Your Skin Changed. The Lifestyle Didn’t. Did Your Skincare Change With It?

When I sat down to write this article, I had something very different in mind. I’d researched and read through a number of scientific articles and reviews about how our skin changes as we age. I was going to make the scientific case for why our skincare needs to change as we get older. And believe me, that reasoning is logical, legitimate and backed by plenty of good science.

But as I started writing, I realized there was a more compelling way to explain it: tell my own story. Because somewhere along the way, I stumbled into two problems that I think the skincare industry has largely overlooked.

• First, the skincare that worked for us at 25 may no longer be what our skin needs at 45, 55 or 65.

• Second, much of traditional skincare simply wasn’t designed around the realities of people who spend their lives outdoors.

Those two problems eventually collided for me—and became the reason I started building SUI WASSER.

Why I Started Making Balm

When I first started making balm, I was skeptical. My initial recipes resulted in a heavy, hard balm and lacked the refined, concentrated feel they have today. But as I tested them on my own skin, I noticed something important: the moisture would last. Windburn felt refreshed. I’d wake up the next morning with skin that felt ready to go rather than neglected.

I kept experimenting throughout late 2025. As winter arrived, I started slipping samples to friends, each iteration and version improving step by step.

But there was a deeper reason I started experimenting with balm in the first place. Over the last few years, my eyes have also been opened to the cumulative impact of a life spent outdoors. I spent decades skiing, racing, coaching, cycling and simply living outside—often in intense sun, wind, cold and dry mountain air. Like a lot of outdoor athletes, I thought mostly about what my skin had endured that day. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was how all of those days add up. The effects of environmental exposure are cumulative, and eventually a lifetime outdoors begins to show itself in our skin.

My Skin Had Changed

When I turned 50, about five years ago, I noticed that my skin simply didn’t have the resilience it once had. Fine lines and wrinkles started appearing. My skin became noticeably drier. I tried expensive over-the-counter lotions. I tried to cobble together a skincare system. Yet my skin was still dry, my daily activities left it weathered and occasionally sunburned, and the fine lines and wrinkles weren’t getting any better.

More importantly, I began to realize that many of the skincare products I was using simply weren’t compatible with my life.

Anyone who has applied a retinol or a heavily perfumed cream to already weather-stressed, windburned or sunburned skin knows the feeling. It defines a whole new category of burn and sting rolled into one.

In fact, on days I’d come in from the outdoors, I found myself skipping my nightly moisturizer because I knew it would burn.

It was totally ass-backwards!

The moments my skin needed the most support were the very moments I was skipping skincare. Instead, I’d reach for a weak aloe or Vitamin E lotion because it was about the only thing my skin could tolerate.

That was when I knew I needed to define a different system of skincare—one designed from the ground up for people who live their lives outdoors, and one that could better support our skin’s changing needs as we age.

The goals were simple:

• Something that lasted longer than lotion.

• Something that could deliver antioxidants and anti-inflammatory botanicals to my skin when I needed them most.

• Something I could reach for daily no matter if my skin felt stressed from wind, sun, cold and dry air.

• Something that left my skin feeling genuinely nourished—and looking better than it did the day before.

Why I Came to Believe in Balm

And over time, that’s what surprised me most about balm.

My skin didn’t just feel better. It began to look better. Today, the dryness diminished. My skin looked smoother, fuller and healthier. Fine lines and wrinkles became noticeably less pronounced, and a natural, healthy glow began to return. That’s when balm stopped being an experiment for me. It became a mission to share what I’d crafted with others.

Building the Skincare System I Needed

I set out to build a skincare system that I needed.

Not another collection of lotions and creams. I wanted a simple system built around the realities of an active life outdoors—and the changing needs of our skin as we get older.

I wanted something I could use every day. Something for my face in the morning and before bed. Something richer after a long day of sun, wind, cold or dry air. Something I could massage into my legs, feet, knees and shoulders after a demanding day outside. And something that could help protect the skin during those long days of friction, sweat and exposure in the first place.

That thinking eventually became the SUI WASSER skincare system. A system of balms that truly improved my quality of life.

• Alpin-Glow became my concentrated daily face and eye balm—built around Bakuchiol, Sea Buckthorn, Wild Carrot Seed Oil and antioxidant-rich oils to support smoother, healthier-looking skin and help reduce the appearance of fine lines.

• Recovery+ became the richer overnight and post-exposure balm—the one I reach for when my skin has spent the day dealing with sun, wind, cold, altitude or dry air and needs lasting moisture and antioxidant support.

• Après Sport became the straightforward workhorse: long-lasting moisture and barrier support for dry, weather-stressed skin after a day outside.

• Trail Recovery took the same balm philosophy beyond skincare alone, combining long-lasting skin conditioning with Arnica, Rosemary, Eucalyptus and other botanicals for treating aches and pains as part of a post-activity routine—the legs, feet, knees and shoulders that have worked just as hard as the skin covering them.

Different balms for different moments, but all built around the same idea: Put back what Sun + Wind + Cold + Heat + Dry Air remove. And perhaps most importantly, I wanted products I wouldn’t be afraid to reach for when my skin had already had a difficult day. Because that was the problem that started all of this.

At 25, a lightweight lotion may have been all my skin needed. At 50, it wasn’t. My skin had changed. My lifestyle hadn’t. My skincare needed to catch up.