10 Ways to Improve Your Dry Skin in the Winter

6 Reasons Sensitive Skin Feels Worse After the Holidays

How is your skin right now? A little worse for wear since the holidays? Feeling the toll of wintertime? You’re not the only one! I wish it weren't this way. Only a few get away with skin that feels good all winter long. All the issues you have are worse right now. And this is the time to turn it around, so that it’s healed before spring when you’re back out again in sun that's traveling higher in the sky. Your skin is scientifically called the "skin barrier". When your skin barrier is weakened, which it is at the moment, it doesn’t stand up as well to sun exposure (or air pollution, or even life's little stresses). If you want to skip straight to the part where I tell you how to help your winter skin now, jump to the bold pink list at the end of this post. If you're keen to learn more about how your skin works, keep reading on 🙂 Why is your skin at its worst right now? Was it the holidays? Is it the season?

6 Reasons Skin Feels Worse After the Winter Holidays

1) You indulged in sugary treats over the holidays. Extra sugar means releasing more insulin into your system and this harms your skin.

2) You drank more alcohol. This dries your skin, and dry skin exasperates skin issues you already experience.

3) Winter air is drying. Likely your home heater is, too. This makes your skin dry. Dry skin deteriorates your skin barrier.  Deterioration of your skin barrier makes your skin drier. Can you see how a positive feedback loop gets activated? Dry skin causes skin damage ➡ skin damage causes dry skin ➡ dry skin causes skin damage ➡ and it all spirals out of control. Your skin is more uncomfortable.

4) You went to parties and perhaps you wore more perfume, more makeup and maybe you even put on new nail polish. Unfortunately, all this harms your skin.

5) The holidays are wonderful. I love Christmas! There's no denying the holidays are also stressful. Psychological stress is yet one more thing that damages your skin.

6) You’re older now than you were before the holidays lol ☺ Fortunately, only 10% of skin changes are actually due to aging and hormonal changes. Still, we do notice that 10%.

8 Ways a Healthy Skin Barrier Benefits You

This list isn’t meant to depress you. It’s meant to empower you! Knowledge is power, right? When it comes to your skin, knowledge makes all the difference...in how you feel and how you look. Do you wonder, when your skin is healthy and ticking along just as it should, what that looks like? Do you know what healthy skin is? What does it actually do for you to have a healthy skin barrier?

8 Ways a Healthy Skin Barrier Benefits You

1) You have soft skin.

2) Your skin is smooth and doesn’t crack.

3) Daily skin exfoliation happens naturally, but you can't see it happen: you don't see flakes of skin.

4) Your skin heals fast and it glows because renewal happens daily at a fast rate.

5) Viruses and bacteria can’t get in and cause infections.

6) Your skin can keep pollution out (did you even know pollution enters your skin?!)

7) Moderate sun exposure and sunburns don’t cause as much long-term damage.

8) Your skin holds in moisture. It’s not dry. It's not itchy. As I mentioned, I think it's important to know some of the details behind how your skin works. But what's really important to us all are the answers to the questions: How can you have comfortable skin at this time of year? How can you start the spring and summer with healthy skin, so you're setting yourself up for the best? I do have solutions for you! I do like to help.

10 Ways to Improve Your Dry and Sensitive Skin in the Winter

 1)  You are what you eat! Keep your sugar intake low. This includes, of course, decreasing white sugar, raw cane sugar, honey, rice syrup, maple syrup.

Add to this list: white bread, white rice, regular wheat pasta, corn and potatoes. They behave just like plain old sugar. Did you notice I didn’t make a blanket statement about carbohydrates? I didn't, because they’re not all bad! Eat healthy amounts of brown rice, thick rolled oats, steel cut oats, grains such as millet, quinoa and rye. Be more sparing with whole wheat bread and pasta, but feel free to include these.

2) Drink enough water and consider herbal teas, what the French call “tisane". Many herbs contain antioxidants that reverse skin damage caused by holiday indulgence. My favourite? Rose petal tea.

3) If your house is dry, consider running a humidifier. Just make sure to keep it clean so you don’t end up breeding dangerous molds and fungus.

4)  Are you heating with wood? Do you live in a high-vehicle-traffic area? If so, use an air filter to rid your air of all these toxic pollutants.

5)  It’s pretty difficult to eliminate stress. However, it’s in your power how you deal with inevitable stress. When stress has you feeling down and hopeless, have you noticed that you hold your body, and even your face that way, too? Downwards? When you're feeling down, it's a stance like dead weight. Here's an exercise: Stand in front of a mirror and pretend or practice feeling hopeful for a moment. Do you see how the corners of your mouth lift? How you’re holding yourself up again? No downwards sagging? Make a commitment to yourself to keep your face and body muscles poised for hope. This is a way to take charge. You will feel and look better when you take charge of how you respond to stress.

6)  When you wash your skin, wash for at least 15 seconds. This is how you wipe away lurking pathogens trying to find their way into your skin. If harmful bacteria and viruses aren't there, they can't cause infections.

7)  Use a soap that not only cleans, but also moisturizes. Soap can be therapeutic. Slow Botanicals are made for this. Created with more oil than you need to cleanse, the extra oil sinks deep into your skin to keep your skin cells juicy and hydrated.

8)  Directly after washing your face, put on a good moisturizer. Don’t give your skin a chance to dry out between these two skincare steps! Use a moisturizer that contains beeswax to seal in moisture and heal your skin, both at the same time.

9) Use skincare products that contain natural antioxidants. Antioxidants keep free radicals caused by pollution, stress, harmful foods and sun damage from entering your skin cells where they do long-term damage. If the free radicals have already made their way into your skin cells, antioxidants chase them down and block their actions. Once damage is done? Antioxidants are amazing at repair.

10)  Eliminate scented products from your beauty routine Fragrance-free products help prevent your skin from drying out and becoming even more sensitive as time goes on. With every year of using scented products, you put your skin at greater risk of developing serious skin problems.

That's not a difficult list, right? I love how easy steps and simple habits are all it really takes to have comfortable, hydrated skin. Same goes for being all-over healthy! Have any questions about what you've read? Looking for more details on ways to improve your dry skin in the winter? Ask me your questions below in the comment section. Take care, Chwynyn