Dear Beauty Conscious Reader,
You know it’s wintertime …
Your lips are chapped and cracked … your skin is dry and itchy … and your face is wind-burned and flaky… You apply lip balm, salve and moisturizing lotion that may work for a little while. But before you know it, the irritation returns and you’re back to feeling uncomfortable in your own skin once again.
So what can you do to keep your skin soft and glowing during the harsh winter months?
Step 1: To start, you need to stay hydrated. When it’s cold outside, people have a tendency to replace water with warm beverages like coffee, tea and hot chocolate. While these drinks will warm you up, they won’t hydrate you like plain purified water.
Keep in mind, when you’re hydrated on the inside, it shows on the outside. I suggest drinking 2 liters of purified water daily to keep your skin looking its best.
In addition to paying attention to how much water you drink, you should also consider the water you shower with.
There’s nothing better than getting into a steaming hot shower on a frosty, cold day. But you should know the temperature of your shower directly affects your skin. The hotter the water, the drier it makes your skin, because the heat strips your skin of its natural oils.
You can protect your skin by showering with warm water and by keeping your showers short. No more than 15 minutes.
While you’re in the shower, you’ll also want to exfoliate to remove the layer of dead, dry flaky skin and let your new skin cells shine through.
Step 2: Cleanse your skin with all-natural ingredients. Be cautious about the cleansers you use. Replace harsh soaps with natural alternatives that are paraben-free. I use an all-natural body wash with soothing rose hips and red-tea extract from South Africa to nourish my skin.
Red-tea extract packs more antioxidant power than green tea. Red tea contains aspalathan and other rare antioxidants that provide essential support against free-radical damage. This helps minimize the appearance of wrinkles, and makes your skin more smooth and supple.
The rose hips are a rich source of linolenic acid, an essential fatty acid your body can’t make. This also promotes smoother skin and supports your skin’s defenses against the sun’s UV rays.
Step 3: Don’t forget an all-natural moisturizer. Make sure the moisturizer you use doesn’t contain toxic chemicals like parabens, gasoline distillates and BPAs that can throw off your hormones levels and potentially cause some serious health problems down the road.
Again, I use a gentle moisturizer with natural ingredients that soothes my dry skin. My moisturizer contains apricot kernel oil – a good natural source of linoleic and linolenic acid that promotes softer, smoother skin. It also contains rare red-tea extract to minimize the appearance of wrinkles and jojoba oil from the desert Southwest that enhances skin’s flexibility and smoothness. You also want to make sure your moisturizer (like mine) contains hyaluronic acid – a humectant that helps hydrate skin.
Follow these simple tips and you’ll keep your skin glowing all year long.
Best Wishes for Health and Beauty,
Tara Smith, ARNP, NP-C
[Ed. Note: Tara Smith, ARNP NP-C, is a board-certified nurse practitioner for Dr. Sears’ Center for Health & Wellness in Royal Palm Beach, Fla. Her medical concentration is on aesthetics, teaching and family practice.]To learn more about Pure Radiance, Inc., call (888) 795-4005 or visit: