How To Get The Better Of Sad, January Skin
Put a pep back in your skin’s step by flooding your skin with gentle, brightening ingredients and all the moisture.
With cold weather; short, gray days and the depressing aftermath of the holiday season it’s no wonder January has officially been deemed America’s least favorite month of the year. And it’s not just your mood that can be affected by the aptly named January blues – your skin often feels it, too.
Reckon your complexion needs some extra love right now? Then read on for five simple ways to fix the most common winter skin woes…
1. Your Skin Is Dull As
Dullness is super annoying because its causes are hard to pin down. Skimping on moisturizer, poor cleansing practices, smoking (gasp!) and dehydration... the list is of potentials is endless. But whatever is causing your skin to look sad and weary right now (often a combination of the above), one solution is clear to anyone who knows anything about skincare. And that’s vitamin C.
Topical vitamin C is one of those ‘no BS’ antioxidants that gets the job done. And how. Need a quick reminder of the sheer brilliance of antioxidants? No problem. Antioxidants are molecules that neutralize the damaging force of free radicals which form in your skin when it’s been exposed to things like UV radiation, pollution, stress, alcohol or a poor diet. If left to their own devices free radicals attack important proteins in your skin, breaking down collagen, screwing up elastin and even doing a number on your DNA. Of course, free radicals are around all year long but in January, after a month of food and booze excesses, they can really build up, making your skin look extremely sorry for itself.
This is why we say a big ‘yay’ for antioxidants like vitamin C which nix free radicals in the bud before they get time to do their dirty work. But that’s not all. Vitamin C is, for sure, one of the GOATs of the antioxidant world, but it also helps fade dark spots by inhibiting melanin production. Major result for patchy, dull skin. It’s also pretty safe and therefore ideal for most skin types.
Get involved, people. Like now.
Try: Vitamin C Super Serum+
2. There's Never A Good Morning
If you’re feeling very familiar with dry, morning skin right now, you’re not alone. The combination of less humidity in the air, coupled with dry indoor heating is a real killer on your skin’s moisturization levels. Of course, keeping your skin well moisturized throughout the day is a major step towards softer, healthier skin, but it’s even more important to up your lotion game before bed.
At night, your skin’s sebaceous glands slow down, producing less sebum and leaving your barrier function slightly compromised. Without this protective layer of natural oils, water is allowed to escape more readily from the skin’s surface, leaving it open to dehydration and dryness. Your skin also becomes warmer and more permeable when you’re asleep which further allows moisture to escape. All in all, this is asking for trouble unless you get ahead of the curve by applying a deeply moisturizing night cream before bed.
About that…
Try: Vitamin C Deep Hydration Night Cream
3. Feeling Rough
Dryness often comes hand in hand with roughness, thanks to a lack of moisture in your skin which causes the surface to crack. But dryness isn’t the only offender of poor texture – dead skin cells also play an important role.
Your skin has a natural turnover rate in which cells are created in the deepest layers of your epidermis, travel to the surface and then naturally shed. This whole process takes around 28 days in an average young adult, but as you age the process naturally slows down to over double that. What does this mean for your skin? Well, when dead skin cells hang around at the surface they build up, blocking your pores and ruining both the texture and tone of your skin.
Exfoliation often feels a little ‘too much’ for winter skin that feels dry, dehydrated and sometimes even a tad sensitive. But, on the contrary, it’s still super important to encourage healthy cellular turnover, whatever the weather. In fact, gentle exfoliation can actually help reduce dryness by allowing your moisturizers and hydrating serums to work better. Who knew? The key, however, is to ensure you exfoliate with care and attention by avoiding harsh scrubs that can overstimulate your skin and weaken your barrier function. Instead, we recommend using gentler, non-abrasive exfoliating acids to reveal brighter, smoother skin. Simple as that.
