Christmas is over and New Years is just around the corner. It’s a time for reflection, relaxation, celebration, and resolutions.
One resolution that we all have during the holidays and always? Glowing, flawless, beautiful skin.
Here are the best treatments to make that happen during the fall and winter months.
Top Treatments On Our List
1. Microdermabrasion
Microdermabrasion is when small crystals are used to resurface the skin and slough off dead skin cells.
It removes the top layer of skin a.k.a the dead skin cells that build up during the winter months. That means that it can effectively address the flaking, dullness, fine lines, and texture problems that can come with cold weather, central heating, and lots of layers rubbing against the skin.
Plus, it helps boost collagen and elastin - yay!
Overall, microdermabrasion will leave your skin feeling smooth and soft - plus, it’ll help any nourishing products absorb better into your skin.
2. Deep Hydrating Facial
It's no secret that one of the biggest problems during winter months is dry, flaking skin that’s ultra-thirsty and in need of a major drink.
This starts with great skin-quenching at-home hydrating products like a restorative moisturizer and a skin-conditioning botanical oil. Maintaining a consistent moisturizing routine - both in the morning and in the evening - is essential to keeping clear, moisturized skin long-term.
But you can also take things one step further with a deeply hydrating facial. The right one can help boost collagen, improve blood flow, and increase cellular regeneration while boosting moisture content in the deepest layers of the skin.
Look for a facial that features both resurfacing or exfoliation and humectant-rich, rejuvenating ingredients like hydrolyzed collagen, elastin, vitamin E, and avocado.
3. Light Chemical Peel
There is undoubtedly built-up dry, flaking skin in the winter. This needs to be gently exfoliated away if you want to rejuvenate dull skin and allow powerful hydrating, active ingredients to penetrate the skin.
Your best option here? A gentle chemical peel like glycolic acid that expedites the cell shedding process, removing old cells and revealing new healthy and luminous skin.
Keep in mind that the operative term here is gentle. Any aggressive treatments can be too harsh on a compromised barrier and cause both inflammation and irritation.
4. Laser Treatment
Want to tackle hyperpigmentation or fine lines that crept up in the summertime? Winter is the perfect time to get a pigment-blasting laser treatment.
Laser treatments are procedures that direct short, concentrated pulsating beams of light to treat the skin. These days, they can target anything you want to treat, including pigmentation, age spots, acne, scarring, and unwanted hair.
Why try them in winter? There’s less sun, so your skin can recover faster. Plus, you won’t sweat (which can cause side effects) and fewer hours of sun will allow your results to last longer.
5. Anti-Aging Facial
Lack of moisture in the skin during winter months can increase the visibility of fine lines and wrinkles, leading to a more tired, aged appearance.
That’s why anti-aging facials can be particularly helpful at this time. These usually involve thorough cleansing followed by an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) treatment to remove dead skin cells. Finally, a highly-concentrated serum or cream is applied to provide intense moisture and restore the skin’s protective barrier.
Treatments and Practices To Avoid
1. Intense Acne Treatments
The buildup of dry, flaking skin can often cause skin congestion and winter breakouts. Now, you may be tempted to wipe them out with some serious acne spot treatment, but you can't apply harsh products with ingredients like benzoyl peroxide or beta hydroxy acids (BHAs).
Why not? These will soak up all extra sebum and ultimately cause the skin to become more oily over time. In other words, you'll actually make the problem worse.
The better strategy? Kill bacteria and balance your skin with hydrating products that will restore your skin’s natural barrier and ultimately result in less oil production. We recommend:
- A balancing botanical oil that will absorb quickly and provide intense hydration while smoothing lines
- A skin-brightening moisturizer with both hyaluronic acid and glycolic acid that will deeply moisturize and tackle that pesky bacteria.
- A gentle gel cleanser with restorative clay to absorb excess oil and unclog pores without overly drying your skin.
2. Ultra-Hot Showers and Spaces
Frigid winter temperatures and shorter days make hot showers and central heating sound like the best idea ever.
But here’s the thing - both can be majorly hurting your skin if you don’t take some precaution. Hot showers, for one, deplete natural oils from the skin’s surface, leaving the skin over-dry and susceptible to conditions like eczema and psoriasis. Similarly, keeping your home excessively warm can dry out the skin and hair, causing itching and major discomfort.
Luckily, this doesn’t mean that you have to ban warmth altogether. A humidifier can help significantly in the home, and you can get away with a hot shower if you limit it to 5 to 10 minutes tops. Just make sure that you only pat your skin dry and apply a rich moisturizer directly after getting out of the shower.
3. Aggressive Peels
You may be tempted to blast any dryness, lines, or texture concerns away with a super aggressive peel, but this is a huge mistake.
These also overly strip the skin and compromise it, leading to inflammation, irritation, and a slew of other concerns. This is especially true for anyone that experiences barrier dysfunction like eczema, psoriasis, or acne flares. Unfortunately, acne sufferers are the most notorious at over-exfoliating their skin and upsetting the healthy flora that’s trying to protect it.
If this sounds familiar, put the peel down and work on moisturizing and addressing the bacteria instead.
4. Keeping Your Summer Products
Listen, we all have our favorite products, and we don’t want to switch them out for something that could lead to less-than-perfect skin.
Unfortunately, though, the face lotion that got you through the summer isn’t going to cut it as we head into January. At this time of year, lightweight, oil-free formulas should be swapped out for creams with powerful humectants and moisturizers like hyaluronic acid or squalane.
At the very least, you need to add these richer products to your routine. Your skin will thank you for it.
5. Dropping the SPF
Another common mistake? Thinking, “I don’t need sunscreen - the sun’s not out anyway!”
While there is less UVB in the wintertime, levels of UVA are still high enough to age our skin. Plus, snow can amplify the sun’s damaging effects by reflecting the sunlight on the ground right back up to your face.
The result? Lines, wrinkles, redness, age spots, and even melanoma - yikes! So make sure that you’re using an SPF that protects against UVA and UVB rays all year round.