Dry Facial Skin:5 Solutions

Winter is beautiful, cold, harsh, and wreaks havoc on your delicate skin! The cool, dry climate and even more detrimental, your arid indoor environment thanks to air blasting out of your furnace all winter, are creating your dry facial skin. What can you do about it? Here are five solutions to help you keep your skin soft, supple, and young-looking for the rest of the winter.

1. Drink more water, and herbal tea. Hydrate your skin from the inside out. I'm sure you've heard the standard - drink six to eight glasses of water a day. Do it. It really helps your skin. If your not a big water drinker, sip on herbal tea all day for plenty of cleansing, hydrating fluids without the sugar of juices. If you drink a lot of coffee (guilty!) then drink an extra glass of water. 
2. Grab the oil. This winter I've been using tamanu oil and rosehip oil as a facial moisturizer at night. Tamanu oil is super rich and perfect for those of us that are prone to a dry, flaky, dull winter complexion. Rosehip oil is a bit lighter if you have combination or oily skin. Massage a tiny bit in at night in place of a cream. 
3. Use a humidifier. I've never been a fan of this option, honestly it seems like a lot of work and is not an environmentally-friendly option, but it can help to counterbalance the drying effect of your heat source. Rule of thumb, for those really cold weeks when the furnace is working hard, put your humidifier on at night. I use one that creates a warm vapor, great for fighting seasonal coughs! Try to be more vigilant about turning off the lights and unplugging unused appliances to offset your increase in energy use. We want to keep the earth beautiful as well as our skin, after all. 
4. Use a creamy cleanser. Is your facial cleanser made for dry skin? To help relieve dry facial skin, you need a gentle cleanser that won't strip away extra oils when you wash. Go for a creamy cleanser or make your own (one of my favorite homemade facial cleansing recipes is to combine white tea and plain yogurt). 
5. Fatten your face. If you want your skin to glow, you can't shy away from healthy fatty acids. I'm not advocating a hamburger and shake as a healthy lunch. I am advocating snacking on nuts and seeds, baking with coconut oil, making homemade salad dressings with flax seed oil and lemon juice. Make sure you are getting plenty of healthy fats in your diet. Putting lipids on your skin will help to protect against moisture loss, but you also need to feed your skin from the inside. 

If you are looking for a great homemade hydrating mask for dry facial skin, check out the Ultra Moisturizing Face Mask!

The Ultra Moisturizing Face Mask for Winter

Treat your face to the best nourishing, hydrating skin care ingredients that nature has to offer. Indulge your skin with creamy avocado, protective honey, and some of the richest oils in the world. This moisturizing face mask is perfect for beating winter dryness, but it is also a great any time mask for dry skin. The super hydrating action also makes this a helpful anti-aging treatment. Enjoy!

To make the ultra moisturizing winter face mask, you will need:

• 1 ripe avocado (use about two tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon raw, organic honey
• 1 teaspoon tamanu oil
• 1 teaspoon argan oil

Mash all the ingredients together in a bowl. I use the leftover avocado for a moisturizing hair mask (avocado + olive oil) to use while I do this face mask. Gently cleanse your skin, you don't want to scrub or wash your face to much with dry skin as this will strip away your skin's natural oils.

Smear this ultra messy, ultra moisturizing mask over your entire face. Lay those cucumber slices over your eyes and spend 15 minutes letting your mind take you away. Pick up is messy! I recommend jumping in the shower to rinse both the hair and face mask. Pat dry and finish with a couple drops of tamanu oil. I do a quick facial massage. That's it. You have transformed your skin into pure silk.

The Best Lotion for Dry Skin in the Winter

Winter is dry skin time! Outdoors you have to deal with the harsher, arid climate. Inside, the heat is on, robbing the air of moisture. This is not good news for your skin. There are lots of things you can do to combat dryness, but what about a good old skin care cream, what is the best lotion for dry skin?

My favorite winter skin saver is not actually a lotion but a straight-from-the-bottle oil - virgin coconut oil. Coconut oil melts when you rub it into your skin. It's rich in skin nutrients, and it has a great smell. My skin gets really dry in the winter; red, flaky, the works. My skin care strategy is to keep the moisturizing going to stop my skin from ever getting really dry. I massage a tiny amount of coconut oil into my skin after cleansing morning and night. I also use it on my hands. A good deep moisture face mask (tomorrow's post!) and your complexion can retain that supple, soft feel even in the frozen tundra!

Coconut oil is my best lotion for dry skin, but there are of course other options. To replenish and protect, look for over-the-counter lotions with ceramides. According to the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology, these fatty acids help to structure skin and maintain the moisture barrier. Ceramide lotions come in all shapes, sizes, and prices. You don't need to spend a fortune to prevent winter dry skin. CeraVe (no affiliation!) is fairly priced.

There are other things that you can do for your skin. Lotions and moisturizers are important, but they are only part of a good winter skin care strategy. Try a humidifier. I have one that injects warm steam into the air. Great for your skin, great for colds! You can also drink more water and try to take in more essential fatty acids. Pour coconut milk in your coffee. Eat more nuts and seeds. Supplementing with a nutritional oil like flax seed or evening primerose oil can help too, just always talk to your doc before taking supplements.

Are Collagen Supplements Worth It for Improving Your Skin?

Do collagen supplements work? Well, in theory they should give your body that extra boost of collagen to help your skin rebuild itself. The ideal result - firmer, smoother, younger-looking skin. Is this possible from a little pill?

Collagen is a type of protein that is used to form connective tissue. It is helpful for restoring skin, as well as for keeping your joints healthy. Collagen along with another protein, elastin, work together to keep your skin supple, full, and beautiful. The good news is that the body produces collagen and elastin naturally. The bad news is that we produce less collagen as we get older and collagen breaks down as part of the aging process.

Taking collagen supplements is a way to give your body more collagen. If your body needs this nutrient for other things besides reducing and preventing wrinkles, for example to support your bones, then there still may not be that much left over to help improve skin elasticity.

My theory is that taking collagen supplements could help, as part of a dynamic approach to improving your skin. If they were a miracle pill, however, I'm sure marketing teams for nutritional supplement companies would make us well aware of it. My guess is that there won't be a remarkable difference.

My dynamic approach is collagen supplements along with at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day to keep my circulation going. Better blood circulation means more nutrients pumping through your body to nourish your skin. A diet that is high in fresh fruits and veggies, green tea, white tea, and herbal teas, is the other piece of my anti-wrinkle puzzle. This way I will have enough vitamin C for cell repair, antioxidants for cell protection, and other nutrients to keep my skin in shape. And finally, water for better skin. I will aim for 2 liters a day.

With all of this combined, I'm willing to bet my skin will improve. I'm using NeoCell collagen supplements. I am in no way affiliated with this company, just felt comfortable with them after reading the bottle and picking them up at Whole Foods. I will let you know how my adventure with collagen supplements (and exercise, more fruits, veggies, and tea, and better hydration) goes over the next few weeks. With that, off to make a cup of white tea!