Clearly, sunscreen protects your skin from the sun, but it also protects skin from pollution — especially when the SPF is bolstered by built-in antioxidant ingredients. Elizabeth Arden Prevage City Smart Broad Spectrum SPF 50 Hydrating Shield, $68, is all that and more. It contains a DNA enzyme complex that helps skin repair itself, as well as smart polymers that form an invisible shield over skin to protect it from pollution. To boot, its whopping SPF 50 is courtesy of micronized titanium dioxide and zinc oxide (translation: maximum skin protection in a lighter-than-air formula).
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Fight Pollution With a Powder
The cutting-edge Dermalogica Superfoliant, $58, gives pollutants the one-two punch: Activated binchotan charcoal helps absorb environmental toxins, while nicinamide, red algae and tar fruit extract protect the skin from pollution's skin-aging effects. The formula is also chock-full of alpha hydroxy acids to resurface skin. Simply tap some of the powder into your wet hands to turn the exfoliant into a complexion-smoothing, pollutant-fighting paste that you can use daily.
Dr. Andrew Weil for Origins Mega-Defense Barrier-Boosting Essence Oil, $51, is an impossibly light face oil. In fact, as the name suggests, it's more like an essence-oil hybrid -- leaving skin silky and hydrated after it instantly disappears. It also contains a potent antioxidant — Lady's Thistle extract — that restores the skin's moisture barrier while you sleep and continues to provide protection against pollution throughout the next day.
Natural, responsibly sourced ingredients continue to be at the heart of every product The Body Shop creates, and the newly revamped Drops of Youth Concentrate, $54, is no different. This cross between a face oil and a serum is 99-percent natural and contains a serious blend of botanicals like babassu oil and beech bud extract. But it's the antioxidant properties of edelweiss that give it anti-pollution power. A few drops in the morning will protect your skin all day.
Decleor Hydra Floral Anti-Pollution Hydrating Active Lotion, $50, is a lightweight essence you pat onto skin after cleansing. It immediately hydrates, and it leaves behind a protective layer of moringa olifeira extract, which blocks particulate pollution. When Decleor studied the results of using this lotion, they found that pollution is easily washed away at the end of the day. Without it, the particles stick to skin and get trapped in pores.
