How to Care for Flushed, Overheated Skin

Did you know that the ideal temperature for healthy skin is around 31–32°C?
If you want to check whether your face has heat buildup, place the back of your hand against your face — if your face feels warmer than your hand, that’s a sign of excess heat.

Even a 1°C increase in skin temperature can trigger various skin problems and accelerate aging.

What Happens When Skin Temperature Rises?

When the skin temperature rises, several changes occur:

The skin barrier gets damaged, leading to transepidermal water loss. As moisture evaporates rapidly, the skin becomes dry, loses elasticity, and develops deeper wrinkles.

A damaged skin barrier disrupts the pH balance of the skin, affecting the microbiome. This slows down the skin’s recovery process and harms overall skin health, accelerating aging.

Elevated temperature stimulates MMP (matrix metalloproteinase) enzymes, which break down collagen, inhibit collagen synthesis, and damage both collagen and elastin in the dermis. This causes the dermis to thin, reduces firmness, and increases the formation of deep, pronounced wrinkles.

When heat stress accumulates in the skin, it can trigger inflammatory acne or even progress into chronic rosacea. If the heat isn’t released, the skin becomes dry, which activates the skin’s defense mechanism to produce excess sebum. This breaks the oil-water balance, creating an environment that promotes acne bacteria growth and increases inflammatory reactions.

What Causes of Increased Skin Temperature?

Both UV and infrared rays can raise skin temperature — but the main culprit is infrared radiation due to its longer wavelength.
Even outside of summer, many people experience flushed, hot skin. Some common causes include:

• Hormonal imbalance during menopause
• Diet high in spicy foods, frequent alcohol consumption, smoking, lack of exercise, irregular sleep patterns
• Prolonged mask-wearing
• Long periods of looking down at a smartphone or computer, which causes tension in the neck and shoulder muscles, hinders blood circulation to the face, and compresses the nervous system

Solutions for Overheated Skin