Skin Care to Suit Summer and Winter Skins

If changing seasons demand different types of clothing and fashions, they demand different types of skin care, and skin care products as well. Skin is a sense organ, skin is a delicate organ, and skin is area-wise the largest organ. All this entails that skin care be properly aligned with the different demands seasons make on the skin, with its differing temperatures, heats and winds and snows and storms.

What is the basic difference between summer skin care and winter skin care?

Summer is the season of heat and humidity, and the season when skin is more exposed to the sun and other elements of nature. Skin perspires more in the summer months during the process of cooling the body. This increases the oil output from skin glands, creating it easier for pimples to start dotting the skin. Swimming is ideal for cooling the skin in summer months, though there is a downside in the form of possible skin dryness because of the chemicals contained in the swimming pool water.

The cold winter season dries and chaps the skin. Flaking and cracking of the skin is also not rare during winter. The skin care routine has to be completely changed here. Even remaining inside a heated room makes the skin dry in winter months. Winter clothing should essentially cover much of the skin to minimize dryness. However, facial skin remains exposed and this has to be kept nourished.

Caring for your skin in summer

Ultraviolet radiation is the biggest enemy of the skin during the summer months. Sunscreens are mandatory during summer for proper skin care. Keep the skin protected from the sun by shade or sun protection clothing. Completely avoid exposing skin to sun between 10 o’clock in the morning and 3 o’clock in the evening when the sun would be hottest. Water sprayers can be used to keep the skin cool.

Using cleansers that contain salicylic acid, menthol, or eucalyptus, would be ideal to keep skin pores open, and minimize blemishes on the skin. Applying a facial mask once a week will also help to clean the skin pores and maintain the pH balance. Skin needs less moisturizing in summer. Swimming is good during summer to keep the skin cool, but body should be washed with clean water after swimming, to remove the traces of salt and chlorine on the skin.

Caring for your skin in winter

Sunscreen is mandatory as much for the winter skin, as for the summer skin. To keep the skin safe, SPF of a minimum of15 is strongly recommended for sunscreens, make-ups, and moisturizers. And the skin on the lips should be protected round the clock with lip balm or lipstick.

To protect a winter skin, air should preferably be kept moisturized. Keeping a humidifier on, or keeping a pan of water near some heat source, or having potted plants inside, would help the skin by moisturizing the air.

Direct moisturizing of the skin can be done by using lotions, creams, or soaps, that are emollient-based. Even bath water can be moisturized to protect the skin, though it might make the tub slippery. Since contact with water can remove skin’s natural oils, baths may ideally be shorter.

Yet another protective measure for the winter skin is using toners with minimal alcohol content. Toners should be applied only infrequently, and skin should be scrubbed to remove dead cells. All this would stimulate the skin so that you can come out of winter with a perfect skin and again start, in the cyclic manner, the summer skin care that will keep the skin protected in summer.