A Note from Jess
Hi friend,
Spring in Canada is a liar. One day I'm scraping frost off the windshield, the next I'm squinting into sun that feels like it's personally targeting me. My skin, like yours I'm sure, spends these weeks genuinely confused.
Here's the thing nobody tells you: spring is not a recovery season for your skin. It's a vulnerability season. Your barrier is still depleted from months of indoor heating and cold wind. UV is ramping up fast. And your skin has had zero time to build any adaptation to it. Then summer piles on heat, humidity, sweat, and ozone, and asks the routine that worked perfectly in January to somehow keep up.
It doesn't. That's what this guide is for.
What follows is what I've figured out after fifteen years of formulating for Canadian weather and watching my own skin navigate all of it. Take what's useful. Your skin is the expert here. I'm just taking notes from the field.
Jess
What's Actually Happening To Your Face Right Now
Several things shift at once, and they compound in ways that are genuinely unfair:
Your barrier is still hung over from winter. Months of forced air heating dropped your indoor humidity below 20%, which is drier than most deserts. Your lipids and ceramides are depleted. This is absolutely not the moment to pile on actives.
UV is climbing faster than you think. March and April UV indexes can match September's. Your skin hasn't seen real sun in months and has exactly zero tolerance built up. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, up to 90% of visible skin changes commonly attributed to aging come from UV exposure. Ninety percent. Let that sink in.
Sebum production increases with temperature. This is just biology. Warmer weather means more oil, which means products that felt right in February suddenly feel like pudding on your face and you start breaking out in places you haven't broken out since high school.
Ground-level ozone gets worse. Ozone reacts with the sebum on your skin's surface and depletes your natural vitamin C and vitamin E reserves. This is one of the sneakier drivers of summer dullness and uneven tone, and nobody talks about it.
Humidity changes how moisture moves. Paradoxically, high humidity can make skin feel dehydrated, because the moisture gradient that normally pulls water up through your skin stops working properly. This is why you can feel sticky on the outside and tight underneath at the same time. You're not imagining it.
None of this is cause for panic. It's cause for a plan.
The Three Things That Actually Matter
Barrier first. Everything else second.
If you try to jump straight into summer with exfoliants, acids, and actives, you will spend July with a compromised barrier and wonder what happened. Spend the first few weeks of warm weather making sure your skin is calm, hydrated, and intact. That is the entire job. Not glamorous. Just correct.
Lighter textures, same amount of moisture.
There's a difference between dialing back heavy occlusives (yes) and skipping hydration entirely (absolutely not). Humid air does not hydrate your skin for you, no matter what the internet insists. Shift toward misting, humectants, and faster-absorbing oils. Keep the hydration. Change the delivery.
SPF or nothing.
I know. I'm sorry. But this is the one that actually matters. Daily broad spectrum, minimum SPF 30, reapplied if you're outside. Everything else in this guide is a supporting actor. SPF is the star. If you only take one thing from this guide, take that.
Summer Essentials Bundle
Your Spring + Summer Routine
MORNING
Cleanse (maybe). If you did a proper job last night, a splash of cool water is genuinely enough. If you went to bed sweaty or your skin is oily when you wake up, reach for Eclipse. The fruit enzymes clear anything lingering without stripping the barrier you've been trying to protect.
Mist. Here's where your routine shifts with the season. For acne-prone skin, city dwellers, humid climates, or anyone whose skin runs oilier in summer: Petrichor. Zinc PCA will keep sebum in check without dehydration and the antioxidant content (including Vitamin C and resveratrol) is exactly what your skin needs as the weather warms up. The mist format means hydration without weight.
For skin that still runs dry or reactive: Equinox stays in rotation year-round.
A free trick worth knowing: apply your mist or gel serum while your skin is still damp from cleansing, not after it's fully dried. Wet skin application can increase hydration by up to 40% compared to applying on dry skin. This is genuinely the highest-impact, zero-cost change you can make to your routine this season. The humectants in your mist or gel serum have more water to bind to, and subsequent products layer more effectively on top. Don't wait. Mist within about 60 seconds of cleansing, while your skin still feels slightly cool and damp to the touch.
Oil serum. City is formulated exactly for these months. The tetra-hexadecyl ascorbate (a stable, non-irritating form of vitamin C) brightens gradually, supports collagen, and has the bonus of making your sunscreen work harder. Unlike L-ascorbic acid, it won't make your skin feel like it's covered in fire ants, and it plays well with everything else in your routine. One pump, pressed into damp skin.
SPF. Generously. Reapply every two hours outdoors. The best sunscreen is the one you'll actually wear every single day, so find one you don't hate.
EVENING
First cleanse. If you wore SPF (and I really hope you did), you need an oil-based cleanser. Aurora (or Boreal if you want a lighter balm) melts it off while the kokum, mango, and cocoa butters feed your barrier on the way down. SPF is designed to cling to skin. Water alone won't get it off. This isn't optional.
