Keep Your Skin Glowing Throughout Winter

Keep Your Skin Glowing Throughout the Winter

You know your skin is drier in the winter. It’s a little itchy and sometimes flaky. It’s not you, it’s the cold. But we’ve come up with a few things to keep in mind during the winter months.

Dry skin is caused by low humidity levels during winter months, when the air outside is cold and dry, water in our skin evaporates more quickly. When our skin is dehydrated, our skin feels (and looks) drier, tight and flaky. Although spring is just around the corner, we still experience the odd, cold winter day here and there. Be prepared! We’ve created this list to help you combat dry skin, wherever the cold may show up!

It’s cold out there, but stop taking steamy, hot baths or showers! Your skin produces its own oil to keep it moisturized, but when you take a long hot bath or shower, all those good oils are washed away. Add soap to the equation and what you’re left with is very dry, very tight skin. Try taking lukewarm baths or showers and ditch the generic body soap. Find body soaps with natural ingredients like aloe-vera, coconut or sesame oil, and shea butter.

Moisturize!

Always, always moisturize! Though moisturizing right after your bath or shower isn’t a quick fix (the best thing to do is moisturize throughout the day), sometimes, (for us at least) it just feels good to do! Our favorite drugstore moisturizing brands are: Kiehls, CeraVe and Eucerin. Your local health food store will also have a great selection or natural moisturizers! Talk to the associate to help find the best for your needs. Your skin is your biggest organ, pamper it whenever you can!

If you’re lips are chapped, try brushing your lips lightly with your toothbrush. The brush will remove any excess skin and leave your lips soft. Keep lip moisturizer on you and apply whenever you feel necessary. (No, you won’t get addicted to it.) These are the brands we love: Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Lip Moisturizer, Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm, the Love + Sage lip balms and Glossier Balm Dotcom.

Exfoliate, but gently!

It may be a good idea to invest in a good quality exfoliating wash cloth. When we exfoliate, we remove dry skin and give way for the new skin below to grow. Also using a quality facial scrub will slough off the dead skin layer and stimulate new cells to generate. The frequency of exfoliation depends on your skin type. More oily acne prone skin may need to scrub daily while a dryer skin type will only need to scrub a couple times a week.

Stay hydrated!

Drink loads of water throughout the day, and if you get bored with water, switch over to a warm tea. Yogi Tea and Traditional Medicinals have some of our favorite teas and you can find them both at supermarkets and health food stores alike. When you’re body’s hydrated, your skin will be too!

Omega 3’s!

Snack smart with foods high in omega 3 fats! Thank goodness we’re not afraid of “fat” anymore because these babies do our body good! Grab a handful of almonds with your mid-morning tea, spread half an avocado on your morning toast and top it with olive oil and a little bit of pink himalayan salt. At least once a week, roast or grill salmon for dinner and pile on the veggies! When you feed your body good food, it will thank you, and it will show you. A happy inside is a happy outside.

Coconut oil is a miracle worker!

If you’re experiencing a dry scalp, try warming up a tablespoon of coconut oil in the microwave for a few seconds, just until melted, and massage it into your scalp. Leave it in for a few minutes to an hour, whatever you have time for, and rinse it out, then shampoo and condition as usual. Rub a bit of coconut oil onto those really dry areas, like elbows, knees and even hands. Leave it on for a few minutes and rinse. Coconut oil gets messy, but the results are totally worth it! If you don’t have time for a full coconut oil spa day, start buying natural products (shampoos, soaps, conditioners, etc) with coconut oil as a main ingredient.

If you’ve got any other tips for smooth and glowing winter skin, let us know! Have a favorite product you’d like to share, leave a comment below, we love hearing from our readers!