Oh, the weather outside is frightful … But your wintertime skin doesn’t have to be.
But the fire is so delightful … Except heat, whether from your furnace, the fireplace, or the HVAC system in your car, sucks moisture from your skin, leaving it dry, flaky, irritated, and dull.
And since we’ve no place to go … Actually, we’re in and out frequently, braving the vagaries of weather to get to work, see friends, go shopping, engage in activities. Such constant drastic change is hard on skin.
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! … Since Mother Nature is always in charge, it’s up to us to deal with whatever wintery mix she presents us, when and where it comes around.
Why Winter Skincare Is Different
We’re all familiar with the dry hands, flaky legs and arms, and chapped lips that go with winter. That’s because as temperatures drop and harsh winds blast around us, moisture dries up, causing skin to contract and crack. Moisture-starved skin looks pallid and flat, and fine lines and wrinkles become more pronounced. The dry, cold air of winter strips away natural oils, making skin more susceptible to irritation and itchiness. Cell turnover slows down, meaning dead skin cells are shed more slowly, keeping newer, healthier cells trapped underneath.
What to do?
To keep your skin glowing and fresh, here are the six must-have elements of your winter skincare routine.
Adjust to the season
While the steps remain basically the same, making seasonal adjustments to the products you use makes sense. That starts by knowing your skin type—oily, dry, normal, or combination—since that helps guide your choices. For example, dry skin people may find themselves switching to a cream moisturizer rather than lotion since cream is thicker and moisturizes better. Those with oily skin might stick with water-based lotions to avoid the excessive oil build-up that can lead to breakouts.
For everybody, hydrating products are the key to healthy winter skin. This is a season of deep moisturization, high replenishment, and repairing. Finding the right combination may involve trial-and-error testing, but that’s ok; you want to find what makes you feel and look your best every winter day and evening. And yes, you’ll need to change things up again when warmer weather (yippee, summer!) rolls around.
Cleansing is the foundation
The foundation of every skincare routine is a cleanser. Cleansing skin twice a day is essential, in the morning to remove overnight sleep residues and prepare for makeup, and at the end of the day to get rid of makeup, grime, pollution, and get your skin ready to repair itself while you sleep. In winter that often means shifting to a gentle, milky lotion since harsher chemicals further dry out already weather-parched skin. Read labels carefully and look for ingredients like hyaluronic acid, glycerin, and niacinamide. Salicylic acid is better for oily skin because it helps control excessive oil. All these ingredients and others nourish skin in different ways. Be sure to avoid products with fragrances or sulfates because they dry skin out.
Taking shorter showers or baths and avoiding steaming hot water contributes to winter skin health. The hottest possible water feels great when the weather outside is rages, but that leaches away much-needed moisture. A nourishing body wash helps too.
If you choose to exfoliate, do so gently and only occasionally. Chemical exfoliants are preferable to devices because they are easier on your skin.
Hydrated Skin is critical to winter skin care
Winter skincare is all about hydration—you want to get water to your skin since so many factors are conspiring to take it away. That starts with drinking plenty of water daily. Vegetables and fruits with high water content are another great source of hydration. Think broccoli, celery, cucumber, eggplant, green cabbage, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and zucchini/summer squash on the veggie side; fruits include cantaloupe, honeydew, strawberries, and watermelon. Other sources of hydration include putting a cool-mist humidifier in your bedroom and adding a whole-house humidifier to your furnace. The latter may help lower your heating bills since damp air feels warmer than dry.
As you’re enjoying another festive beverage during holiday parties, remember that alcohol dehydrates. And the damage caused by smoking is so widely recognized that’s enough said.
Moisturize morning and evening to keep skin youthful
Perhaps the most important item in your winter skincare toolbox is moisturizer. Since your skin dries out throughout the day, you want to moisturize morning and evening to keep skin youthful and plump. Using a rich, cream-based formula loaded with ceramides, hyaluronic acid, peptides, prebiotics and postbiotics, and squalane, is perfect for many skin types. For others, a water-based lotion works best. (Trial-and-error again.) Whatever product you choose, the goal is hindering water evaporation by locking moisture into the skin. A moisturizer that’s clinically verified as repairing the skin barrier works best.
Many people include a toner and/or serum as part of their routine. Toners remove any residue left behind by a cleanser and add moisture. Products containing green tea, hyaluronic acid, and niacinamide work great for pretty much everybody. Applying the toner before putting on serum and moisturizer ups the moisture content reaching your skin. Serums, especially those containing peptides, calm and cool winter-inflamed skin, helping restructure it, and spurring collagen growth. This pulls moisture into the skin for an immediate plumping and hydrating effect. Serum should go on before moisturizer as well.
Anti-aging substances are another popular element of skincare. Those containing retinol are most effective since they get deep into the skin to stimulate collagen production. Over time, retinols even out texture, fine lines, wrinkles, and pore size.
Protect your skin as much as possible
With much shorter daylight, sharply colder temperatures, and often cloudy skies, sunscreen is the most commonly overlooked aspect of winter skincare. Snow sports enthusiasts are well aware of the dangers of painful sunburn. But did you know the sun is responsible for 90% of skin aging, and that happens year-round? Even with heavy cloud cover, UV rays reach and damage skin, which is why skincare experts recommend applying an actual sunscreen product, minimum SPF 30, every single day.
Enjoy!
Sure, it’s cold, blustery, snowy—but that’s no reason to spend months huddled indoors. Winter is lots more pleasant when you embrace it, from pursuing your usual work and social activities to finding new ways to get outside. Even a walk, properly bundled up, gets the endorphins flowing. If you’ve thought about skiing or snowboarding, go ahead, maybe take a couple lessons, and give it a try. Take up a new hobby, join a club or social group, go outside and build a fire while you watch the moon. Winter is inevitable, so you might as well make the best of it. Keep up your winter skincare routine and remember—Mother Nature rules.