Second cleanse. Eclipse handles whatever's left. Gentle enough for nightly use, effective enough to actually do something.
Wore no SPF or makeup? Eclipse alone is fine.
Mist. Same choice as morning. Petrichor for oily/acne-prone, Equinox for dry/sensitive.
Treatment (sometimes). Summer evenings are when I dial back, not pile on. A few drops of Midnight on genuinely dry nights. On humid nights when my skin is happy, I'll do a second mist of Equinox and call it done. Not every night needs to be a production. Sometimes doing less is the entire point.
The Do's and Don'ts
Do wear SPF every day. Even cloudy ones. Even when you're inside near windows. Yes, really.
Don't over-exfoliate because you're sweating more. Sweat is not dirt.
Do drink more water than you think you need. Internal hydration affects how your skin behaves.
Don't start three new products at once because the season changed. That's a great way to not know what's working.
Do mist throughout the day if you work in air conditioning. AC is more dehydrating than people realize, and your 3pm skin will thank you.
Don't chase glass skin with a twelve-step routine in humid weather. You will get congested. You will blame me.
Do reapply SPF. I know. I'm saying it again because it's that important.
Don't panic if your skin is weird for a couple of weeks in late April or May. Transitions are transitions. Let your face do its thing.
Do actually pay attention to what your skin is telling you. That's the whole point of this guide. Of every guide, really.
About Retinol
Do not start a new retinol in June. Please. I'm begging.
If you've been using one through winter and your skin tolerates it, keep going, but watch for new sensitivity as UV climbs. If you've been thinking about trying one, wait until October. Your barrier is already doing more work in summer, and adding forced cellular turnover on top of UV stress is how people end up with hyperpigmentation, a wrecked barrier, or both.
Spring and summer are not the seasons to push your skin. They're the seasons to protect it. October will still be there.
Travel Season is Coming
Summer is also travel season, which means time zones, airplane air, hotel pillowcases, and a routine you almost certainly didn't pack right.
Here's what I actually do: bring small sizes of the non-negotiables (Aurora, Eclipse, Equinox or Petrichor, City), put SPF in my carry-on, skip anything experimental. Airplanes expose you to significantly more UV than most people realize, especially in window seats. That long-haul flight is quietly aging you while you watch a mediocre movie.
If your skin reacts to travel (most skin does), don't treat the reaction aggressively. Strip back. Mist more. Let your barrier recover before you introduce anything active. Your face is not the place to power through.
When Your Skin Starts Acting Up
A quick field guide to what your skin is trying to tell you:
Tight after cleansing? Your cleanser is too harsh for the season, or you're over-doing it. Pull back.
New breakouts in weird places? Products are too heavy for current humidity. Lighten textures.
Redness that won't calm down? Barrier issue. Stop all actives for a week. Mist, oil, SPF. That's it. I mean it.
Dullness despite the sun? Could be buildup, could be dehydration, could be ozone eating your antioxidants for breakfast. Try Eclipse as a mask once a week (leave on for 5-10 minutes), and layer Petrichor or Equinox more generously.
Sudden reactions to products you've used forever? Your skin is waving a small white flag. Listen.
The Short Version
If you skimmed this whole guide and just want the cheat sheet:
- Eclipse for gentle enzyme cleansing
- Petrichor or Equinox for hydration (depending on your skin)
- City for daytime protection and gentle brightening
- Aurora for evening SPF and makeup removal
- Your favorite broad spectrum SPF
Five products. That's plenty. For most people, for most of the time.
One last thing...
The plants along the riverbank near my studio don't bloom harder in summer by trying to be different plants. They bloom by doing what they already do, adapted to the conditions in front of them. Your skin works the same way. It already knows how to handle heat and humidity and sun. Your job is to give it the right tools and then get out of its way.
If you have questions, reply to any of my emails. I read everything, and I'll tell you the truth, even when the truth is "you don't need another product."
Take care of yourselves out there this season.
Jess
Stark is handmade in small batches near the Ottawa River. Every product in this guide was formulated by me personally.
Citations
Skin Cancer Foundation. "Photoaging: What You Need to Know." skincancer.org
Krutmann, J., et al. (2017). The skin aging exposome. Journal of Dermatological Science, 85(3), 152-161.
Valacchi, G., et al. (2012). Cutaneous responses to environmental stressors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1271(1), 75-81.
Lab Muffin Beauty Science. "The Science of Sunscreen Reapplication." labmuffin.com
Proksch, E., et al. (2008). The skin: an indispensable barrier. Experimental Dermatology, 17(12), 1063-1072.
Draelos, Z. D. (2018). The science behind skin care: Moisturizers. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 17(2), 138-144.