Try: 6% AHA, BHA + PHA Liquid Exfoliant
4. Redness Is Your Weakness
Facial redness can be a regular occurrence in the winter – especially if your skin is naturally dry, sensitive or dehydrated. Fluctuating extremes of temperature as you move from forced indoor heat to the chilly outdoors is the obvious offender, but this is usually temporary as your body rushes blood to the surface of your skin in a bid to warm itself up. Then there’s washing your face in scorching water, taking hot baths or using too many active ingredients in your skincare regime. All these factors strip away your barrier function and leave it open to irritation.
A great way to avoid facial redness during the winter months is to a) cover your face with a scarf when you’re outside and b) rethink your cleansing routine. Stick with lukewarm – never hot – water, and take a stock of your face wash. Is yours laden with strong active ingredients and/or harsh surfactants or preservatives like sulfates and parabens? Then toss these aside and tone it down with more nourishing ingredients like oat and rice milk.
Try: Soothing Cleansing Milk
5. Where Has All The Moisture Gone?
It’s no secret that winter air contains much less humidity than that in the summer. This means there’s much less free moisture for your skin to grab hold of to help keep it hydrated. Artificially heated homes don’t help matters either because this sucks even more moisture from the air. Most people's home humidity levels drop to as low as 15 percent in the winter, which is way lower than HVAC’s recommended 30-50 percent.
To counteract this wintry lack of hydration and help your skin stay healthy and soft, you’re going to need to get your moisture from other means. First up, help reduce the amount of water that evaporates from your skin in low humidity, by treating yourself to a humidifier. Humidifiers increase moisture levels in your home by emitting water vapor or steam to counteract the drying air. They're honestly a great investment for your skin (and your overall health!), especially if you place yours in your bedroom – the room in which your spend most of your time.
Another way to increase moisture in your skin is through your skincare regime. If you love your moisturizer and don’t want to try something richer or heavier just because the weather has turned, we get that. But the good news is you don’t have to. Instead, add a hydrating treatment serum into the mix. This is an incredible way to boost the moisture levels in your skin without upsetting your routine too much. After cleansing, apply yours to damp skin to help lock in even more moisture, then apply moisturizer over the top.
Try: Niacinamide Facial Serum
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![What Happens To Your Skin During Menopause?]()
Menopausal skin can be anything from slightly tricky to downright terrible. But wayward hormones needn’t get the better off you. You just need to know what to expect and get ahead of the game.
How times have changed. Rewind ten, maybe just five years ago and the ‘m’ word was never spoken about. This important life-changing period of time that happens to every single woman alive, literally brushed under the carpet as if it were some dirty secret. Total madness.
Thankfully, we live in different times and the menopause (there, we said it!) is now a topic we can openly talk about without feeling ashamed or, heaven’s forbid, old. Because it’s an important time and can bring a lot of unsettling uncertainties to any woman going through this perfectly natural stage of life. Hot flashes, weight gain, mood swings, zero energy, they can all go hand in hand with the menopause.
And then there’s your skin which also has its own challenges to contend with.
How The Menopause Affects Your Skin
The menopause can be split into three stages. Perimenopause begins first, usually in a woman’s 40s (although it can start as early as your 30s and as late as your 50s). This period of your life refers to the time in which your body starts to transition out of your reproductive years and into the menopause. Your body’s production of hormones (mainly estrogen and progesterone, but also testosterone to a certain degree) starts to decline, your periods become irregular and a few of the classic side effects may come to fruition. Fun times!
Then you obviously get the menopause which is when your body’s hormones cause you to completely stop menstruating (which can take many years) and all those fabulous (said with a side of irony) side-effects get stronger and more frequent. More fun times. Once menopause is over and you’ve stopped ovulating for a year you’re then said to be in the postmenopause and will be forever more.
As you progress through these different stages, your hormones are all over the place which is never great news for the health of your skin. You see, hormone fluctuations can affect your levels of sebum (cue dryness). Not only that but they upset your collagen production which is already declining as part of the natural aging process (cue wrinkles and sagging skin). Estrogen is also important for helping your skin to retain water so when these levels decrease your skin can’t hydrate itself as efficiently (cue dehydration).
