These are the two ingredients a derm wants you to load up on after a sunburn

Welcome to “Dear Derm,” our brand-new beauty series in which dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD shares some serious skin-care realness. In each episode, she’ll answer your most burning beauty questions—like how to apply sunscreen, what to do if you get a sunburn, and more—and give you all of the tools you need to up take your glow game to the next level. 

I’m going to drop a hard truth on you here: Even the most diligent sunscreen wearers will, at some point, wind up dealing with a sunburn. If you’ve ever come back from a run with a sports bra burn, or woken up from a beach nap in your sunnies with some raccoon-style redness, you—like me—have learned this lesson the hard way. Because no matter how dedicated you are to protection, as board-certified dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD puts it, “it’s hard to be perfect at applying sunscreen.”

In the first ever episode of Well+Good’s new beauty series, Dear Derm by Beauty Geek, Dr. Gohara drops some real, unfiltered skin-care truths, including what to do if you’ve had a little too much fun in the sun this summer. “Every sunburn—or tan for that matter—leaves damage to the skin,” she cautions, pointing to the instantaneous redness, plus more longterm problems like fine lines, pigmentation, and of course, skin cancer. But if you’ve found yourself looking slightly more crispy than you’d like, she’s got some advice on how to handle it.

“If you’re dealing with a sunburn at present, the thing you’re going to want to do is focus on hydration,” she explains. “Skin that’s been sunburned tends to be severely dehydrated, so look for ingredients that will replenish moisture, like hyaluronic acid, or ones that can help soothe the stinging and irritation like aloe vera.” One more thing you can do is treat yourself to an “ice cube facial.” Swipe your burnt skin with a piece of ice, which constricts the blood vessels, helps take out some of the heat, and also feels really good. Most importantly, remember to lather up with a mineral sunscreen the next time you go in the sun to avoid additional damage.

There are essentially three rules to keep in mind: Keep your skin cool, keep it hydrated, and keep it protected, and it will heal itself in a few days. And one more thing? Resist the urge to peel it (which, I know, is so hard considering pulling off a good skin flake is one of those gross #oddlysatisfying things, like popping a mirror-splattering zit), because you’ll only make things worse.

Catch the video above for more on how to keep your skin happy, and be sure to subscribe to the Well+Good YouTube Channel to get the latest dermatologist intel of your dreams.

These are the best drugstore sunscreens to slather on this summer, according to derms. Plus, why the spots where you’re skipping out on SPF are also the most likely to show aging.