Skin Care-ing for Winter

Winter can be one of the harshest seasons on your skin, due to both the cold winds and weather outside and the high heating and humidity inside. These hugely differing temperatures can play havoc with even the most balanced of skin types, so it’s important that you look after it in a certain way.

What Happens to Our Skin in Winter?
When you are outside in cold weather, the chilly weather results in poor circulation, as the blood within your body cannot travel as quickly as when the weather is warm, meaning that nutrients and oxygen cannot get to where they are needed as quickly as they are needed. As a result of this, your skin can appear lackluster and dull and red tones within your skin can appear more noticeable.
When you are inside in cold weather, with central heating systems, your skin can become dry and flaky as it loses moisture. As a result of this, it can feel very tight and in general, very uncomfortable.
Shifting quickly between hot and cold environments can stress your skin out as it struggles to keep up with the change in temperatures, causing red skin, widened capillaries, loss of hydration and irritated skin.
Keeping Your Skin Healthy
Because of the stress that your skin is put under in the winter, your focus should be on putting moisture and hydration back into your skin. You should also focus on keeping your skin protected against the sun, as sun damage in the winter will cause dry, red skin.
Go easy on your skin and use gentle cleansers. If your normal cleanser is an astringent one, set it to one side to use again in the summer. Because your skin is already under lots of stress in the winter, using a gentle cleanser means that you’re not putting it under any more unnecessary stress – using an astringent cleanser would only damage it more. A creamy, mild cleanser will also help to put some moisture back into your skin.
You should also skip the toner in the winter. Toner contains alcohol, which will dry your skin out even further, so in the winter skip this and simply do a thorough job of cleansing your skin to remove dirt and dead skin cells. Exfoliating scrubs should also be dialed down to twice a month, as your skin becomes more sensitive immediately after a scrub, so the best thing to do for your skin is to minimize this sensitivity. Don’t skip on the scrubs altogether though, as they are fantastically useful for keeping skin youthful and healthy – just make sure to use a heavy moisturizer after you’ve performed a scrub to put some of that moisture back into your skin.
You can also afford to go heavier on the moisturizer in the winter as your skin will always be drier than it is in the summer. Look for moisturizers that contain primrose oil, jelly, shea butter and almond oil. Make sure that when you apply moisturizer, you wait at least thirty minutes before going outside. If the moisturizer hasn’t fully penetrated your skin, going out in the cold could cause tiny ice particles to form on the skin’s surface or could cause your skin to become incredibly cold incredibly quickly, making it dry even though you just put moisture back into it.
Take care of your hands by using a thick heavy moisturizer on them – you should also wear gloves if you’re going out in particularly cold weather as your hands can be very sensitive to changes in heat. Don’t forget your lips either – take a chapstick out with you in your pocket or bag so that your lips can stay hydrated on the go.
Ultimately, skin needs to be pampered in the winter – so use it an as excuse to pamper yourself!