There’s no getting away from the fact that the winter weather brings with it a lot of lovely things; from Starbucks’ famous pumpkin spiced lattes, ice skating, and the festive season, but it also brings with it freezing winds and decreases in humidity that lead to your skin barrier’s beginning to break down.
That’s why, during the colder winter months, it’s important that you take the time to improve and enhance your skincare routine, ensuring that your skin is protected despite the colder weather. By creating a winter skincare routine for your skin, you can make sure that regardless of the change in temperature, your skin doesn’t suffer as a result.
Wondering what steps you can take to look after your skin during the colder winter weather? Looking after your skin during the colder months is actually far easier than you might think, it’s just a case of knowing what steps you need to take. With that in mind, below are a few tips and suggestions to help you take better care of your skin during the colder winter months.
Photo source: Pixabay
Take care of your hands
It’s easy to forget about your hands when it comes to skincare, but it’s important to remember that during the colder weather your hands can also become sore and dry as a result of the colder temperatures and the loss of humidity. The cold weather - especially high winds and heavy rain or snow - can leave your hands feeling chapped and sore, that’s why taking proper care of your hands is so important.
If you want to look after your hands, it’s a good idea to think about applying a rich hand cream, and if possible, covering your hands with gloves during colder weather. It’s also important to make sure that you have high-quality, rich in moisture soaps on hand at home, so that your hands aren’t being dried out from other sources, besides the colder weather.
Don’t forget to take care of your cuticles too; if you fail to look after your cuticles they may split or dry out, causing pain. That’s why it’s so important that you also take care of your cuticle skin, using a cuticle oil on a daily basis - this is especially important during the colder winter months.
Protect your lips
The skin on your lips is even more sensitive than the skin on the rest of your body, which is why often, the skin on your lips becomes sore, chapped and dry more easily and more quickly than the skin on the rest of your body. That’s why it’s so important to take the time to look after your lips, ensuring that you aren’t left with dry, chapped, sore lips.
To keep your lips healthy, soft and nourished, it’s important to make sure that you’re using lip balm regularly. When it comes to lip balm, it’s important to remember that not all lip balms are made equal and don’t work in the same way.
For instance, lip balms that contain certain ingredients, such as salicylic acid or cinnamic aldehyde and lip balms that are petroleum based, can cause your lips to dry out more. They offer hydration initially but then cause further dryness, requiring constant use of the balm to keep your lips hydrated. Whereas, lip balms that contain beeswax or soy wax are less likely to cause dryness and actually hydrate the skin without taking any moisture away.
Some of the best lip balm brands include the likes of Burt’s Bees, for instance. The Burt’s Bees products are ideal as they’re all natural and have a beeswax base, which means that these products won’t cause further skin drying.
Avoid harsh soaps
You might love that feeling of being squeaky clean but a lot of soaps are packed full of harmful ingredients that can wreak havoc on your skin health - particularly during the colder winter months. That’s why it’s important to try and steer clear of harsh soaps that are actually causing more damage to your skin than doing good. These kinds of soaps can strip your skin of its natural oils, causing dryness and irritation to occur.
Instead of using harsh soaps, such as cheap supermarket or drug store brands, consider opting for a soap that is made from natural ingredients. The soaps available from stores like Lush and local independent soap makers are a much better option as usually these soaps are made using natural ingredients and are free from harsh or skin damaging chemicals.
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Pack your diet full of nutrients
When it comes to having health skin, eating a diet that’s packed full of the right nutrients is important. The fact is that throughout the year, it’s important that you’re eating the right foods, but in winter, when your skin is most at risk, it’s even more important to pack your diet full of skin-boosting foods.
You want to make sure that you’re eating lots of foods rich in antioxidants to help boost overall skin health. These foods include carrots, apricots, spinach, tomatoes, berries, beans, lentils, peas, fatty fish, nuts, and seeds.
It’s also important to think about supplements and what you’re using to aid your skin further. For instance, you can buy skin boosting vitamins - these have become increasingly popular in recent years, with more and more people choosing to take vitamins to help boost their skin health.
Another way to improve skin health is to buy CBD Oil and add it to your diet. CBD oil can help to aid skin health in a number of ways, however it’s most commonly used to reduce sensitive skin and to help manage acne.
Layer up your skincare
When it comes to enhancing your skin health during the colder winter months, it’s important that you layer it up. Layering might sound strange but hear us out on this - you wouldn’t go outside in the cold weather in just a t-shirt, would you? Your skin won’t function well if it just goes out in a “t-shirt”, which is where layering comes into it.
What exactly do we mean by layering up your skincare? Well, it’s simple really, it’s just a case of getting your skincare routine right and implementing the right steps. Ideally, you want to start off using a gentle cleansing product, then you should apply a thin layer of a hydrating facial serum, followed by a rich moisturiser - ideally you want to pick an oil-free moisturiser. The last step should always be to apply SPF protection - even when the weather isn’t hot the sun can still cause damage to your skin.
Combine creams and balms
When it comes to your skincare, there’s no need to simply stick to one product type - it’s perfectly fine to combine different types of hydrating products. For instance, having a selection of different moisturising products, from lotions to balms, can help to make sure that whatever nourishment your skin needs, you’re able to offer it. The thicker the balm, the more protection it will offer your skin from the elements.
Aim to only use products that are made from natural ingredients and are free from chemicals or unnecessary additives. When it comes to choosing a moisturising product, look for products that have a base of beeswax, soy wax, shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter, coconut butter, or any other natural wax or butter base.
In terms of what product to use when, consider how quickly you need the product to soak in. For example, most cream products soak in fairly quickly and don’t tend to leave an overly greasy residue. Whereas, a balm will take a lot longer to soak into the skin and may leave a greasy residue, due to its high moisture content.
Create a on-the-go pack
To ensure that you’re able to take proper care of your skin, wherever you are, it’s worth thinking about creating an on-the-go skincare kit that’s packed full of all of your skincare essentials and can easily be taken with you wherever you go. This pack could include a hand cream - or a solid hand lotion bar, a lip balm, some gloves, and a multipurpose skin balm.
Pick a zip-up bag that’s small enough to fit in your main bag but large enough to fit in all of the essentials, and fill it up with your skincare must haves for the colder winter months. Whenever you go anywhere, add your on-the-go pack to your bag, so that wherever you go, you always have everything that your skin needs to stay healthy and happy.
When it comes to taking care of your skin in the colder winter months, there’s a lot more to think about than in the warmer months. As the weather gets colder, your skin requires more care, and getting the approach right is crucial, if you want to keep your skin healthy and happy despite the colder weather. Hopefully, the guide - and tips - above will help you to take better care of your skin this winter, and as a result, have healthier and happier skin, despite the colder weather.
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