Recently, I went on a university tour with my school and I discovered something I usually don’t discover in Calgary – biting winds added to the chill of a Canadian winter. Since I’m a blogger who detests winter, I hardly ever go outside, and if I do it’s usually to get from warm location A to warm location B. But on tour we walked for the majority of the day, and although my legs look great because of it, my face, unfortunately, does not. My once under control and moisturized skin took a turn for the worse. It became paler, dull and flaky. Not only that, but I also became quite sick during my tour, and it was an absolute nightmare for my skin. I couldn’t breathe properly, I was blowing my nose every chance I got and I was constantly tired – and my skin showed it. But I am a prepared Canadian, and although it’s a bit harder to fight off sickness, at least I can look good doing it. I’m going to give you the solutions to help you battle your winter skin.
PROBLEM: Dry, flaky, red nose.
SOLUTION: Sickness or not, this is something we all face. If you have winter, you have the dry Rudolph nose. Now for preventative measures (and this goes for everything else too), water is your BEST FRIEND. I’ve been downing at least two litres a day and already my skin looks less flaky. But for the nose especially, I find I have to be extra careful. It’s a delicate area, and therefore should be treated as such. Before doing anything, I like to use a warm, wet towel to place over my nose. Not only does this help with my stuffed up nose, but it also helps to bring a little moisture and soften the flaky skin around the nose. Follow this up with a gentle exfoliator and slather on a good amount of petroleum jelly before you go to bed and you’ll wake up to a thankful nose.
PROBLEM: Chapped lips
SOLUTION: This is the worst. It hurts to smile and any lip colour you put on sinks into your lip lines that strangely look like a scaled down version of the Grand Canyon. Same procedure goes for your lips – warm with a towel, exfoliate, moisturize. These are the key three steps to defeating winter dullness EVERYWHERE. Personally, I love using LUSH’s Popcorn Lip Scrub to slough off those nasty flakies and follow up with a heavy duty lip balm.
PROBLEM: Dry cheeks
SOLUTION: Before anything, I like to steam my face. This doesn’t need any fancy equipment – a sink full of hot water and a towel will do the trick. Just lean over the sink, drape the towel over your head and let the steam do its work. After this I usually follow with Aveeno’s vitamin c scrub and a thick layer of sunscreen for the day (and petroleum jelly for the night).