How to Keep Your Skin Moisturized and Healthy in Winter?

Discover expert tips for winter skincare! Learn how to keep your skin healthy, moisturized, and glowing in the cold season.

During the colder months, skin cells are more slowly exfoliated, which makes the skin texture uneven and leads to sebum lingering on the skin. This, in turn, increases the number of bacteria and results in inflammation on the face. In addition, a violation of your skin’s oil and water balance due to temperature differences - low air temperature outside and central heating indoors - can make your skin dry, flaky, and cracked.

For these reasons, it is necessary to implement some changes in your whole lifestyle to keep your skin healthy. These include staying hydrated, reducing alcohol intake, and avoiding smoking (for example, you may consider switching to nicotine-free Blu vape liquids), as well as sticking to a balanced diet.

Nevertheless, you should also stay consistent with your skincare routine and adjust it to the colder season - the same way you adjust your wardrobe every few months. Like clothes, skincare products should be chosen thoughtfully, understanding the primary purposes of their use - in winter, these are keeping your skin moisturized. Here are the essential rules for maintaining your skin healthy during the winter months:

Use Gentle Exfoliators

You can fairly assume that exfoliating the skin in winter can make it even drier. Indeed, there is such a risk, but this does not mean that you should give up using exfoliants during the colder months altogether. It is essential to exfoliate your skin all year round, as it helps accelerate its regeneration and improves its absorption properties. In winter, you just need to use gentle exfoliators to avoid irritation.

So, instead of a scrub with abrasive particles, use a gommage or an exfoliating cream containing AHA and BHA acids in low concentration. How frequently you should exfoliate your skin depends on your skin type - it’s once a week for dry skin and twice a week for oily and combination skin.

Use Vitamin C Creams and Serums

Vitamin C is the ingredient you should look out for in your beauty products as it helps preserve the summer radiance of the skin during the cold months. It brightens and strengthens the skin, stimulates the production of collagen (because of which the skin retains moisture better), and helps protect it from environmental stressors. Moreover, vitamin C will help you maintain an even tone and texture of the skin and enhance its natural radiance.

When choosing skincare products containing vitamin C, pay attention to the ascorbic acid component in the product’s composition. Its presence guarantees the optimal vitamin C concentration, which will not irritate your skin (about 5-10%).

Moisturize Regularly

It is essential to stay consistent with your skincare routine at all times, but especially when it comes to moisturizing your skin in winter. Moreover, you can enhance your usual moisturizer by mixing it with a serum containing hyaluronic acid, azulene, or Gotu Kola extract. These components will not only be able to penetrate the deep layers of the epidermis and nourish it with moisture but also restore damaged areas of the skin.

When choosing a moisturizer, pay attention to the texture. Fluids and emulsions are not suitable for the winter period - these are light moisturizers ideal for most skin types in summer. Considering the low air temperature and constantly running central heating, it would be best to switch to creams. Their denser texture will seal the moisture inside and serve as a protection layer for your skin.

Change the Type of Your Facial Cleanser

In winter, the skin produces less sebum, which protects the upper layers of the epidermis from drying out. Therefore, it is essential to carefully cleanse your skin with milder products to help prevent the excessive removal of sebum and preserve your skin’s hydrolipidic protective barrier. So, if you use a gel-textured or foam facial cleanser as your default one, you should change it to a cream or oil formula as soon as the temperature begins to decrease.

You can still use creams, oils, balms, and micellar water to remove makeup during the cold months. These products remove makeup residue effectively and deeply cleanse the pores without disturbing the skin barrier.

Don’t Forget SPF

It is essential to ensure that SPF remains an integral part of your skincare routine in winter because ultraviolet rays are still active at this time of year. You should apply sunscreen on a daily basis to your face and other exposed areas, such as the neck, ears, and hands.

Take Proper Care of Your Body, Hands, and Lips

Now that you know how to adjust your skincare routine to winter conditions, it is time to learn how to take care of not only your face but also your entire body. Here are some things you should keep in mind:

Body

The desire to spend at least half an hour in the hot shower after coming home from uncomfortable weather is entirely understandable. However, hot water dries the skin quickly, and if you do not moisturize it immediately after, it may start flacking and cracking. For people with chronic skin diseases, such as eczema or atopic dermatitis, there is a risk of getting their skin problems worsened. If you have this kind of skin disease, you might consider Goat Milk Soap which is an eczema-friendly product.

For these reasons, remember to take warm showers with products that have an oily or dense creamy texture and do not foam excessively. After the shower, apply a moisturizer - body lotion, butter, balm, or cream - to preserve the skin barrier and prevent dryness. Hyaluronic acid, ceramides, wheat germ, and vitamin A are the ingredients you should look out for when choosing your perfect moisturizer.

Hands and Feet

Sebaceous glands that create sebum that keeps your skin moist are located throughout all the areas of the skin, except the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. For this reason, moisture is being removed from the skin of your hands and feet quicker than any other part of your body, increasing the risk of cracking and itching.

In order to protect your hands from drying out in winter, make sure to apply a thick hand cream to your hands 30 minutes before leaving the house, and do not neglect to wear gloves outside. To retain moisture in the skin of the feet, choose creams based on glycerin and Vaseline. In addition, you should exfoliate your feet area at least once a week to remove dry and dead skin, stimulate circulation and skin absorption.

Lips

The skin on the lips is thinner than on the rest of the face, making it more susceptible to the damaging effects of cold and wind. To replenish hydration and protect your lips from cracking, chapping, and flacking, it is necessary to wear lip balm during the day.

In addition, you should choose an ointment-based lip balm that also contains sunscreen and stay away from lip balms containing camphor, eucalyptus, and menthol.

Final Note

As you can see, keeping your skin moisturized in winter to avoid chapping, flaking, and drying out is a complex task that requires you to pay due attention to the products you use as well as certain areas you apply them to - your hands, lips, feet. However, staying consistent with your skincare regimen and switching to more suitable products for winter conditions will help you achieve that healthy look on your face!

Remember to apply your SPF daily, avoid too hot showers, choose moisturizers with dense textures, and keep your hands warm - this way, winter won’t get a chance to leave its mark on your skin.