Dry skin is a very common skin problem and is often worse during the winter when environmental humidity is low. It can occur at all ages, and in people with or without other skin problems. Skin often feels dry and rough, and appears dull and flaky. Dry skin occurs commonly on the arms and legs, but can also affect the trunk of the body. Dry skin is also called “xerosis” or “asteatosis”.
Image by @freddieharrel
Here are a few tips and products to help keep your body’s largest organ healthy and hydrated throughout the colder weather.
Full Body Care Tips
Be sure to use different products and skin care techniques on your body than you do for your face. The skin on the body is different and requires different care.
1. Exfoliate
Exfoliate or use a scrub in bath or shower only once a week during the colder months of the year. If your skin seems to soak up lotion, use a richer formula containing fatty lipids such as shea butter, to help give your skin a good moisture barrier.
2. Moisturize your skin straight out of the shower or bath while skin is damp
This helps to also lock in moisture. Ointments or extremely thick products are always better suited for the skin on your body. Apply them generously after your shower or bath.
3. Add oil to your lotion at night
Mix a couple drops of oil with your moisturizer for an extra boost of moisture before bedtime. Coconut oil is one that works great for the body.
4. Avoid Hot Water
Use only lukewarm water when showering or washing your hands and face. This will avoid stripping your skin of its natural oils. Water that is too hot can dehydrate your skin.
5. Use a Humidifier
The heating indoors dries the air, which can dry out your skin. Using a humidifier can help to add moisture back into the air and keep your skin from drying out.
Products for the Full Body
Vaseline Clinical Care Extremely Dry Skin Rescue Healing Moisture Lotion
This lotion is an effective option to repair your skin’s moisture barrier during the winter months. It’s fragrance-free, and is formulated with three key ingredients that work together to strengthen your skin’s barrier. Glycerin delivers moisture, petroleum jelly locks in moisture, and pro-lipids replenish the skin’s moisture barrier.
Kiehl’s Creme de Corps
This hydrating body moisturizer is luxurious and non-greasy. Formulated with cocoa butter, squalane, and beta-carotene, this body cream rehydrates dry, tight, and flaky skin, leaving it soft and supple.
Tips for Dry Hands
With the dry air of the heat in your home, car, and other buildings, as well as constant hand washing to avoid colds and the flu, your hands can quickly get dry and chapped. Since the skin on your hands has very few oil glands, you need to constantly moisturize them to keep them hydrated and maintain your skin’s protective barrier. In cases of severely dry hands, apply a thick cream, ointment, or oil to your hands, and wear soft cotton gloves overnight.
Products for Hand Care
Yes To Coconut Hydrate & Restore Protecting Hand & Cuticle Cream
This cream helps to smooth and restore dry, cracked, and chapped skin on hands and cuticles. It uses passion fruit and shea butter help to soften hands. Fans of this cream find it to be non-greasy, yet very moisturizing.
Eucerin Creme Eczema Relief Hand
This clinically proven moisturizing cream is specifically formulated for hands. It’s enriched with colloidal oatmeal (a skin protectant”>, shea butter, ceramide-3, and licorice root extract. The soothing, yet non-greasy cream helps strengthen the skin’s protective barrier. Those with eczema or extremely dry skin will find this cream reduces itch and irritation. It is also fragrance and steroid free.
Eucerin Eczema Relief Hand Cream is specifically formulated for hands, and is clinically proven to relieve itching, dryness and minor irritations due to eczema. This rich cream is enriched with Colloidal Oatmeal (a skin protectant”>, Shea Butter, Ceramide-3, and Licorice Root Extract. The soothing cream helps strengthen the skin’s protective barrier, and reduces the itch and minor irritation due to eczema. Eczema Relief Hand Cream is fragrance and steroid free.
Image by Anna Sastre/Unsplash
Lip Care Tips
Don’t forget about your lips. Cold weather can also mean dry, flaky lips. Lips are more susceptible to drying out, because the skin on our lips doesn’t contain oil glands, so it can’t really replenish its own moisture. Here are a few lip care tips:
1. Do not lick your lips
When your lips are dry, licking them makes the problem worse, because it actually dries out the skin.
2. Exfoliate
Exfoliate lips by gently rubbing them with a wet washcloth, or soft toothbrush to remove dry skin. Also, you can exfoliate three days a week with sugar or a lip scrub.
3. Moisturize lips overnight
Apply a moisturizing lip balm and leave it on overnight. A little honey or castor oil can also be used overnight to hydrate and soften severely dry lips.
Products for Lip Care
Moroccan Magic Lip Balm
This USDA-certified and organic moisturizing balm offers intense conditioning that’s infused with pure argan oil, and other essential oils. It pampers for an effective, ultra-hydrating experience, and it locks in moisture for soft, supple lips.
Peach Slices Aqua Jelly Lip Mask
This refreshing jelly mask is infused with nourishing antioxidant ingredients, such as shea butter, hydrating coconut, honey, Japanese yuzu citrus with vitamin C, and moisturizing bamboo stem extract. It hydrates and plumps lips, leaving them smooth and moisturized.
Do you have any tips for keeping skin moisturized during the winter? Share them with us in the comments section below!
