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The Ultimate Winter Skincare Guide for Your Holiday Travel

December 8, 2022

Nothing beats travelling during the holidays. Aside from the huge discounts and tempting promos during this time, there’s a certain euphoria that you can only experience during the festive season. Everyone’s happy and giddy with excitement, making your whole experience richer and more memorable.

But before you set off to your winter wonderland, is your skincare game on point? Check out our winter skincare guide below to help you get started.

What happens to your skin during winter?

On regular days, your usual skincare routine may be enough to keep your skin clean, smooth, and blemish-free. But when the temperatures drop, it’s a whole different story. Winter months mean dry air and lower humidity. People also use heaters to escape the freezing cold temperatures outside. All these weaken your natural barrier and zap out moisture in your skin, making you more prone to dry, flaky, and irritated skin. And if you’re not used to these weather conditions, the abrupt temperature changes will double the havoc.

How do I take care of my skin during winter?

The key to winter skincare is to focus on hydrating your skin and locking in as much moisture as possible. As we’ve said earlier, cold temperatures make it harder for your skin to retain moisture, making it more prone to dryness. How do you combat that? By switching to heavier, thicker formulas and finding products loaded with hydration boosters. Here’s our step-by-step winter skincare guide:

Step 1: Cleanse

Although your skin produces less sebum because of the cold weather, this doesn’t mean you should give up cleansing. It’s still vital in your routine as it removes all dirt and makeup. And with a busy travel itinerary, you need to cleanse those properly to look good in all your photos. Unless you have oily skin, you should switch out your foaming cleansers for a thicker, more emollient formula, like a gel, cream, oil, or balm. Using a gentle cleanser is also essential since you don’t want to strip any remaining moisture with any harsh products.

Step 2: Exfoliate

This may sound ironic, but you need to exfoliate your skin to keep it from drying during the winter. Exfoliating removes dead skin cells and helps reveal smoother and younger skin. Avoid harsh, abrasive scrubs as much as possible because they will only exacerbate the problem. Instead, use AHAs (like glycolic acid) and BHAs (like salicylic acid), as they also work to unclog your pores and control oil production.

Step 3: Moisturise

Ah, yes – the most crucial step of every winter skincare routine. Since your skin needs all the hydration it can get, you need to level up your moisturisers. Layering different moisturisers would work, but we recommend opting for humectants. Humectants draw moisture in the air and deliver it directly into your skin to ensure long-lasting hydration. Our best bet is hyaluronic acid, which can hold up to 1000 times its weight in water. However, you can also try glycerine and aloe vera!

Step 4: SPF

Sunscreen in winter may sound unfamiliar, but believe it or not, the sun’s UV rays are very persistent. They can penetrate through those thick winter clouds, so finish up your skincare routine by wearing sunscreen that contains SPF 30 or higher. This can block up to 95% of UV rays, giving your skin ample sun protection.