By: Lee Phillips
As I write this, I’m slathering lotion on my face for the thousandth time. It’s only 11:45 in the morning and I’ve already given up hope. In the winter, it seems no matter what I do, my skin remains dry, easily irritated, and flaky. If you’re reading this, just know IT’S NOT TOO LATE. There is hope for us both, and it comes in the form of a little machine called a humidifier.
Protect the barrier at all costs
The fact of the matter is that winter is a dry skin, moisture barrier-weakening, irritation-causing machine. That’s because as the temperature drops, the air loses its ability to retain moisture. Then through a terrible little thing called osmosis, the air pulls moisture from our skin making it, frankly, desert-dry. I’m riled up! Even our warm cozy homes are part of the problem. When you turn on your heating, all you do is warm up cold dry air without adding any moisture. The optimal level of moisture in the air is about 40 to 60 percent, but during winter our homes can drop down to a sad and sorry 15 percent. The result is essentially a room-sized air fryer, sucking the water out of your body.
An Inside-Out Approach
To try to make up for this and moisturize from the inside out, your skin starts to over produce sebum, (an oil that, in the right amounts, is actually great for hydration). In excess, though, it clogs pores and leaves your skin looking oily. We all know the absolute maddening feeling of looking in the mirror and thinking, “how the heck can my skin be dry and oily at the same time?” On the off chance that a humidifier isn’t enough to dial the sebum production down, you might want to consider an “inside-outside” approach to soothing dry winter skin. Adding SKIN DISCIPLINE to your daily vitamin mix is one such approach. SKIN DISCIPLINE is a once-daily supplement that works from the inside, out to calm sebum production and revitalize skin. While it’s great for the winter—thanks to a long list of derm-loved ingredients like zinc, omega 3 and probiotics—it’s a win for full body wellness all year around.
Don't be a TEWL
Speaking of the inside-outside approach, please don’t forget to drink water! One sure fire way to make sure our internal moisture reserves are not being drained by dry air is to refill them! Seems like common sense, but it’s so easy to forget to drink water when we’re not hot, sweaty, and dying for an ice-cold drink.
While the air can dry out our skin both day and night, it’s most pronounced at night time when our skin goes into repair mode and experiences heightened trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL). That’s a fancy way to say that moisture evaporates off your skin. Adding hot showers, wind, and other environmental aggressors on top of dry skin is super detrimental to your skin barrier, the thing that keeps moisture in and bacteria out. With a weakened skin barrier TEWL is all the more exaggerated. Because of that, keeping a humidifier on at night time is even more beneficial than the daytime.
first line of defense
No matter what time of day, with proper humidity levels your skin increases its ability to retain moisture which calms down excess sebum production. Fewer clogged pores and black heads? Everyone wants that! Hydrated skin also means less irritation, inflammation and a stronger skin barrier. It can’t be understated, parched friends, that humidifiers are your first line of defense in your fight to stop the air from sucking the moisture out of your face. Spooky. When that dementor-esque phenomenon ISN'T taking place, your skin can begin to balance back to spring/summer levels of hydration. If have naturally, enduring dry skin it might not be a cure-all necessarily, but you should see some improvements, at least in the form of a more comfortable sleep :)
hydrating mask + humidifier = <3
One thing I notice when I go to bed with a moisture mask on and the dry heat blasting, is that not only does my skin’s moisture evaporate, but the moisture in my nighttime products does as well. With a humidifier, you create a perfect environment for night time products to seep into your skin instead of drying out. PRESS REFRESH face mask AND a humidifier? Dry skin where? Use PRESS REFRESH alongside a humidifier for ultra-hydrating night time skin care routine. With super hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid and allantoin, PRESS REFRESH revives and soothes dry, flaky skin. It’s also got niacinamide, a hero ingredient that not only moisturizes, but calms redness and irritation.
That’s it: Your winter skin solution. One thing though—do clean your humidifier often. Moist environments and bacteria are good friends, and we don’t need any of that in the air! Happy humidifying!
Winter is here... and so is your backne? Click here for tips on how to ice out your back breakouts.