How to Keep Your Skin Moisturized During the Cold Season

Winter is a great time for snuggling by a fire, having snowball fights, and singing carols, but it also comes with freezing temperatures, dry air, and harsh winds.  All these things can take a toll on your skin, leaving it dry, flaky, and looking bad.  Don’t let winter take a toll on you; get started now to keep your skin looking healthy all the way to summer.

The most important step for keeping your skin moisturized is to drink plenty of water. Creams and lotions are great, but they can only do so much.  If your cells aren’t properly hydrated, they will not only be rough and dry but can also become red, bloated, and simply unhealthy looking.  If you get enough water to drink, your skin will stay more moist and your body will stay more healthy.

We all know using moisturizers during the winter is important to keep your skin from drying out.  They not only provide hydration - they also form a protective barrier to help your skin hold moisture in.  But when choosing which product to buy, remember that all moisturizers are not created equal.  Choose moisturizers that contain nutrients like vitamin A, D, and E that will nourish your skin and help it retain more moisture.

The reason your skin gets so dry during the winter is mainly because the air around it is so dry.  The drier the air, the more water you lose from your skin.  While you can’t make the air more humid outside, you can control the water level inside.  Setting up a humidifier in your home and office will help your skin stay soft and supple all year round.

While you can’t use a humidifier outside, you can protect your skin from the dry air by covering it up.  While you might think you don’t need to bundle up for a short walk outside, putting on a coat, gloves, and a scarf will help keep your skin hydrated.  If you’re going to be outside for longer periods of time, you can protect yourself more by putting on lotion before you cover up.

Another offender for drying out your skin is soap.  As the cold and flu season revs up, we’re much more likely to wash our hands and use harsh antibacterial soaps that suck the moisture from our hands and the rest of the body.  To keep moisture in, find moisturizing hand soap and use moisturizing cleansers as opposed to soap for the rest of your body.  Just like lotions, look for soaps with added vitamins to help stop your skin from drying out.

Just because it’s cold and dry in the winter, doesn’t mean you have to deal with itchy and embarrassing dry skin.  Just take these few extra steps to keep it looking and feeling great all year round.

Is Your Teen Suffering Because of Acne?

According to many studies, acne is very common when one is on his teenage years. For teenagers experiencing the plague of acne, it is very difficult to face its social impact. It’s not just the red, infected, irritated skin: it’s the shame they have to get out of the home, it’s the fear that they’ll be rejected.

So, what can you, as a parent do for your teen while he or she is going through this period in their life? Actually, you could be one of the greatest helps. Here are just a few ideas of what you can do to help:

1. Encourage your teen to keep their hand off the affected areas - by doing this they’ll protect the unaffected areas)
2. Encourage them to drink lots of water - this will help eliminate toxins
3. Remind them to use gentle products when cleansing their skin: some soaps are way too harsh, and others contain chemicals that should never touch our skin.
4. Cook healthy meals for them. Too much meat, spices, eggs and milk may aggravate their acne, while eating lots of fruits and vegetables will improve the condition of their skin by pushing the toxins out.
5. Help them choose the right skin care products
6. Remind them that the acne is temporary

Here are only a few of the better acne treatments you can look at with your teenager:

Mario Badescu Drying Lotion - this is only used as a spot treatment, and it should be used to get rid of stubborn pimples. Many say this works overnight. Read more

Beauty Tips for Baby Boomers

As a baby boomer, having healthy looking skin is more important than anything these days. It seems we have come full circle when it comes to defining beauty. As they say, less is more! Here are some beauty tips for baby boomers to keep your skin looking healthy and natural.

Use sun block as often as possible. This will protect the skin against the sun’s rays which can damage and age the skin. Use moisturizers on a daily basis. Olay does an inexpensive and good quality moisturizer. Using Olay Total Effects products, including exfoliating cleansing cloths which are soothing and which gently wash the face, leaving it smooth and moist is a plus. In addition, none of the natural oils are dissipated.

They also have a product which includes microdermabrasion and peel system which resurfaces the skin’s texture, activates surface cell renewal, conditions skin, improves skin tone, and diminishes the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. They also have a lotion which includes SPF 15 which protects the skin against UV rays.

In addition, a healthy diet and exercise always helps, as well as drinking eight glasses of water a day. It’s also important to stay away from abrasive cleansers, and make-up which has chemical properties.

Whether we have dry skin, oily skin or blotchy skin, there are products available which can improve the skins texture and look. Having clean, healthy skin makes you look younger. Using make-up to enhance one’s look is fine, but it seems we are moving away from the heavy, cakey make-up used in the past. Less is more! Simple oil-free light base, which enhances the skin tone, some blush, accompanied by a little bit of eye shadow. and lipstick are all one needs to look healthy and beautiful.

There seem to be more beauty tips for baby boomers than ever before. Perhaps because there are millions of boomers who are seeking to tone down and derive a more natural look, the products developed today are meant to enhance one’s facial features with light, soft cosmetics. This is a good thing, don’t you think?