Is the cold, dry air making your skin look more scaly than smooth? During the colder months, the wind and dry air sap all moisture out of your skin, leaving a flaky mess. Give your skin some extra love this winter by following this two-step skin process for smooth, glowing skin.
Step 1: Exfoliate.
To make sure that the skin is able to be its smoothest self, exfoliation twice a week is key. Scrubs can be efficient, but can also cause micro-tears in the skin, which are small tears made on the skin surface by abrasive scrubs. While being overzealous with scrubs can be harmful, using scrubs can still be effective in the removal of dead skin. Some of the best physical exfoliants are:
Olehenrikson pore balance facial sauna scrub ($28)
Kate Somerville Exfolikate treatment ($24).
The safest way to exfoliate the skin is by chemical exfoliants like AHAs and BHAs. These products chemically remove the dead cells instead of using harsh particles. This makes sure that there is no further damage to the skin barrier and gently takes away the dead skin.
Some good chemical exfoliants are:
Neogen Bio-peel gauze ($17)
Drunk Elephant baby facial ($80)
Step 2: Fixing the skin barrier.
Whether you have dry, oily, or combo skin, the skin barrier should take priority. The skin barrier is the skin on your face which is made of skin cells and lipids. When the skin is neglected, the skin barrier becomes weaker and easily damaged. During the colder months, the skin barrier needs to become extra strong in order to keep beautiful looking skin all through the winter.
Now on to how to keep the skin barrier healthy. All the help you need is in the ingredients in your moisturizers: ceramides, fatty acids, and cholesterol. These three ingredients will help maintain the skin barrier all year long. There is sometimes trouble in finding all three ingredients in one moisturizer, so mixing different moisturizers is the best solution. When keeping up with your skin barrier, it becomes less susceptible to flaking, breaking out, and overall makes your skin glow.
Some moisturizers that have ceramides and fatty acids are:
First Aid Beauty ultra repair cream ($30)
Glossier priming moisturizer rich ($35)
The best moisturizer for cholesterol is:
CeraVe moisturizing cream ($9)
Now go have glowing, moisturized skin all winter long.