Winter Skin

I was asked to post on Winter skin by a lovely friend and client…

When the Winter is upon us and the temperature drops our bodies start to retain heat. It kindly diverts the blood flow to our central organs (brain heart etc.) to keep them warm and functioning BUT it does this by constricting blood vessels in your skin.

The skin can quickly become dry, dull, flakey and the hands can even crack. Eczema, psoriasis and rosacea tends to flare up.

We can of course help our skin to get through the Winter with just a few tweaks.

The most obvious way to hydrate your skin is to drink water. Plenty of water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine.

You should also MOISTURISE moisturise moisturise. I love MONU Recovery Balm. I know I harp on about it all the time, but it just suits all skins and hydrates the skin and really is a Winter Saviour.

Swap your foaming cleanser for a

 hydrating milk cleanser and double cleanse before bed. Ideally as soon as you get home in the evening to give your skin plenty of time to breathe and adjust to the temp change from cold to central heating. Avoid alcohol-based toners. The MONU Gentle Toner is perfect and is alcohol free.

There are a few supplements you can add to help during these Winter months.

A daily dose of Collagen is a great boost for your skin. We all need to keep our collagen levels up to keep our skin not only to improve skin hydration but to keep the wrinkles at bay. We also retail fab MONU Collagen Eye pads and Face Masks. Remember to avoid sugars, it is damaging to collagen amongst other things.

Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, and a supplement will help reduce the dark circles and pigmentation and will give your skin more radiance.

I would also suggest Zinc, Selenium and a good hair, skin and nail supplement.

Vitamin D is something we all lack in the Winter but even more so during a Lockdown in Winter. Some of us are not getting out the house much. It helps with eczema, psoriasis and dry skin in general. Not only is Vitamin D great for the skin but if we are deficient in Vitamin D it causes what we call bones, groans and psychic moans meaning bone pain, muscles weakness and cramps, fatigue and missed changes.

If you are lucky enough to get out the house (and you really should try) you should make sure you wear an SPF on your face preferably factor 30. YES, EVEN IN WINTER!

While you are at home try not to put your heating up too high as it does cause your skin to dry out even more. Turn the heating right down at night and snuggle under the duvet instead. If you take a bath or shower to warm yourself up don’t have the water piping hot. Again, this will not help your skin. The hot water breaks down the lipid barriers in the skin leading to a loss of moisture. When you get out of the shower or bath pat the skin dry rather than rubbing the skin aggressively with the towel.

Another great idea, particularly during Lockdown while we spend a lot more time in the house, is to pop a small humidifier in some of the rooms of your house to help with the skins moisture retention AND it helps with breathing.

I hope you can take a little something to help your skin from this post. Self-care really is so important. Our skin is the largest organ of the body – adults carry some 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) and 22 square feet (2 square meters) of it (yes, I felt the need to google that) Looking after our skin should be high up on our list of priorities and ways to care for ourselves.