Top 4 Winter Skin Care Tips

Once the weather gets colder, your skin begins getting tight, dry, dull, irritated and itchy. In summer humidity in air provides moisturizer to your skin but in winter cold winds suck the moisture from the air and lack of nourishing vitamins causes great skin related problems. Those who are living in colder places have to face harsh winter wind which forces them to imprison themselves into their houses for longer periods. The low humidity level in the air, essential to keep your skin healthy, shinny and fresh, sucks the natural oils which is resulted into dehydration.

When you go outside you have to face harsh weather and when you come inside your house, you have to stay near to the heating points and both of these conditions demand you to take extra care of your skin. If you follow these top 4 winter skin care tips, you can easily spend your winter days with no problems at all.

Winter Skin Care Tips # 1 - Use of Humidifier

If you use humidifier, it will help you increase the level of moisture into the air which will result in less drier skin. Use humidifier in your bedroom at night to reduce the dryness and heating effects. But before using humidifier, it is important for you to clearly understand the instructions given in the booklet.

Winter Skin Care Tips # 2 - Bath with Lukewarm Water

No doubt taking hot bath or shower in winter days seems to be quite romantic and relaxing but something that you should know about hot bath is that the one who prefers to stay in a bathtub full of hot water or take shower for more than the time he needs to wash and clean himself is more prone to develop skin dryness, irritation & other winter allergies. However, there is a natural remedy which can provide your skin with protection from hot bathing side effects. Mixing 1-2 cups of baking soda in the water will greatly help you in battling with skin dryness.

Winter Skin Care Tips # 3 - Sufficient Consumption of Water
You are having cold and breezy winter days and you don't often feel thirsty but it does not mean that you should reduce the amount of drinking water in your daily life. If you do so, you are going to dehydrate your body as well as skin. Water is imperative for your body and drinking sufficient amount of water every day will keep your skin healthy and shinny.
Winter Skin Care Tips # 4 - Taking Care of Hands & Feet
Hands and feet are the most ignoring body organs which are often left uncovered recklessly on mercy of winter winds and when you wash them with cold water during the day, it makes them even drier. You should know that they also need to be taken care as much as other parts of your body need. Whenever you wash your hands and feet during the day, cover them with gloves and socks after applying moisturizer or lotion on them.

By Sania M Marvis

Anti Aging Tips For the Lips

When it comes to our faces, we try and invest on all sorts of anti aging creams, eye creams, serums, pills and treatments just because we want to look young as long as we can. But it's very rare to hear and read anything about age proofing the lips. Sadly, the lips are the most neglected part of most anti aging regimens. They do need a lot of care, but they are often overlooked and even totally neglected. Unknown to many, the lips can be a dead giveaway of how old or young a person is so it deserves the same amount of attention as the other parts of the face. With this, let me share to you some anti aging tips for the lips. Here are some of them.

1. Avoid constantly licking your lips. Contrary to popular belief, licking your lips has no moisturising or hydrating effect at all. As a matter of fact, licking your lips can actually dry them out. Saliva contains digestive enzymes that evaporates quickly as you lick, leaving your lips drier than before you licked them. Dry, cracked and chapped lips can make your face look ugly so enough with the licking.

2. Avoid unprotected sun exposure. Just like our facial skin, our lips can also get damaged when exposed to the sun. The sun's UV rays can darken, wrinkle and dry out the lips, making you look old and lifeless. To prevent this, try to avoid the sun between 11 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon because that is when the sun is at its strongest. If you really need to go outside, make sure to use a lip balm with SPF and reapply it after a couple of hours to protect your lips from damage.

3. Wear lip balm with sun protection factor (SPF). Sunscreen is an essential product of every skin care regimen, but let us not forget our lips. Our lips also gets damaged by the sun's harmful UV rays if left unprotected. This is why it is important to wear a lip balm with SPF every single day. Apart from protecting the lips from sound damage, it also prevents discoloration, wrinkling, dryness and chapping.

4. Exfoliate lips regularly. It's a good practice to exfoliate your lips at least once a week. Exfoliation can help get rid of the dry and dead skin on the lip's surface. It can also help lighten lips that are discolored due to sun damage. To exfoliate your lips, you can use a mixture of sugar and olive oil or if you want something fancy, you can buy those flavoured lip scrubs in the market. Make sure to moisturize your lips after exfoliating them.

5 Avoid smoking. Smoking is one of the primary causes of both the wrinkles in the skin around the lips and the lips itself. It also dries out the lips which can make it look unhealthy and old, so better ditch that stick before it's too late.-By Mich Ching

Advantages of Using Moisturizer

Everyone loves to have a beautiful and glowing skin. Skin moisturizer helps keep skin hydrated and prevent dryness. It acts as a barrier between the pores and the air molecules. This prevents water from leaving and maintaining the natural moisture of the skin. Moisturizer helps in treating the dryness, protection, masking imperfections, improving skin texture as well as skin tone.

The use of moisturizer differs from texture to texture as well as according to the age of the particular individual.

Here are some guidelines to use moisturizer according to your skin type:

• For Normal Type

It means people who have neither oily nor dry skin. Maintenance of this type of balance is required; a person with a normal texture should use a water-based moisturizer which has non-greasy or light amount of moistening contents. In this type of moisturizers, lightweight oils or silicon present is Cyclomethicone.

• For Oily Type

This type is prone to acne and breakouts. Although skin is oily but it still needs moisturizer of lightweight moistening especially after using the acne prevention products as most of time these products prevent oils but also make the skin dry. Noncomedogenic labeled products or water based products should be used.

• For Dry Type

Dry skin needs moisture; this texture needs heavy oil based moisturizers which help in the hydration of epidermis. Petroleum-based products are advised for cracked and dry skin. It is more powerful for preventing water in pores.

• For Sensitive Type

Sensitive skin is allergic to irritations, rashes, redness and itching. The people with this type should use moisturizer which is soothing and contains ingredients such as aloe or chamomile. Make sure the moisturizer you are using should not contain any dye or fragrances. People with this skin type should avoid the product containing acids which can irritate the skin.

• For Mature Type

Due to growing age oil producing glands become inactive and the skin tends to become dry. The moisturizer containing petrolatum as the base should be used as it helps in softening of skin and also helps maintain water in the pores. The skincare products containing alpha hydroxy acids and antioxidants should be used to overcome the wrinkles and sagging of skin. These key ingredients will help in holding moisture and will also prevent flaky and scaly skin.

Here are some tips on how to apply moisturizer more effectively:

• Moisturizer should be applied immediately after bathing, it helps water to trap in the surface cells.
• Moisturize hands and body amply;
• Apply moisturizer after washing of hands and before exercising outside.

Benefits of using moisturizer in winters

In winters skin becomes dry, itchy, dehydrated and irritated. To make it hydrated and glowing again, one needs to use moisture along with the nutritional virtues of heavy oils. Apply winter moisturizer at night on face, hands and legs. The skin will absorb the moistening cream better at night and in the morning you will feel fresh and rejuvenated after you get up.

Application of moisturizer must be proper. Natural moisturizers should be preferred to the expensive brands. If you are noticing any type of skin problems after using moisturizer, then consult your dermatologist. He will guide you in moisturizing your skin according to the skin tone.-By Shaambhavi Pathak