We’ve all seen influencer after influencer post Instagram stories where they apply a full skincare routine on the plane. And you know what? Even though I’ve yet to see this take place with my own eyes, I’ve always had a suspicion that it was a little...excessive. A conversation with Susan Yara confirmed it: it is excessive. And it can also do more harm than good. Here’s why:

The air on a plane is super dry, recirculated air. Dry air looks for moisture wherever it can find it. In fact, if you were to spill water on your clothes on an airplane, it’ll dry way faster than it would on land. This blog post from celebrity aesthetician Renée Rouleau shows how water spilled on a cotton t-shirt took just 27 minutes to dry on an airplane compared to and hour and 20 minutes on land. This is bad news for your skin. Basically, our skin has moisture in it and the air on the plane sucks it out.

As soon as you step on the plane, that evil dry air starts doing its sinister work. So your skin is already drying out by the time you apply your skincare routine. Why is that bad? Because water attracts water. Those moisturizers and face masks you apply pull even more moisture out of your skin and basically serve it up on a silver platter to that evil airplane air. You’ve also just wasted good skincare products.

And forget about using face mists! Those are the worst perpetrators. Because they’re basically pure water, they go straight to work dehydrating your skin. If you’ve even used one on an airplane, you might’ve noticed your skin feeling more tight and dry throughout the flight causing you to feel the need to spritz more frequently.

Note: all these products I’ve mentioned are perfectly fine to use when you’re not on an airplane.

Another way to understand what’s happening to your skin on an airplane is chapped lips during the winter. Winter air is extremely dry and you’ve probably noticed that licking your lips when they’re dry never helps? It’s the same idea. The saliva pulls the moisture out of your lips and the dry air continues to make it drier and drier.

The simple solution to all of this is to do your skincare routine before you step foot on an airplane or even in the airport. Prep your skin with moisturizing products and give them time to soak in. Luckily, we have a whole video about this and some skincare products you should try. Check it out below!