Of course, changes in your skin depend on your skin type but, no matter what, you can inevitably look forward to some kind of ‘unpredictability’ during the menopausal years of your life.
5 Ways To Care For Menopausal Skin
If you’ve started to notice that your skin is misbehaving a little more than it used to, chances are you’re in the stage of your life in which your hormones have become, shall we say, less reliable. Read on for a few effective ways to help keep your skin in check as your hormones are very much not!
1. Be Kind
The most important thing to remember? Don’t panic. Freaking out and overcompensating for dry skin, dehydration, breakouts or wrinkles that were never before is a sure-fire way to irritate your skin. Instead, be gentle with your skin, cleansing, toning and treating it with kindness and respect. Most importantly, avoid ingredients like synthetic fragrances and harsh alcohols that will strip your skin and generate further problems you didn’t sign up for.
A great way to do this? Switch out your regular cleanser for Soothing Cleansing Milk which is perfect for menopausal skin, nurturing and calming your barrier function while bringing vital hydration and even a little exfoliation to the table.
2. Moisturize To The Max
Research shows that the most common skin complaint during the menopause is dry, irritated, and often itchy skin. This is all thanks to lowering levels of estrogen (an important skin hydrator) as well as reduced sebum. Without both of these important moisturizing tools, water is able to escape more easily from the surface of your skin which leads to dryness, dehydration and everything that comes with it.
To help get ahead of this, you’re going to want to introduce a hydrating serum as well as a really good moisturizer into your daily regime. Try the kick-ass combo of our Multi-Vitamin Facial Serum and Renewing Longevity Moisturizing Cream every morning, and Vitamin C Deep Hydration Night Cream before bed.
3. Use Smart Skincare Ingredients To Control Breakouts
Cell turnover becomes super sluggish during this time in your life which gives dead skin cells a free ticket to hang around at the surface of your skin and make your complexion look kind of dull. When it’s combined with wayward hormones it’s also asking for acne breakouts to do a real number on your skin. For most people these are mild and easily managed with healing, anti-inflammatory skincare ingredients like salicylic acid, niacinamide and tea tree oil – well, hello there Tea Tree Face Wash and Tea Tree Super Serum+.
If you feel like yours are more serious and out of control, however, seek help from a dermatologist.
4. Look After Your Collagen
It’s thought that skin loses a massive 30 percent of its natural collagen levels during the first five years of the menopause. Sound like a lot, right? Yeah, that’s because it is. And collagen is extremely important for the strength, firmness and elasticity of your skin so you’ve got to do everything you can to keep it healthy and plentiful.
How to do this? With a healthy diet, good sleep, marginal stress (preferably none at all, but it’s OK, we’re all human) and some smart skincare choices. Namely retinol at night (is there anything retinol isn’t good for?!), alongside our fabulous Collagen range which includes Smoothing Collagen Serum, Firming Collagen Day Lotion and our Collagen Boosting Skin Supplement which contains vegetarian collagen (none of that animal stuff for us, thanks) alongside skin-strengthening vitamins, biotin and acai.
5. Apply SPF Like Your Skin Depends On It
Because, heads up, it actually does. Dark spots are likely to get darker, bigger and more prevalent during your menopausal years as decades of sun exposure combine with wild hormones, causing your melanin to lose control of itself. Your fine lines and wrinkles are equally likely to suffer thanks to a lack of collagen helping to reinforce the strength and plumpness of your skin. Sigh.
Our advice? Don’t leave the house without applying SPF 30 Mineral Sunscreen with Vitamin C to your face and neck. It’s packed with sun-protective zinc oxide as well as aloe vera to hydrate and nourish your skin and a TruSkin favorite, brightening vitamin C. It’s basically a skincare must. Every. Day. Of. The Year.
What Happens To Your Skin During Menopause?
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