How to change up your skincare routine for winter

After an all too short and wet summer, winter is on its way, and with it comes environmental changes that impact our skin. From the cold, wet and windy outdoors to hot and dry indoors, not to mention the increased application of makeup to negate our winter pallor, or the festive season increase in eating and drinking sugar-laden treats, our skin takes a bit of a bashing, so it’s up to us to feed and care for it so we maintain a healthy looking suppleness and glow all winter long.

If you are already in a good morning and evening routine, you need only make some tweaks to ensure you are looking after your skin as well as you are able. Here’s my quick guide to winter skincare.

How does the winter affect our skin?

Many people experience an increase in the feeling of dry, tight skin, and even some flakiness. Others will experience breakouts or redness. This is due to the fluctuations in temperature and humidity we challenge our skin with every day, as we move from the cold damp outdoors to the centrally heated indoors. This impacts our skin barrier and can lead to dehydration and increased sensitivity.

What changes do we need to make to our winter skincare?

Your winter skincare routine needs to be hydrating, calming and gentle on your skin. It’s important to use products that help strengthen the skin barrier as this will work hard for your skin if you give it what it need.

Nighttime gentle cleanse

We need to wash away the dirt and debris of each day every evening, using a cleanser that won’t trigger sensitivity. I developed my Prep Cleanse especially for sensitive skins, making it perfect for winter use. It has beautiful oils to soothe and help lift away makeup and SPF, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial ingredients to soothe skin and help support the skin barrier. It feels beautifully soft and creamy and is so easy to use - just apply to damp skin, massage gently and then rinse away.

Night cream

At night your skin gets really active - repairing and rebuilding damage caused during the day, so it’s essential we support it by feeding it with ingredients that will help it do what it’s designed to do.

SkinGoal Cream Revive has been specifically created to soothe stressed skin while boosting collagen production to lessen fine lines and wrinkles and increased suppleness and bounce. It’s an absolute workhorse and I love it!

Just as a quick warning - many night creams contain retinol, which is marvellous for exfoliating skin to enhance your natural glow, but can be a little strong for sensitive skin, especially in winter. Look out for this when choosing your night cream and avoid if you are experiencing any redness or flaking,

Morning cleanse

Again, gentle is good, but you will need to choose a cleanser capable of properly lifting away your night cream, which will leave a slight residue of the wonderful soothing oils it contains. A cleanser containing lactic, salicylic or glycolic acids will work well. If your skin is really super-sensitive, avoid salicylic or glycolic, until you have built a good skin barrier, but lactic acid is the gentlest of all the skin exfoliating acids and should be fine - but do patch test first to be sure.

For the majority of us with sensitive to normal skin, salicylic and glycolic acid-based cleansers are a great way to gently cleanse away residual oils and exfoliate away dead skin cells, which if allowed to build up can clog the skin and lead to dullness and even breakouts, and block your skincare from doing what it’s designed to do. SkinGoal Prep Wash is perfect for morning cleansing in the winter months. It contains both glycolic and citric acids and is gentle enough to be used every day, but powerful enough to thoroughly cleanse and exfoliate.

Use a Hyaluronic Acid serum

I’ve talked about hyaluronic acid (HA) in an earlier blog. Essentially, it’s a marvellously hydrating ingredient that is also naturally produced by your skin - but sadly less and less as we age. Immediately after cleansing, apply a HA serum - oh, that feeling as it immediately hydrates and starts to feed the skin, bliss! There are many to choose from across the marketplace. If you can, choose one with a high percentage of HA. Many will promote themselves as HA serums, but i=only contain a relatively small amount per application, which isn’t much use. 

SkinGoal’s Power HA Serum leads with the HA, making it effective for up to 72 hours, and over time has a cumulative effect that helps smooth those fine lines and wrinkles, as well as banishing flaky, dry skin. It also contains glycerin, which acts to lock in moisture through the day.

Add Vitamin C

Vitamin C is an antioxidant that defends against sun damage caused by UVA and UVB light. You may think your skin isn’t being exposed to too much UVA and UVB in the winter months, and you’d be almost right, but boosting your skin at this time of year with Vitamin C helps it fight the environmental aggressors it’s faced with every day, and help repair damage caused during the summer months - plus it’s a lovely skin brightener, helping to keep your skin glowing rather than winter dull.

Vitamin C products can be quite powerful, so in winter, to brighten skin and feed it with a boost of antioxidants choose a low dose serum or cream. My Power AOX is great for people with strong skin barriers and low or no sensitivity, but my new Serum C has been especially designed for those new to vitamin C in skincare and can be used every morning as part of your daily routine.

Moisturise

A good day cream will lock in the targeted serums you have chosen, and help keep your skin hydrated all day. In winter you can seek a slightly richer cream than you might wear in summer, when a lighter cream won’t interact with sweating and cause breakouts. I always recommend you choose one that offers a good wallop of peptides, such as Cream Drench. Peptides are the amino acids that are the building blocks of certain proteins we really want more of in our skin - collagen and elastin. Peptides are actually small enough to get through the skin’s barrier and help support the skin’s natural processes. 

It’s my recommendation that we add SPF to our daytime skincare routine year round, which is why I developed Solar 20. It’s a moisturiser, heaving with peptides with SPF 20 that has a light and lovely feel for daytime use. In summer I advise you to add an additional SPF, minimum SPF 30 but ideally SPF 50, if you are going outside. In winter, SPF 20 will offer good protection (unless you’re up a mountain, in which case SPF 50 all the way!) unless it’s a bright and sunny day, when you should top up with a light SPF 30 or SPF 50. Never take risks with Mr Sunshine, is my mantra. While he may not cause skin cancer, he is excellent at ageing skin!

The key thing to remember when heading into winter is that your skin needs a little more kindness as it adjusts to the varying conditions it will meet every day, so look for products designed to soothe as well as boost your natural protective processes.

Love, Penny x