During winter months the skin on your face is assaulted with icy temperatures and drying winds. In addition, many of us work in office environments that exacerbate these conditions with heating systems that dehydrate our skin. By adjusting your skin care to suit this frosty season you can restore softness and suppleness to your skin.
Winter Skin Care
While summer skin requires lighter lotions, winter skin needs richer creams to keep it hydrated, nourished and protected from harsh environmental factors. You can buy base creams that are unfragranced from aromatherapy suppliers and add essential oils to suit the season. Below are two example blends to use for day and night. They are suitable for all skin types, although sensitive skins are advised to patch test first.
Balancing Skin Conditioning Cleanser: Davis states that a blend of lavender and geranium balances the skin's production of sebum and prevents it from becoming too oily or too dry.(1) Blend 30ml carrier oil such as sweet almond, olive or jojoba with 9 drops each lavender and geranium oils. Use nightly to cleanse and massage skin.
Enriching Night Cream: blend 30ml unscented base cream with 6 drops each jasmine, rose and neroli to hydrate and restore your skin overnight. Jasmine oil is particularly beneficial for extra dry and dehydrated skins.
Nourishing Night Oil: blend 20ml avocado oil with 10ml borage, or starflower, oil adding 6 drops each frankincense, myrrh and rosewood to nourish and regenerate your skin overnight. You can buy borage oil from health food stores in the form of capsules. Pierce the capsules and squeeze out the oil to get the amount you need.
Mature skins will also benefit from piercing evening primrose oil capsules and squeezing out the pure oil to massage over the face at night.
Simple Winter Spa Treatments
Dry and flaky skin or dehydrated skin will benefit from weekly exfoliation in winter to remove dead skin cells and reveal a rosy complexion beneath. Gently exfoliate your skin in winter once a week with two desert spoons of finely ground oatmeal mixed with a little warm water into a paste. Massage the creamy mixture around your face for three to four minutes before rinsing off.
After exfoliation treat your skin to a mask such as manuka honey. Manuka honey will hydrate, nourish and restore your skin. It also has antibacterial properties that help prevent spots and keeps skin clear for winter parties. Smear the honey all over your face and leave for 20 to 30 minutes, remove with a warm damp cloth.
If you exfoliate and use a mask regularly throughout winter you will prevent your complexion from becoming dull and grey, and keep it glowing until spring.
References
- Patricia Davis, Aromatherapy, an A-Z, 2004, London, Random House.
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