidant rich plants during the fall, such as pumpkin, pomegranate, cranberry, and chrysanthemum. Their extracts and oils help soothe away remaining inflammation and ease the effects of sun damage. These seasonal ingredients also contain enzymes which help to gently encourage healthy cell turnover.

Look for these 4 fall skincare ingredients:

Pumpkin seed oil

While the flesh of pumpkins, as well as other seasonal squashes in the cucurbitae family contains sugars and enzymes which are great for gentle exfoliation, it’s the seeds that contain the real gold–an amino acid called cucurbitacin as well as Vitamins A, C, and E, essential fatty acids, and skin-nourishing minerals like selenium and zinc. Pumpkin seed oil is a wonderful carrier oil to use in natural skincare formulations, and some professional anti-aging formulations contain cucurbitin peptides.

Cranberry

Cranberry seed oil has gotten a lot of press lately both as a firming skin ingredient, and as a carrier oil because of its strong absorptive properties due to its even ratio of Omegas 3, 6, and 9. Cranberry seed oil also contains a unique antioxidant profile of phytosterols, phospholipids, tocotrienols, and tocopherols which make it a great anti-inflammatory and skin-healing ingredient. Cranberry extract is also commonly used both for its gentle enzymatic activity, and because of its antibacterial effects.

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum flowers are beneficial to the skin both as an herbal infusion (tea) or as an extract. This beautiful fall flower is naturally soothing and anti-inflammatory; and is also naturally cooling which helps to dissipate any leftover heat in the skin from the hot summer (or Indian summer). Chrysanthemum extract is high in both phenolic compounds and flavanoids which have shown anti-aging, antioxidant, and cell-protective benefits. Keep in mind that chrysanthemum might cause skin irritation, photosensitivity, or allergic reactions in some people.

Pomegranate

The fruit, peel, and oil pressed from the seeds of pomegranates all have topical skin benefits. Extracts made from the peel and fruit are commonly seen in skincare products, as well as pomegranate seed oil. In addition to similar antioxidant benefits as other berry extracts and seed oils, pomegranate has shown specific benefits in research: it helps protect the natural degradation of collagen proteins in the skin, and also stimulates the fibroblast cells to generate healthy new collagen and elastin. Pomegranate also is excellent for inflamed or wounded skin, as it has strong healing and regenerative properties.

Make a simple serum with these fall skincare ingredients

Watch NAA President, Rachael Pontillo make a luxurious oil serum with some of today’s featured fall skincare ingredients in the video below:

You can get the recipe for this serum and and Jolene’s Fall Detox Salad, plus other must-have diet, mindset, and skincare tips for nourished and hydrated skin this fall and every fall in our free Flawless Fall Skin Guide!