Skincare Tips for Winter

Righty, winter’s here and there are a few steps you can take to make it out the other side not looking like a dry, flakey and wrinkly mess…

Take advantage of the weather!

Now that it’s winter, you’ll be getting a lot less sun exposure so it’s the perfect time to undo any damage you may have done over the summer (and summers before!). Accumulated sun damage rapidly ages your skin so it’s a good idea to try and reverse that by using a serum underneath (or in place of) your usual moisturiser.

1. Kiehl’s Powerful Strength Line Reducing Serum. Not as scary as it sounds, this is just a very light and highly concentrated Vitamin C serum. Expect brighter skin, faded freckles/sunspots and generally younger looking skin.

2. NIA24 Rapid Exfoliating Serum. The 5% Niacin in this helps to undo sun damage as well as plump and repair irritated skin. This is very light and runny and contains witch hazel to help with blackheads.

3. DDF Glycolic 10% Toning Complex. This is an exfoliating toner that does a fantastic job at unclogging the skin and slowly dissolves the uppermost, damaged layers of skin. Simply swipe this all over your face with a cotton pad, it’s surprisingly gentle but it’ll sting if applied to freshly-shaved skin.

4. MD Skincare Alpha Beta Daily Face Peel Pads. Like bootcamp for the skin. These two jars contain pre-moistened cotton disks. Swipe the AHA one over your skin first and then follow up with the BHA one. Once the 30 day cycle is over, skin looks brighter, sun damage is visibly reduced and thanks to the BHA your skin looks a lot more clear too. Although the word ‘peel’ is scary, there’s no actual skin peeling involved. It’s not too harsh and you can always use these every couple of days instead of daily.

Switch it up.

Skin needs to be properly hydrated in winter when the cold air and central heating begins to dry it out. Nobody wants flaky looking skin, right?  That doesn’t mean you have to use thick creams in the winter, just opt for hydrating lotions instead. During the day, don’t forget sunscreen! Less sun means you need less SPF since you’re unlikely to burn. You do, however, need to make sure you’re still getting excellent UVA protection since that’s constant – no matter the season.

1. CeraVe PM – It’s light, hydrating and gel based. Great for sensitive or acne prone skin, it provides a lot of hydration without looking oily.

2. La Roche Posay Hydraphase - The Hydraphase line from La Roche Posay is fantastic for dry and dehydrated skin. The moisturisers really sink in and leave the skin looking healthy, moisturised, plump and calm. There’s a thicker cream for dry skin types and a runnier lotion for oily/combination skin – both awesome. There’s also an SPF version which is great too!

3. Vichy Aqualia UV – This is a runny lotion that’s deeply hydrating with a low SPF and fantastic UVA protection. Perfect sun protection for the summer and it’s good on all skin types – never oily looking.

4. No7 Protect and Perfect Intense moisturisers offer an amazing level of UVA protection with an SPF of 15 – again, perfect for winter. The Men’s and Women’s versions are basically the same thing except the women’s is slightly richer. I prefer the men’s version because it’s non-oily and comes in a pump!

Treat your skin and watch your mouth!

Lastly, when your face is really feeling the stress from biting cold wind and parching central heating - take a break and slap on a hydrating face mask. A new favourite of mine is the Dr. Hauschka Moisturising Mask. Oh and please, stop licking your lips and buy yourself a lip balm – nothing fancy, even chapstick does the trick incredibly well. Chapped lips and winter go pretty much hand in hand and there’s nothing hot about a crusty mouth. Even Cowboys use Chapstick!

Anyone else glad winter’s back?

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Dil

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