10 valuable tips for winter-dry skin
You may love a gentle nibble from Jack Frost, but if you don’t change how you take care of your skin when winter is here, your skin can get dry and itchy. You may even start to develop mini cracks on your hands and feet from the lack of moisture caused by dry air and heating systems
1. Wash your face with a gentle cleanser in the evening or use a leave-on product to support your skin’s hydro-lipid layer. In the morning use a leave-on product or plain lukewarm water.
2. An exfoliating cleanser is a good way to combat flakiness while helping your skin get rid of old skin cells. Use an enzyme-based exfoliation product 2-3 times a week for best results. Avoid anything with plastic microbeads since the water treatment plants cannot remove them and they end up in the rivers and oceans. Natural beads from jojoba or rice wax and bamboo are a good choice.
3. Use an alcohol-free toner to restore your skin’s pH. Most cleansers have a pH of around five, yet water has a pH of 7, so your skin’s pH will go up. If you skip this step, it will take your skin 2-3 hours to restore the full normal pH of about 4.5-5.5. During this time the skin becomes drier, has less anti-microbial activity and is at risk of developing tiny fissures.
If you wash your face twice a day and don’t bring the pH down, your skin cannot maintain its proper function for 4-6 hours a day. That’s a whopping 25% of the day!
4. A properly pH-balanced serum is also a great way to restore the skin’s pH, increase the moisture content of your skin and add vital nutrients and supportive botanical extracts. Chose a serum with peptides for maximum anti-ageing benefits.
5. A good moisturizer with humectants and essential fatty acids nourishes your skin and prevents dehydration. To lock in even more moisture and add a highly protective layer of nutritive oils and botanical bliss, layer a face oil over the moisturizer.
6. At night use a face oil with oil-soluble Vitamin C such as tetrahexydyl ascorbate, which is one of the best vitamin-C derivates for brightening and anti-oxidant activity. Use this Vitamin C only at night—there are studies that indicate daytime use of oil-soluble vitamin C in any form may actually be counterproductive.
Be sure to avoid the often-used ascorbyl palmitate, which you can find in many daytime skincare products and even make-up.
7. Avoid anything with petrolatum or silicone as these oils will not allow your skin to breathe. Your skin’s own enzymes need the oxygen for the renewal process that makes skin appear radiant and dewy. If this process occurs less frequently because of lack of oxygen, old skin cells build up, making skin look dull.
8. Use warm water in the shower instead of hot. Hot water removes more of the skin’s natural protective layer.
9. Use cleansers with a cream-like consistency, they are more gentle to your skin, avoid anything with sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate which strips your skin of essential lipids and humectants. This ingredient is often used in body washes and shampoos.
10. After your shower, use a good lotion or a body oil with a built-in emulsifier to replenish your protective layer. Your skin soaks up the moisture from the shower and a product with an emulsifier will hold the water on top of your skin where it will do the most good.
If you follow these simple tips, you’ll find that dry skin will be a thing of the past and fresh and radiant may be your new winter look!
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