The 7 beauty rules we broke this summer and how to fix them

It’s hard to be good all the time, we get that. And holidays are the most difficult time of all to play by the rules, so whether you turned that two for one cocktail hour into an all nighter and the closest you got to a hot cloth cleanse was face planting your pillow or you reached for the razor when you realised your new bikini was a little higher cut than you originally thought, you might be left with a few vacation regrets right now. Don’t stress, it’s all fixable, here’s how…

By Jo Hoare

• 1 Picking off gels

  Gel manis take a beating on holiday. Everything from chlorine and sun exposure to insect repellent and suncream can cause your three week mani to fade, peel or go patchy and this means picking at them is hard to resist. Peeling off your gels will cause damage to your nails but you can minimise it. A regular manicure once you get home is a good idea, the manicurist can gently buff your nails to smooth out the nail plate, then give them a break from polish and keep them shortish as they’ll be pretty weak. In a few weeks you’ll be ready to get your gels back.
• 2 Brassy Bleach

  You were SO careful not to get chlorine on your expensive highlights and although you’ve avoided Hulk-esque shades of green your beautiful blonde is now distinctly yellow looking. Welcome to the ‘hair tan’, yep just as you changed the colour of your skin, that hot sun also alters the shade of your hair and whereas if you’re brunette you might get a few cute sunkissed streaks (although FYI 99% of ‘sunkissed’ hair you see is definitely expertly applied balayage) blondes who don’t use UV protection on their locks or cover up with a hat will fall prey to brassy tones. Try some at home SOS with purple shampoo, then get yourself to the hairdresser for a violet or blue based toner.
• 3 Flip flop feet

  Comfy as they are (once you get over the initial ouchy between toes start to the season) your fave holiday shoe can leave you with a whole host of foot problems. Rubber shoes absorb moisture meaning your feet dry out much quicker so if you’ve suddenly noticed hard heels and rough patches that’ll be why. A paraffin wax pedi is your salon prescription. Flip flops also leave your feet vulnerable to bugs and germs, if you suspect something isn’t right then book yourself in for a medical pedicure, performed by a chiropodist they can advise on things like fungal nail infections.
• 4 Panic shaving bikini line

  That airport bought swimsuit looked hot, yeah, but it also came up a lot higher than your bikini line prep allowed for. We’ve all reached for the razor in a bikini line emergency but the after effects can be tricky. If you’ve come up in a rash then don’t shave the area again and dab a little tea tree oil on the bumps. You’ll then have to wait, depending on your hairs growth rate, at least seven days before waxing and you won’t get the same smoothness until you’re back in your waxing cycle so there’s the impetus not to do it again, hey…
• 5 Sun damage

  This is the biggie. Despite being super careful with spf unless you were sitting in the shade with total sunblock and a sunhat the size of Saturn’s rings you’re going to have picked up a bit of sun damage, if it’s severe enough to have resulted in pigmentation patches then it’s time for a facial that’ll target this and possibly a course of laser treatments. Just feeling a bit dry and dehydrated? A hydrating facial should sort you out.
• 6 Frazzled ends

  That tousled topknot might have looked good poolside but it left your ends exposed to the sun and now they’re so dry, they’re a fire hazard. The best option is a good trim but if you can’t bear to lose any length then there are plenty of treatments to help. Olaplex helps repair broken bonds in hair and is especially good if your ends are coloured too, other great treatments to put life back into frazzled lengths are Fusio-Dose or L’Oreal Pro-Fiber.
• 7 Skipping your skincare

  Whether it’s because your proper regime wouldn’t fit in your carry-on or those cocktails Andreas was making packed too much of a punch to be able to distinguish your toner from your toothpaste, not cleansing properly on holiday is an easy beauty fail to make. If the closest your face got to clean was an exfoliating combo of sand and saltwater you need to make some amends with a deep cleansing treatment BUT if you were a little remiss with cleansing AND you overdid the sun then leave it a week or so for your face to calm before booking.