Winter Prep
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
Season’s change, yet it all stays the same. Well, you have the same skin at any rate.
Still, a change in climate is one of the biggest stressors to your skin, so it helps if you prep it to deal with the extreme shift in temperature that it will have to face head on. No double pun intended.
One of the best things that you can do to prep your skin for winter is:
1. SWITCH YOUR MOISTURIZER
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Or in some cases, USE one. And yes, everyone has to use one. Oily skin and all, we’ve covered this here.
One of the many challenges with the harsh winter climate is the immense dehydration in skin that can occur.
Dry Skin Types
In addition to the fact that this skin type is prone to dehydration, it also naturally lacks oil, a situation that can become more chronic during the winter months, which can result in excessively tight, uncomfortably flakey skin. To effectively deal with this, Switch your lightweight moisturizer to a thicker, heavier one. Perhaps opting for a cream consistency rather than a lotion or fluid. Bring on the overnight serums, complexes or other nutrient/ hydration boosters to counteract the harsh, sometimes stripping effects of the winter wind chill.
Oily Skin Types
Oily skinners argue that they already produce so much oil that a moisturizer is the last thing they need. Well, for sure oil is probably the last thing you need, but everyone needs water. Even oily skin can be dehydrated. Seek out and find yourself a humectant moisturizer – a fluid like (read ‘watery’, easy flowing consistency), one with water, or even better, ingredients such as Hyaluronic acid or Sodium PCA as one of it’s first/ first few ingredients.
If you are oil prone, stay away from any product that contains any sort of oils/ oil based substance in it – Olive oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, jojoba oil, or worse, mineral oil.
Sensitized Skin Conditions
Whether your skin is dry, oily, normal or in between, silicones are your best friend if you experience sensitivity on your skin. They are non-irritating, and are fantastically capable of protecting against water evaporation from the skin, while at the same time allowing the skin to breathe – a property that petroleum, and mineral oil products are unable to claim, as they are considered highly comedogenic (blocks/ clogs pores). Cyclomethicone and Dimethicone are common silicone ingredients… generally any ingredient that ends in ‘cone’ is an ingredient to look for.
Other calming ingredients that help are oatmeal, lavender, cucumber and chamomile, anti-inflammatory ingredients such as lavender and chamomile also help.
2. EXFOLIATE
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Regardless of your skin type, exfoliation is an excellent way of ridding your skin of dead skin cells to reveal fresh, new, skin cells that are more … well… alive and have a greater fluid content.
Therefore the process of exfoliation results in two things:
- Ridding your skin of excess, dead skin cells
- Hydrating skin
Now, let me say here that rather than the amateur-league, morning cleansing scrub (especially if your skin is sensitized) opt for chemical exfoliation - AHA/ BHA (lactic acid/ salicylic acid based), or enzymatic exfoliants, rather than manual exfoliation by micro-scrubbing beads – So teenager. [For the difference between chemical and manual exfoliation, see post Smooth Criminal]
Let’s get into Grown ‘n Sexy proper tings.
For my non-temperate country dealers, exfoliation is also a step that you’d want to up the ante, starting now so that you can prep your skin for the holiday season. Be it swanky shindigs, corporate appearances, family gatherings or ish you only attend for the free food – You don’t want to wait for the week before an event to start a professional exfoliation for obvious reasons.
1. God forbid, you have an adverse reaction to the procedure.
This mess would be neither sexy, nor desirable.
Whether it is microdermabrasion, chemical peels or enzymatic peels… no-one wants to show up with welts on their skin to the biggest shindig of the year.
2. It takes 28 days on average for your skin to regenerate itself – longer if you are over the age of 25. [See Anti-aging Tip #5]
Stats don’t lie. I see the average age of you peeps who read GC and I know we’re all well over 25 *cough* so take heed. You would want to take on the process of skin rejuvenation – either by professional exfoliation skin treatments and/ or change in diet/ lifestyle well before a month prior. Just like your nutrition, or lack thereof, with the reasoning that you did ish all whole year about your skin’s health, you will need three months minimum prep for your skin to even start to see some sort of change that you can write to home about.
So, let’s get to it. Exfoliate.
b Freakin’Fabulous