Winter is a beautiful season; snowflakes, snowmen and Starbucks’ Toffee Nut Lattes.
Unfortunately, my skin isn’t looking quite so beautiful. Never the most hydrated, in winter my hands start looking like The Thing from The Fantastic 4 and it’s a daily battle to stop my skin from peeling off. This means that after trying all the ‘miracle’ hand creams I’m now perfectly equipped to tell you how to keep your skin soft without selling your soul at House of Fraser’s beauty counters.
Dry your hands
My first tip is pretty simple but you’d be amazed how many people don’t do it. When you wash your hands, make sure you dry them thoroughly. The cold air in winter ruins your skin at the best of times, but when your hands are wet they get a lot colder and it reduces the natural lipids which cover your skin to protect it.
Don’t wash them too much
Another point about washing your hands – don’t do it too much. Obviously don’t stop washing them altogether (soft skin is no good when you’re stuck in bed with a winter flu bug) but reduce it so you’re only washing them when it’s necessary. Otherwise you’re stripping away all the good moisture that your skin creates, particularly if you use strong soaps with harsh chemicals.
Avoid hot water
When you do expose your hands to water (washing them, bathing or showering), make sure that the water isn’t too hot. It seems counter-productive as hot water will warm your hands up faster, but really hot water is terrible for dehydrating your skin and leaving it drier than when you washed it. Ideally you want to be using lukewarm water which will warm up your hands without drying them out.
Wear gloves
Whenever you’re out and it’s cold make sure you’re wearing gloves. In fact whenever you’re out in winter, whatever the weather, make sure you’re wearing gloves. Stopping the wind, rain and snow from making contact with your skin, and keeping them warm when it’s freezing cold outside, will do the world of good in keeping your skin soft and undamaged.
- Leather gloves
For me the best option are leather gloves. I don’t have to take them off to use my iPhone the way I do with wool gloves, they don’t catch on things and rip, they don’t get soaked when it’s raining or snowing and they fit, well, like a glove. That’s always a bonus when you have tiny hands and one size definitely doesn’t fit all.
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Mittens
If you can’t part yourself from your woolly gloves then I’d suggest mittens. Because your fingers are kept close together your hands stay warmer, and if you need to use your phone or mp3 player you don’t have the trouble of having to take them off and put them on again.
Wear gloves at night
Another brilliant use for gloves is to wear them at night. You can buy a pair of cotton gloves from Boots for £2.49, soak your hands in whatever moisturiser you prefer, put the gloves on and go to bed. The warmth created by the gloves makes the moisturiser seep into your skin faster and the gloves being made of cotton means that your skin is still allowed to breathe.
Lush Celestial Moisturiser
I’ve got one last tip for dry skin, this time for your face. I’ve recently started using Celestial moisturiser by Lush and it’s amazing. Created specifically for those with sensitive skin, it’s packed with almond oil and cocoa butter; gentle but rich moisturisers that leave your skin feeling heavenly smooth. Although it looks really thick in the pot and is very moisturising, it doesn’t go on heavily and rather than sitting on the top of your skin it sinks in easily making it perfect to either wear before bed or wear under make-up. And with a little bit going a very long way, you can afford to do both.
Don’t be afraid to see your doctor
Finally, if you suffer from particularly dry skin it’s best to go see your doctor. There are a variety of skin conditions which cause excessively dry skin, one of which is eczema. If you have itchy, red, dry skin which may become scaly or even crack and weep, then you may have eczema. It can’t be cured but there are treatments to help and a doctor can prescribe you with special creams and advise you on how to take care of it.
Your skin is your largest organ and is also one of the first signifiers that you’re ageing. So for both your health and your beauty it’s vital that you take care of it now so that it’s around to take care of you later.
Photo sources:
http://www.beautylish.com/p/ec…
http://www.shinystyle.tv/2010/…