Spice Up Your Winter Skin Care With Natural Ingredients
Winter is the season of snowflakes and hot chocolate. But for many, it brings to mind dreary images of dry skin, chapped lips, and dandruff issues. In winter skin care is a necessity for all. The onset of winter brings in cold and dryness, leeching moisture from our skin. No matter what your skin type or texture, winter affects everyone equally. To avoid skin care issues, it is important to keep your skin hydrated and nourished in winter too. If you already have a summer skin care routine and if it works well for you in winter, that’s great! But more often than not, we need a change in our skin care routine to suit the colder climate. With the changing seasons, it is important to bring a change to our skin care products. The ingredients that work wonders in summer may not give you the same results in winter. So, you must find alternatives that suit your skin and also provide nourishment in colder climates.
Common Skin Issues We Face in Winter
Our skin faces many hardships in the cold weather. The dry winds take away the skin’s moisture and make it dry and flaky. Dry skin can also become itchy leading to redness and irritation. When the upper layers of the skin don't have ample moisture, they can become flaky. In severe cases, dry skin can also lead to other conditions like eczema, psoriasis, etc. Another effect of the cold weather is on the skin’s tone and complexion. In the colder months, the skin can lose its vitality, becoming dull and dehydrated. However, with proper skin care, we can regain the vitality, radiance, and youthfulness of the skin even in the colder climate.
Best Natural Ingredients for Winter Skin Care
You can regain your skin’s moisture and radiance by bringing little changes to your winter skin care routine. Adding winter-specific natural ingredients to your skin care regimen can go a long way in keeping the skin healthy and young. Here are some winter-specific ingredients that work wonders on your skin:
Hydrating Ingredients
Unlike what most of us assume, cold air lacks moisture and humidity. That’s why it dries out the skin by taking its moisture. To restore moisture to the skin, you need deep hydration that lasts longer. The best solution is going for nourishing oils like coconut oil, argan oil, tamanu oil, etc. You can also opt for nourishing plant-based butter like shea butter, cocoa butter, moringa butter, etc. Also, ingredients like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, glycerin, petroleum jelly, etc. help in hydrating the skin deeply. You can opt for moisturizers and body butter enriched with these ingredients or bring them into your routine as a hyaluronic acid face serum or face oil with argan or rosehip oil. From Tamanu balm to niacinamide lotions, there are a lot of products that incorporate these natural ingredients.
Exfoliating Ingredients
Dirt and dead skin cells clog the pores and form a layer on the epidermis even in winter months. This prevents the moisture and nourishment from reaching the deeper layers, causing more dryness. Exfoliation removes dirt and impurities from the skin, clearing the pores, and leaving the skin looking soft and supple. However, it’s better to opt for natural exfoliators in winter to maintain the skin’s natural oils and hydration. Go for products containing orange peel, walnut grit, papaya enzymes, yogurt, coffee grinds, etc. These ingredients gently exfoliate and nourish the skin at the same time. You can also go for DIY sugar or salt scrubs made with these natural ingredients. Another alternative is face serums and peeling solutions with chemical exfoliators like AHA and BHA.
Soothing Ingredients
Dry skin is more prone to itchiness, redness, and irritation. It is also more susceptible to inflammation. It is important to make sure that your skin care products don’t aggravate your skin or cause inflammation. What you can do to avoid this is choose soothing ingredients that calm the skin while providing hydration. For winter, you should pick ingredients like calendula, chamomile, green tea, aloe vera, etc. that provide deep nourishment while soothing any irritated skin. They have anti-inflammatory, soothing properties that can calm the skin. You can choose products that combine these soothing ingredients with hydration boosters like hyaluronic acid or niacinamide so that your skin is nourished from within and retains its moisture for a longer time.
How to Incorporate Natural Ingredients into Your Routine
Simply knowing which ingredients nourish the dry winter skin is not enough. You should also know how to incorporate these ingredients into your winter skin care routine. Instead of randomly choosing anything, look closely at the composition of your chosen products. Go for products that use natural ingredients, especially the winter-specific ones mentioned above. Adapt these ingredients into your skin care routine with products like niacinamide face serum to use after your face wash and before your moisturizer. You can replace your summer products with specially crafted serums with nourishing and brightening agents like Vitamin C, Vitamin B5, etc. However, it is always best to patch-test any new product before integrating it into your routine.
Conclusion
Adapting natural ingredients into your winter skin care routine has many benefits. It can hydrate, nourish, and revive your skin from within keeping winter issues like dry, flaky skin, chapped lips, etc. away. Pamper your skin by embracing a natural approach and reaping the many benefits of organic skin care ingredients.