As the seasons change and it gradually gets colder, our skin leaks the all important moisture and gets irritated by heat, cold, humidity and wind.
The weather can change the ph of your skin and as we go into winter the skin barrier becomes compromised and inflamed.
For those of us that are prone to eczema, psoriasis and acne, these skin types are more likely to flare up with the seasonal changes.
So what can we do to minimize our skins sensitivity?
If our skin is feeling drier, we need to add more moisture to the skin so changing your moisturiser to a richer cream or adding a serum and oil into our routine will definitely help.
Although our skin may feel dry and flaky, don’t feel compelled to exfoliate! We need our skin to gain strength and hold moisture and exfoliating too much will encourage the skin to evaporate water and you will be in a cycle of having dry flaky skin. Exfoliate 1 x week maximum with a mild exfoliator such as Elemis Gentle rose exfoliator that contains jojoba beads to smooth the skin without irritating it.
With Environ, their exfoliation is within their toners and uses ingredients such as lactic and glycolic acid. Although these sound scary, they are very gentle on the skin and will reduce the skins sensitivity as you aren’t irritating the surface of the skin like you can with a manual scrub.
We can also take supplements to hydrate our skin from the inside out and work as an internal moisturiser. We recommend the Advanced Nutrition Programme Skin Omegas. These supplements contain fish oils, GLA from evening primrose oil and vitamin A for notable benefits to hydration, skin smoothness and wrinkle depth.
A few other things that can help is to avoid drastic change of temperature too often if you can help it, avoid hot showers when you are cold, protect areas of skin that are prone to flaring up.
If you need any skin advice as the seasons change and you’re not sure what to use, feel free to pop into the salon and we will be more than happy to help.
