Winter is almost upon us, meaning that if you haven’t already implemented any changes to your summer skincare routine, it’s time to start thinking about that. Your skin’s needs are always changing, and a shift in the seasons signifies a shift in those requirements. If you want to maintain a healthy-looking glow throughout the colder season, you’ll need to adapt your skincare routine to cater to all that your skin craves during these harsher months.
How exactly do you go about adjusting your skincare routine for the winter? Keep reading as Lavelier shares some top tips!
Switch to a Gentler Cleanser
As the weather turns colder and drier, sebum production begins to slow down, reaching its annual low in the midst of the winter season. For those who were dealing with excessively oily skin and frequent breakouts in the summer, this drop in sebum can provide some relief. However, for everyone else, the lack of sebum means that it doesn’t take long for the skin to start feeling dry and sensitive.
At this time of year, you need to preserve your skin’s sebum as much as possible. This means putting aside your potent summertime cleanser in favor of a gentler, winter-friendly alternative. The Lavelier Oceana Breezy Facial Cleanser, for example, is filled with moisturizing ingredients. It will cleanse your skin without stripping it dry, and will then restore any lost moisture with the likes of argan oil, moringa seed oil, aloe vera, and coral seaweed.
Cut Back on Exfoliation
Exfoliation is a great way to remove excess oil from the pores. However, as you now know, excess oil isn’t usually a problem in the winter months. This means that, in the winter, you won’t need to exfoliate quite as often as you do in the summer.
In addition to cutting back on how often you exfoliate, it would also be worth ensuring that you’re using a gentle exfoliator. Now isn’t the time for super-abrasive scrubs or powerful acids. Instead, just like with your cleanser, you need to go easy on your skin.
This is something that the Lavelier Oceana Refining Coral Peel excels at. It’s a very gentle exfoliant but don’t be fooled into thinking that this means it isn’t effective. With a blend of mandelic acid, bamboo powder, and walnut shell powder, it exfoliates both physically and chemically, but with skin-friendly compounds that won’t irritate or dry your skin out.
Focus on Your Skin Barrier
Your skin barrier is vital when it comes to keeping your skin healthy. It blocks irritants and impurities from entering the deeper layers of the skin while also preventing moisture from evaporating out, therefore playing a key role in maintaining skin hydration levels.
Unfortunately, the winter weather isn’t kind to your skin barrier. The constant fluctuations between warm indoor air and bitterly cold outdoor air, plus the lack of humidity, causes havoc. It inhibits barrier function, meaning that not only does your skin become more sensitive since irritants will be able to make their way in more easily, but it also leaves the skin prone to dehydration.
A gentle cleanser and exfoliator will help to prevent barrier damage. However, a good moisturizer is also crucial. This will form an additional barrier over your skin’s natural one, doubling your skin’s shield. Look for a cream that offers plenty of fatty acids, like the Lavelier Oceana Skin Dew Moisturizer, as these will help your skin barrier feel stronger and more resilient.
Tone Down the Active Ingredients
With your skin barrier being weaker in the winter months, your skin will be more sensitive. As a result, it won’t be quite so tolerant of the potent active ingredients that you were slathering onto your skin all summer long.
Once winter rolls around and barrier function starts to slow down, you may want to tone down the active ingredients that you’re using. How? Try swapping your current actives for gentler derivatives. For example, if the retinol that you were using is now causing your skin to sting, switch to retinyl palmitate instead. It’s a gentler form of vitamin A yet it’s still very effective, which is why we’ve used it in the Lavelier Oceana VitaGlow C Serum.
If you’re not ready to give up on your actives, another option would be to buffer them. This simply means that instead of applying your active ingredients to freshly cleansed skin, you would apply another product, such as a lightweight moisturizer, in between. Why? Because this dilutes the potency of the active ingredients. As a result, you’ll be far less likely to experience sensitivities.
Invest in Humectants
As we mentioned earlier, dehydration is a common problem in the winter months. Due to how dry the air around you is, both indoors and outdoors, moisture evaporates out of the skin at a much faster rate.
