Winter Skin Woes? Try this

Winter is coming, and the harsh weather - no matter what your version of harsh weather is - wrecks havoc on your skin.  In the winter your skin deals with a lot of harsh environments, strong winds, cold air, indoor heaters, rain, snow, sleet and an overall lack of a good healthy dose of sunlight. We’re left with dry skin that can chap and crack.

Kayla Fioravanti, co-founder of Essential Wholesale and von Natur, has some tips to help your skin stay supple, soft and healthy throughout the hard Winter weather.

Your skin’s goals this winter should be to moisturize, exfoliate and moisturize again. Keep moisture in mind with all the choices you make in your skin care regime. Your skin functions differently in the winter so you need to change your routines.

Cleanse:
Winter is the time of year when you need to put away your foaming and soap cleansers and stock up on crème cleansers. Cleansing crèmes, lotions and milks are very effective cleansers and they do not contain the typical surfactant or detergent ingredients that most cleansing gels contain which can be too harsh on your skin in the winter months.

Tone:
Put away your astringents and switch to a toner for winter. Your skin needs to be soothed and balanced and not dried out further by an astringent.

Moisturize:
Choose heavier crèmes in the winter than you would in the summer months. Feel free to use your heavy eye crème around your lips and entire face. If your skin is itching it is because the dry air of winter is causing the moisture in the top layer of your skin to evaporate quickly. You will need to slather those areas with extra moisture until you feel relief. Never be afraid of using pure oils on your skin in the winter months. A bottle of jojoba oil or olive oil is a great thing to have on hand all winter. During the cold and flu season you should wash your hands liberally but be certain to apply a heavy hand crème every time you wash your hands.

Exfoliate:
Exfoliate twice per week to remove dead skin cells and allow your skin to absorb the extra moisture you are lathering on. The central heating plays havoc on the sebum our skin normally produces, which makes our skin lose water which should be retained in the lower dermis of the skin. Have you ever wondered about the areas of your skin that looks like your skin is flaking off your body? What happens is that during the winter months there are thousands of dry skin cells ready to be sloughed off the surface and they become clumped together with oil which forms what appear to be flakes. Don’t be flaky, exfoliate! Exfoliate your skin with crème based exfoliates with jojoba beads and your body will soak up the rich oils of a butter or oil based body scrub.

Just following these four simple steps will help you get through the winter without the drying, chapping and cracking.