5 Winter Skincare Tips to Keep Skin Healthy and Strong
Yes, winter’s here again. Forget hot cocoa and cozy nights streaming your favorite shows. It’s well and truly the time of rough, dry, flaky skin. When temperatures plummet, winds bite, and the heating is on, our complexion bears the brunt. But no matter how parched, tight or uncomfortable your skin is, these tried-and-tested practical tips will get your skin back to soft and glowing.
Cleanse Gently Without Stripping Skin
A less-than-ideal cleansing routine can make things worse. Winter skin needs extra-gentle, hydrating cleansers that remove all the things you don’t want (impurities, SPF, makeup) without stripping away the protective lipid barrier. Avoid soap-based face washes and foaming agents like SLS and SLES. Cleanse in the PM only. Rinse with skin-friendly tepid water (never hot) and pat skin dry. Tip: skin should never feel squeaky clean or tight after cleansing. Apply moisturizer or serum while’s skin’s still damp to seal in that much-needed hydration.
Enriched with glycerin, magnolia berry, and burdock, Six Gldn’s hydrating Botanical Cleansing Gel soothes dryness and leaves skin soft, supple and nourished.
Simplify Your Routine to Support the Barrier
When dry, flaky patches hit you might be tempted to reach for multi-step actives and powerful exfoliators. But the key to a plump, happy, luminous complexion is a strong barrier, which is stressed by harsh ingredients. Less is more in winter – ease back to the essentials that calm, soothe, and boost moisture and hydration. Exfoliate very gently just once or twice a week to lift dead skin cells and remove flakes.
Six Gldn’s Botanical Toner, with antioxidant ginseng and calming burdock, is a powerful skin-soother. It sweeps away dulling dead cells and allows hydration to work even harder.
Layer Hyaluronic Acid for Deep Hydration
Flaky, tight, or red skin needs hydration, followed by nourishing, oil-based occlusives to seal it in. Hyaluronic acid is one of our favorite humectants that draws water from the environment into thirsty skin, making it bouncy and plump. But, in colder months when heating has fried out the air, there’s not much humidity to be found – and this moisture-magnet is so effective it’ll draw water from your skin instead. Here’s how to make the magic happen: apply hyaluronic acid when skin’s still wet after cleansing. Follow with a nourishing moisturizer or face oil rich in fatty acids (the building blocks of the barrier), antioxidants, and nutrient-rich ingreidnts. This protective veil seals in all that thirst-quenching water and keeps skin soft and comfortable.
Six Gldn’s Essential Moisturizer restores a healthy glow and restores suppleness and strength with hyaluronic acid, fatty acid-rich hemp seed oil, argan oil, glycerin and astragalus.
With a blend of deeply replenishing oils and botanical extracts, Six Gldn’s Nourishing Face Oil rejuvenates and strengthens the natural barrier for velvet-soft, plump-looking skin.
Nourish skin from within
Of course, the state of our skin isn’t always down to what we put on it. It starts with what we eat. The right fuel – food rich in nutrients – can have a major impact on a dull, dry, radiance-zapped complexion. For a healthy glow, up your intake of omegas from oily fish such as herring, sardines, and salmon. Don’t eat fish? Chia, hemp, flaxseeds and walnuts are all excellent sources of fatty acids. Vitamin A helps keep skin moisturized – pack your diet with yellow, red and orange fruit and vegetables like carrots, squash, bell peppers, sweet potato and mango. A compromised barrier and dry, cracked skin and lips can be a sign that your body lacks B vitamins. Top up from chicken, beef, eggs, cheese, avocado, broccoli and bananas.
Add a Humidifier to Fight Dry Air
Dry air means dry skin. Using a humidifier at home can help curb parched skin and rough patches by increasing the moisture in the air. The golden rule is to use in the room where you spend the most time – for a lot of us that’s now the home office – and set to the optimal moisture level of between 40-50%.