Best Tips for Fall & Winter Beauty
I always want to feel my best, no matter the time of year. During the dry and cool months of Fall and Winter, I have to change up my routine. Humid summer makes me oily, but I find this time of year everything seems dry. This is the dryest skin I’ve ever experienced. Right now I feel like my skin can’t get enough moisture! Here are my tips for how to keep looking your best, despite the cold and dry weather you might be experiencing now.
H2O
I’m sure you hear it all the time, but drink more water. While I don’t think you need to drink 8 glasses of water a day, try changing out one of your cups of coffee or soda for a glass of water. Caffeine is a diuretic, so make sure you drink enough water to counteract the coffee or soda. Right now I’m not drinking soda at all (Vanilla Coke Zero, I miss you!). I’m sticking to water, green tea (has caffeine) and herbal teas.
Hydrating Your Locks
Since I lighten and color my hair, I’m constantly adding more moisture to my locks. During Fall and Winter, even if you don’t chemically treat your hair, you’ll want to add more moisture. Try a hydrating shampoo and conditioner. I really love Marc Anthony Oil of Morocco
Argan Oil shampoo and conditioner. I’m using this whenever I wash my hair. If your hair is really dry, you can also do moisture masques once a week. I love Bedhead Dumb Blonde Reconstructor. It’s got wheat, soy, keratin and Pro-vitamin B-5 complex. However, if you need a heavy hitter, try Redken Extreme Strength Builder Plus
. I used this product when I had my hair extensions to keep my hair healthy.
Styling Your Mane
No matter how you style your hair, I recommend using a leave-in treatment of some sort. I love Black 15 in 1 Miracle Hair Treatment
because it adds shine, moisturizes, prevents frizzies, detangles, repairs dry and damanged hair, protects against heat styling, protects from UV light and more. It’s an aptly named product! I use it before I blow dry my hair. I think you should always dry your hair before you go out into the cold so that you’re preventing split ends and breakage.
Your Biggest Organ
Your skin is your biggest organ! It gets really dry in the Fall and Winter. You should stop using your light body lotions from Summer months and move onto the heavier body butters. I’m going to be picking up the gud Pearanormal Activity body butter from Target to try out, but in the past I’ve used body butters from The Body Shop. I love the Pearanormal Activity scent, so it’s a must have for me! Pearanormal Activity is exclusive to Target right now.
That Face
For your face, adding in a serum or heavier moisturizer can help. Right now my face cannot get enough moisturizer (partially due to my rosacea meds drying me out), so I feel like I keep adding more products to help out. I’m using Embryolisse (review coming soon, this stuff seriously makes my skin soft overnight) at night, and adding it on top of my daytime Supergoop SPF 50 moisturizer during the day. I just started using an additional Vitamin C capsule at night and a Vitamin A or E capsule during the day. I purchased First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream
to try out sometime soon, too.
Snowflakes Only, Please
Exfoliate your skin! Right now, I’ve got to do it very carefully, so I’m only doing it once a week. I find the St. Ives Naturally Clear Green Tea Scrub
gentle for my skin.
Cherry Chapstick
Well, not really Cherry Chapstick, but it’s very important to remember to lock in moisture for your lips. Right now I’m a fan of Supergoop SPF 30 Lip Balm
, since it has SPF. However, my longtime favorite lip balms are Epically Epic lip balms. These are vegan and the ingredients are Pistachio Butter, Candelilla Wax, Jojoba Seed Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Castor Oil, Vitamin E, Flavor, Natural Sweetener, Mineral Colorant. The pistachio butter is super moisturizing and the wax helps to lock in the moisture so your lips stay hydrated.
What do you do different during the colder months to feel your best?
Amazon links are affiliate links. Marc Anthony Oil of Morocco sent for consideration. Everything else purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
wow I need that black product sounds nice, but I haven’t seen it here .
