How to Soothe Your Skin After a Sunburn

Don't you hate that stiff feeling after coming home from the beach or from a good bike ride around the neighborhood? Your arms and shoulders are stinging. Your nose is tingly. Your cheeks can't compete with the color of a lobster! It's the attack of the dreaded sunburn. There are some ways to soothe your skin to prevent you from experiencing these symptoms.

1. If you're in pain, take an aspirin such as Ibuprofen or Aleve. I find Aleve works best when you're under these conditions. Aspirin will numb the pain quickly and is a good starting point in the "how to relieve sunburn" process.

2. Aloe vera. Any cream or lotion containing aloe-based products will suppress the sunburn. I bet as soon as you read the article, you knew for sure you would come across aloe vera. This is a pretty obvious solution, but the next one may be a surprising one...

3. Any cool compress with milk or yogurt should be applied to the surface. This is usually the case for mild sunburn. If your skin is warm to the touch with a rosy glow, it will be the perfect solution. Have a cup of Yoplait or Dannon in the refrigerator? Dab some of it on the tip of your finger and rub it into the area. You'll be shocked with the results. Repeat if necessary.

4. Visit your local tanning salon and ask for a cooling cream or lotion. Specifically ask for "Insurance" if they have it. I'm not talking about the same type of insurance you get for your car or home. It's in a medium-sized blue bottle and of course it contains aloe. It releases a menthol smell that not only relieves the sunburn but also emits a scent that will soothe your other senses (except taste!). You'll love this next one...

5. Take a nice cool bath (not ice cold) and do NOT add any kinds of salts or oils to the water. Just take a simply cool bath. When you bath yourself, don't scrub the skin because remember: you have very sensitive, dry skin at the moment. Scrubbing it will make you peel and you will only make the stinging even worse.

Those five tips can ease your way into enjoying a relaxing vacation, tanning bed session or day at the beach. With the summer season arriving in just a few months, it would be wise to know what can cure you of sunburn in a quick fashion.

Some of my colleagues have gone on vacation and came back with a golden tan. One went to Bermuda and went to a local tanning salon to give herself a base. This is the smart way to tan. You don't want to go to a tropical island looking like a ghost and come back looking like a lobster. She gradually tanned for several sessions and jetted for Bermuda with a base tan. If she went without tanning beforehand, she would've easily gotten sun poisoning.

There are many skeptics I come across who swear that tanning beds cause cancer. While there's some truth to it, one must look at the benefits in attending these establishments. They provide you with accelerators meant to enhance a tan both indoors and outdoors while protecting the skin at the same time. You can even purchase these lotions in drugstores.

A more popular one is noted as Australian Gold which comes in both a squeezable and spraying bottle. They also have SPF lotions from numbers 8 to 30. If you want to save money, you can purchase them online or the drugstores instead of going to tanning salons. They'll cost you an arm and a leg because it's their specialty. But asking a salon associate various creams they recommend is good because they're the experts. Well, sometimes. Happy tanning!