Help your skin thrive as the weather gets colder with these holistic winter skin care tips.
The switch from fall to winter often brings with it some intense dryness. You can expect your skin to look and feel a little less plump and hydrated. In severe cases, you may actually notice flakiness, dullness, and even irritation as a result of dry air or chafing winds.
To prepare your skin for the freezing onslaught, I’ve put together this guide on how to naturally take care of skin in winter. Read on to learn which minor changes and winter skin care products will keep your skin bright, nourished, and glowy all season long.
1. Avoid Hot Showers
This first winter skin care tip might also be the toughest to apply in real life. Alas, hot showers are absolutely terrible for your skin, and this is most relevant in winter when you’re already more prone to dryness. Any submersion in water can end up dehydrating the skin, but hot water is the most damaging. Instead, try to keep your showers lukewarm with minimal steam.
2. Moisturize Immediately
This next tip follows immediately after the footsteps of the first one. Once you’re out of the shower, while your skin is still damp, moisturize immediately. Even cool water evaporates within minutes of showering, and that evaporation leaves your skin parched.
To prevent that from happening, apply your moisturizer as soon as you can, ideally while your skin is still a little wet. Moisturizers slow down trans-epidermal water loss, so they literally prevent evaporation from happening in the first place. Your skin might even be more hydrated than it was before.
3. Don’t Change Too Much
You don’t need to switch to a full routine of new skin care products. In fact, overwhelming your skin with a bunch of new things at once can be disastrous.
When the skin is dry it actually becomes a less effective barrier. The risk of irritation becomes higher in winter, especially if you add in a bunch of new products. What’s more, you’ll have no way of knowing which products caused the irritation in the first place.
Instead, it’s better to generally stick to the same products, and only add in one or two gentle, nourishing options.
4. Try a Richer Moisturizer
The first new winter skin care product you might want to introduce to your routine is a richer moisturizer. The creamier and thicker your moisturizer, the better a job it’ll do sealing moisture into your skin and preventing chafing.
Look for natural creams with ingredients that seal water into the skin, like shea butter or beeswax. Emollient oils like coconut oil, jojoba oil, and sunflower oil can also help.
That said, if your skin is oily, you can look for lighter moisturizers with hydrating ingredients like glycerin, hyaluronic acid, or aloe vera. They’ll keep your skin supple without feeling greasy.
5. Cleanse Gently
I actually recommend gentle cleansing all year round. In winter, it’s especially important.
We need to remove makeup, oils, and sunscreen from the skin every night but there’s no need to go about it in a harsh or stripping way. Strong soap or sulfate-based cleansers disrupt the skin barrier, often leading to dryness and dehydration.
Instead, opt for gentle cream, milk, or even oil cleansers that remove grime without stripping the skin. If your skin is very oily, a lightly foaming, sulfate-free cleanser with plant-based cleansing agents may also work.
6. Add a Humidifier
One of the reasons why winter is so drying is that the air holds less moisture at low temperatures. Artificial heating in our homes can make indoor air even dryer than outdoor air. Adding a humidifier in your bedroom is one excellent way of keeping moisture levels up and helping your skin stay hydrated.
7. Wear SPF
Contrary to popular belief, the sun can still damage your skin even when it’s cold. While the UV index might be lower in winter, you’re still exposed to some UVA and UVB rays that can lead to premature aging and put you at a higher risk of developing skin cancer.
If you spend any time outdoors in the sun, use a daily sunscreen or moisturizer with SPF. I always recommend gentle mineral sunscreens made with ingredients like zinc oxide or titanium dioxide.
If you’re worried about vitamin D, I recommend taking a supplement instead of risking your skin health with unprotected exposure.
Healthy Skin Needs More Than Skin Care
One of the best things you can do for your skin is take a holistic skin care approach. Our skin is our largest organ, and it’s impacted by what happens inside our body. So while you should definitely account for the changes in weather with your winter skin care routine, it’s also important to make sure the rest of your lifestyle helps your skin thrive.
That means eating a nutritious diet, drinking a lot of water, getting enough sleep, and avoiding unnecessary stress. You’d be surprised how much these fundamental habits can improve the look of your skin, helping it stay supple and hydrated in winter.
As a naturopath, my mission is to help you pursue a healthier lifestyle in a way that’s right for you. Through holistic skincare services, I help my patients address their overall skin health as well as specific concerns like eczema, premature aging, acne, and rosacea.
Through functional medicine and the support of natural skincare, I can help you improve your skin from the inside out. Book a consultation to discover the difference that the holistic approach can make.