Here in Colorado, the air is very, very dry — typically single digit humidity, like you find in the desert. I keep filled Nalgene water bottles at my desk at work and drink water regularly and often, about 120 ounces a day. I’ve found that is the single-most important thing that helps my skin. The water doesn’t help much for my dry, fine, frizzy hair, so I use sulfate-free hair products that are made with natural botanicals and moisturizing oils, and it makes a huge difference. I do a full body exfoliation at least once a week using one of my 100% viscose Korean scrubbing mitts — there is nothing quite like them for getting all the dead skin off, and follow that with Neutrogena Bath Oil (I buy it in bulk at Costco because it’s so awesome!) I typically follow that with a body butter of some type (lately the body butters from Cocoa Pink, Cleanse Your Soul, and Dreaming Tree Soapworks have been rocking my socks.) I’m also a huge fan of Darling Girl Cosmetics’ “Bye Bye Dry” Lavender-Infused Horstetail Butter for my lips, cuticles, elbows, and feet. I love it so much I’m buying tins for my mom and sister for Xmas, too. The cold weather makes the dry winter air so tough on the body, but since it’s so dry here in Colorado, I tend to do most of these things during the summer, too.
I have combo skin, and it gets really oily in the summer (though with dry patches) and super dry in the cold weather. (I live in Chicago, so it gets pretty nasty here.) A few weeks ago, my face actually became very sensitive — all red, irritated, peeling, and burning. My skin’s always been very tough, so it was weird.
I’ve been using Lush’s Aqua Marina as a cleanser (though I also like their 9 to 5 cleanser to help remove makeup), Nivea (the German formula) for a facial moisturizer, Soap & Glory’s Hand Food for a hand cream (my hands always crack and bleed), and Soap & Glory’s Heel Genius for my feet. I also like using Lumene products for extra moisture and to lighten my acne scars. (I like their Vitamin C+ Bright Skin Radiance Nectar, Vitamin C+ Pure Radiance 24H Lotion, and Vitamin C+ Dry Skin Comfort Radiance Cocktail.) For lip balms, I used to use either Medicated Chapstick or the CVS generic version of it, but recently I’ve been using Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm in Lemon & Chamomile.
Oh, and on gentle exfoliation: My cousin has really sensitive skin, and she recommends using yogurt. She puts a layer of plain yogurt on her face and keeps it on for about 15-20 minutes, and then rinses it off. The lactic acid gently exfoliates, and doesn’t require any manual exfoliation. (You can either use the plain yogurt by itself, or add lemon juice, honey, and brown or white sugar to it.) My cousin’s been able to do this about 2-3 times a week. (I’ve also read that buttermilk works well for this, too.)
Really good advice! I do most of the things you mentioned, especially the water because all I drink throughout the day is water and occasionally I’ll make a fruit smoothie or grab a V8. My usual night cream seems to not work as well so I think it might be the weather change…hadn’t really thought of that until reading this post!
Oddly Vaseline is like my best friend during winter. I’ll often put some on my hands and feet, then grab those salon type socks & mittens, warm them up and put them on for a bit. So soft afterwards! Works for dry elbow and knees as well, I just use a warm towel straight out of the dryer.
I exfoliate head to toe using Eco Tools shower mitt or Earth Therapeutics loofah for body, Earth Therapeutics loofah complexion pads for face and a cheapy dollar store tooth brush for lips. I even exfoliate my scalp lol. You sure made me want to jump up and try the Embryolisse products now, I haven’t touched them yet but I sure will now!
I’d love to hear how you like the FAB Ultra Repair. I tried the rescue cream (forget the correct name), the one with oatmeal that is supposed to reduce redness, but it didn’t really perform well for me. My skin is very, very dry now, also. My roseacea gel and the dry Florida weather now are killing me.
I will try the green tea scrub, since you say it’s very gentle. I also wanted to ask you about green tea itself. I read several studies that indicate white tea is a better choice since it contains more antioxidants than the green variety. Any thoughts on that, perhaps? And I love herbal tea as well. I like to make a pitcher of it and put it in the fridge, especially the mixed berry flavor. No sweetener needed; it’s delicious by itself, ice cold.
Love to Phaedra and Max! And thanks for reading my run-on post!
Great list, I haven’t tried the st ives green tea scrub but I’ve been happy with their other ones. I should try it out.