The weather outside may be frightful, but with a bit of extra care, your skin can glow like it’s springtime. Take six steps to conquer dry skin this season!
... to winter skin care, that is. With crisper air and cooler temperatures, your skin may start to dry out like last year’s fruitcake. If you’re still following your summer skin care regime, it’s time to pack away those light creams and gels and invest in formulas fit for the winter seasons. (Your summer skin care will remain fresh for next year if you tighten caps and place products in a cool cabinet away from moisture.)
Start by switching from gel-based cleansers to creamy, moisturizing cleansers. Lush Ultra Bland Cleanser is anything but: Strong enough to remove make-up but gentle in its all-natural ingredients, Ultra Bland is a great choice for both morning and evening cleansing. All skin types will benefit from its thick, rich emulsion of natural oils, rosewater, honey, and beeswax, which leave skin soft and smooth. ($11.75, lush.com)
Still need to see suds to feel clean? Then try Estee Lauder Soft Clean Moisture Rich Foaming Cleanser for Dry Skin. This luxurious cleansing cream foams into a moisture-rich lather to gently clean, calm, and soften skin. ($19.00, esteelauder.com, local department stores)
Now that it’s winter, cut back on exfoliation to once a week. If your skin is ultra-dry, consider moving to a formula that won’t sap skin’s natural moisture barrier. Kiehl’s Ultra Moisturizing Buffing Cream with Scrub Particles is a rich, whipped, moisturizing cleanser with light scrub particles for gentle buffing action. ($12.00, kiehls.com, Nordstrom)
Up the moisture content of your skin both day and night. The key to well-moisturized skin at any age is not slathering on more, but consistently using the right product for the season and your skin type. Investing in a richer facial moisturizer will pay off with skin that glows with health, not with wind burn or chapped dryness. For efficient moisturizing, choose a cream that will do double-duty as both a day and night cream, such as Essensa Synergy Round-the-Clock Moisturizing Creme, which offers super-concentrated, critical nutrition to the skin in two skin-targeted formulas. Try lemon and apple “Purevital” Synergy Creme for stressed, oily, or acne-prone skin. It contains essential oils of sage, thyme, and vetiver to calm and purify skin. Or try kiwi and angelica “Rejuvenation” Synergy Creme formula to add radiance for normal to dry skin types. ($65.00, spacadet.com)
Another hard-working choice is Shiseido Bio-Performance Super Lifting Formula Cream. Mature skin will benefit from the physical-lifting feature of Shiseido’s “Flexlift Complex,” which tightens as it delivers moisture, day or night. ($53.30, sasa.com, local department stores)
Bliss offers up a moisturizing treatment cream perfect for the season: Freeze 24/7 Anti-Wrinkle Cream reduced fine lines and creases by 50-90% in just 10 minutes in clinical studies, the company reports. Hummm ... day cream, night cream, wrinkle cream ... now that is a hard-working moisturizer! ($115, blissworld.com)
Another step to winterizing your skin is putting some pampering in your life: A professional facial offers scientifically based treatments to enhance skin’s moisture content. Battling dryness and free radicals inherent in our air means you’re doing more than just surface moisturizing, however; a good facial will encourage skin to restore its own vitality and leave your face with a firmer, more hydrated appearance. No time for the spa? You can achieve results right at home with a do-it-yourself session. Philosophy offers something for every one with it’s Exfoliate Kit. The kit offers the greatest love, an evening hydrating microdermabrasion scrub with proven resurfacing technology for enhancing and improving skin texture. For a quick (but effective) facial mask, opt for the kit’s other treatment, the great mystery, a lavender-scented morning one minute facial for instant smoothing and detoxification of your skin. ($50, drugstore.com, local department stores).
Another great at-home option is the Murad Resurgence Renewal Home Facial Kit (4-week supply, $75.00; murad.com, local department stores), a once weekly treatment that also includes Firming and Hydrating Eye Gel Mask to firm and hydrate the delicate eye area while reducing the appearance of under eye damage. that will have your skin soft, supple, and glowing within the month ... and your spirits revived along the way!
Having healthy, glowing skin isn’t accomplished by great skin care alone. Being healthy, period, will affect whether you sport a serene glow or look wan and pale. You know the value of a good diet (eat your vegetables!), but the holidays often mean meals on the run. So take a multi-vitamin daily to ensure you’re getting what’s good for you, including vitamins A, C, and K, which help your skin beat back time from the inside out.
Along with the right nutrients is hydration: Skip the eggnog and instead, reach for an extra glass of H2O. Drinking water throughout the day ensures proper hydration of the body and helps to reduce skin dryness. Doctors and nutritionists recommend drinking at least 6-8 glasses of water every day. Don’t skip the water just because it’s winter and you’re not perspiring from the heat.
We’re on the go from morning until night and the holidays seem even more frenetic than usual. Don’t neglect to balance these busy days with enough rest. When you are well-rested and getting enough sleep, your skin will mirror this with vitality and a healthful glow. Hasten dreamland with the Sonoma Lavender Sleep Mask. In lilac dupioni silk, this mask lulls the senses into a restful sleep with the scent of lavender while keeping light out of the eyes. And the bonus? — A bit of girly pampering during the long winter nights! ($18.00, DermStore.com)
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