5 Ways to Protect Your Skin from the Autumn and Winter
Throughout winter your skin can experience changes such as dry or cracked skin, eczema flares, itchy skin, exacerbated rosacea and even more acne breakouts. The skin can be just as susceptible to weather shifts as it is to hormone changes or dietary splurges. Consider these five ways to protect your skin this autumn and winter, to keep it looking radiant and healthy.
Try oils… both inside and out
Fish oil and others high in omega-3 essential fatty acids have been shown to help dry itchy skin if taken regularly. You can also eat fresh-caught cold-water fish, like salmon, on a regular basis.
In the beauty industry, the use of oils on the face and body has become more popular, as women are seeing a benefit. Oils such as Argan and Marula oil can improve skin’s hydration. Only a few drops daily are needed, in the morning or before bed.
There are several companies that have jumped on this bandwagon so it’s important to buy only quality oils from a reputable brand. Oils can become rancid very quickly as noted by an unpleasant odour.
Consider daily probiotic use
These microorganisms are typically found in certain dairy foods, and in fermented foods such as kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi. Or they can be taken in oral supplement form. Probiotics have been shown in research on mice and humans to have beneficial effects on skin conditions such as atopic dermatitis, which can occur during the dry weather days of autumn and winter.
Eliminate or reduce dairy products
Research has shown that dairy products can increase inflammation, especially in the skin, increasing the chances of acne breakouts. As the change in weather can make the skin more sensitive all around, cutting out dairy such as cheese, milk and yogurt, may make this transition much smoother. Consider replacing these products with rice, almond or coconut milk, or asking restaurants to hold the cheese on your salad, sandwich or hamburger. This might be especially challenging during the holidays. But if the correlation is there for you and forgoing dairy helps, it may well be worth it.
Drink plenty of fluids
It is also important to hydrate this time of year. Cold weather may not instinctively remind us to drink water like the hot summer days do, but our skin still has a serious need for fluids. So drinking the recommended 2L of water a day will benefit your health and your skin.
The right skin care products
Keeping good care of your skin using the right products is also highly important. During the winter months, you tend to spend more time indoors due to the cold weather. Our homes – particularly nowadays – are what we call ‘hermetically sealed’, this means that the gaps around the windows and doors are sealed and so inside our homes, the environment is, therefore, more anaerobic (less oxygen), aka a greater place for bacteria to breed and so skin conditions (particularly acne) tend to become worse over winter. If you don’t want your acne or rosacea getting worse over the winter months it is key to you use either the Aknicare products or Rosacure products to prevent breakouts and flare ups.
The addition of the cold dry winds don’t help either, these conditions can make your skin become dry and flaky – a key contributor to exacerbating many skin conditions.
Stay prepared! Try our Hydratime® and Nutritime® range. This is a dual system for people with dry, flaky, itchy and oily skin. These products nourish deeply by enhancing the lipid content and smooth the skin by providing the full complement of ceramides and ceramide precursors keeping your skin hydrated.
The Hydratime® and Nutritime® systems also sustain, protect and re-establish the skin’s barrier properties to resist moisture loss by delivering a range of water binding ingredients into the skin. They also provide sun protection using the latest organic pigments. Antioxidant and free radical scavenger activity is provided by special absorbable forms of Vitamin C and Vitamin E which support the natural calming ingredients.
Hydratime® and Nutritime® are supplied as Face and Body creams. Hydratime®is a day cream and Nutritime® is used at night, although some people use either product morning and night.