This means that you’ll need to replenish that lost moisture as much as possible. How? With humectants. This ingredient group boasts moisture-binding properties. This enables them to quickly hydrate the skin, giving it a plumper and fuller finish.
Which humectants should you be using? Sodium hyaluronate and glycerin are known for being the best. However, there are plenty of other effective humectants to choose from too. Collagen, peptides, seaweed extract, and certain plant oils are just a few on the list.
When it comes to hydrating your skin, the more humectants you use, the better. This is why we’ve combined all of the above ingredients in the Lavelier HydroTherm Sauna Serum. It also contains vitamin C, which will help to give your skin a radiant glow!
Create a Hydration Sandwich
As you now know, humectants are fantastic for drawing moisture to the skin. However, once it brings new moisture in, it won’t be long before it ends up evaporating away due to the lack of moisture in the air around you.
This is why the ‘hydration sandwich’ trend has become so popular. It essentially means ‘sandwiching’ your hydrating ingredients between clean, damp skin (because damp skin is more permeable) and a thicker moisturizer. The moisturizer over the top of the hydrating ingredients helps to lock them in and slow down evaporation.
The thicker the moisturizer you use, the better you’ll be able to prevent moisture loss. If you’d like to give this trend a try, the Lavelier Marine Deep Moisturizer would be perfect. Not only does it contain shea butter but it also boasts its own humectants, along with skin-loving vitamins.
Soothe the Look of Winter Skin Irritations
With sensitivities on the rise in the winter, many people often experience redness and inflammation. Once this starts to happen, it can be difficult to eradicate since the winter weather will be constantly working against you.
This is why it’s important for your skincare routine to contain ingredients/products that work to reduce the appearance of redness and inflammation in the skin. Certain ingredients do this very well and can quickly restore the look of balance and vitality to your skin.
Which ingredients should you be looking out for? Aloe vera is one. Numerous studies confirm how this botanical is able to quickly lower the feeling of inflammation in the skin. Chamomile extract is another superstar at calming the complexion, as are cucumber and seaweed extracts.
You’ll find all of those ingredients included in the Lavelier Oceana Pure Balance Toner. Splash this solution over your skin once you’re done cleansing and your skin will immediately feel more relaxed, as well as more receptive to the other products that you’re about to apply.
Don’t Stop Using Sun Protection
Once the intensity of the summer sun begins to die down, people often stop using sunscreens. They believe that SPF is no longer needed since the heat from the sun is minimal in the winter.
However, even though the winter sun may not cause sunburns in the way that the summer sun does, those UV rays that contribute to skin aging and skin cancer are still very much around. They’ll still trigger inflammation in your skin, which is the last thing you need in the winter when your skin will already be more susceptible to inflammation.
So, while you may be making a few changes to your skincare routine in preparation for winter, your sunscreen is a product that needs to stick around. By all means, look for a more moisturizing formula, just like the Lavelier Divine Day Defense SPF 30, but make sure that you’re still putting plenty of effort into preventing the appearance of sun damage.
Pay Attention to Your Body Too
Once the weather turns colder, people usually start wearing more layers. The body tends to spend these months hidden away, making it very easy to neglect the skin here.
However, the skin on your body needs plenty of TLC in the winter too. Sure, it may not be out on display in the way that the skin on your face is, but it will still be prone to all of the same issues that the skin on your face might experience in the winter months.
If your body care routine is lacking, now is the time to turn things around. Start by incorporating a body scrub into your skincare routine, such as the Lavelier Seascape Body Scrub. With sea salt as its base, your skin will not only benefit from being exfoliated, but it will also love the minerals that sea salt has to offer.
Follow this up with the Lavelier Seascape Body Butter. This luscious moisturizer features a blend of shea butter and coral seaweed extract. It will leave your skin feeling ultra-smooth and velvety soft!
Winter Skincare With Lavelier
With the winter months being so harsh and taking such a toll on the skin, it’s important that your winter skincare routine is able to give your skin all that it needs. Implement the tips that we’ve shared above and you’ll be covering every angle, ensuring that your skin looks smooth, radiant, and healthy all through the colder season.
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