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Autumn and winter skincare: 5 changes to make to your routine

A few simple winter skincare tips to help you with your morning and evening skincare routine will help prevent the colder months — and drying effect of central heating — wreaking havoc on your skin. It can be important to change your products and remove certain steps from your usual routine.

winter skincare tips

To help prevent damage, dryness and irritation here are five winter skincare tips — just a few of these simple changes could have a big effect. See my advice for winter haircare here.

1. Thicker cream

Out of all the winter skincare tips this is one of the most important. Light or gel creams that don’t have you sweating your face off before you leave the house during the summer months won’t do the job as the temperature drops. You will need to switch your moisturiser to something a little thicker than will penetrate your skin deeper, protecting it from the cold which can irritate and dry out skin.

Make sure you leave enough time for it to skin in, leaving the house with moisturiser still sitting on the skin in the coldest months of winter could risk the particles freezing and doing more damage than good.

Don’t go thinking that because the days are shorter and gloomier that you don’t need SPF — you always need SPF. If you’re fair it should be high all year round, I have been told by a beauty therapist to use 50 all year! For other skin types I would aim for 20 to 30, anything under 20 won’t do the job and creams that offer SPF 10 or 15 are merely trying to tick a box, don’t be fooled.

2. Incorporate serums

Serums seem to confuse a lot of people; unlike creams you can’t often feel an instant difference but trust me there is one. Serums, despite being lightweight, penetrate the skin deeper and faster. For those with skin difficulties who find heavy creams cause more problems, a serum will be your saviour.

3. Less exfoliating and acids

Don’t be fooled into thinking the fact your skin is dry means you need to scrub away dead cells as this might make things worse, the same goes for acids and retinol. Try to cut down, for example: if you use them every other day cut down to twice a week.

Whatever you use shouldn’t be too harsh, switch to a gel face wash if you use an exfoliating one and try using a natural sponge or face cloth. Avoid face wipes at all costs, they’re actually not very good for your skin — they are rough and full of chemicals (and very, very bad for the planet!).

4. Night oils

This, in my opinion, is also up there among the most important winter skincare tips, but it can depend on your own skin type. In the same way your daily moisturiser needs to step up its game, so do your night-time products. At night your body works to regenerate and recover, so you need something that will work on your skin for longer. I’m a big fan of Clarins Double Serum (not at all lightweight), Lumity Anti-ageing Facial Oil and, once a week I sleep with my entire face, hair and body covered in coconut oil.

5. Lips

Generally, I wouldn’t encourage the use of lip balm, because it is a popular consensus I partake in, that the more you use it the more you need it. However, if your lips become dry obviously you have no choice. Something I tend to do when my lips are dry is sleep with Sudocrem on. It isn’t a pretty sight, but it fixes your lips quickly (you’ll need to get rid of the dead skin in the morning) and as I suffer terribly with cold sores, I find the antiseptic hugely beneficial.

TOP TIP: Keep drinking water

We all know our body needs water in the summer because we sweat more and are more susceptible to dehydration, this sees people slacking on the water intake when the temperature drops in autumn and winter — this is a big mistake. Read why here.

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winter skincare routine
winter skincare tips
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