What's your secret cure to fixing dry winter skin?

Use a good moisturizer and body lotion or oil and slather it on thickly right after getting out of the shower while your skin is still warm, damp and pores expanded for maximum absorbtion.

Certain foot/heel creams are also excellent for hands and elbows and other extra dry patches.

I have a nice hemp oil spray that works really well after showering and use a face cream with vitamins C&E on my face and neck.

@Coloma: would you share which brands you use? I have a great face cream that I like… but no cream I’ve ever used seems to work that well this time of year. Always looking for new suggestions (preferably not uber expensive ones!)

I use only Jojoba Oil on everything but face. (Dessert Essense): http://www.desertessence.com/oils/organic-jojoba-oil

The other products look tempting.

I like using rice bran oil or a mixture of rice bran and shea butter on my face, but it makes my makeup run sometimes. I have to be careful to put it on thinly when I want to put make up on over it.

Making my own stuff has it benefits. I’m allergic or irritated by certain ingredients or fragrances. I also make a solid lotion bar that my knitting ladies swear by. It has beeswax, shea butter, rice bran oil, coconut oil. I add a bit of fragrance for people who like that. Some moisturisers are mostly water, with little binding ingredients so it’s not that moisturising. By using stuff with little or NO water in it, you’re doing a better job of sealing in the moisture.

Jojoba oil is interesting because it’s not really an oil, but a liquid wax. It is very very close to the make up of our own oil and sebum and it makes an excellent skin moisturiser and, when added to a hair conditioner, it’s very good for your hair and scalp.

You could make your own version of the solid lotion bar for your hands and especially nails using jojoba oil (I’m looking at importing some soon from India, but haven’t got any in stock yet). I love making my own stuff and making stuff for other people.

@Samantha_Rae

I use ‘Danielle Laroche Night-time vitamin C creme’. Use it in the mornings too.

Earthly Bodies ‘Nag Champa Hempseed Glow Oil, sultry skin spray.’

And various run o’ the mill Body butters and lotions.

Bucket loads of E45

I absolutely love Mane ‘n Tail. It’s not slimy (unless you use excessive amounts at once), and it helps strengthen my nails while moisturizing my hands. While it keeps my hands moisturized, it doesn’t always make my skin as soft as I would like, so I use it in conjunction with pretty well any other moisturizer. I mostly use the Mane ‘n Tail, and I use a little something else when my hands need a little softening.

@cazzie Would you mind giving us the proportions of the ingredients and any special instructions so we can make that ourselves?

After I get out of the shower or bath,I will put on baby oil,wipe it off,then put a moisturizer on over top.As for my face,any kind of oil-free moisturizer seems to work after bathing.
You will be as soft as a baby’s butt XD

SRQ

Escape from the winter and come down south :D. Some nice warm beaches here.

Make sure none of the creams and lotions you are currently using have retinols or AHA or anything that exfoliates chemically. Those creams are usually marketed as wrinkle reducing.

Some of the more expensive brands really do seem to hydrate better. I find Chanel to be fantastic. Lauder and Guerlain are marketed towards older clientelle and focus on deep moisturizing. Most people as they get older their skin gets dryer.

I must be really lucky, I don’t have much of a dry skin issue. The skin around my nails peels away in the form of hangnails and occasionally my heels get dry for a few hours, but it clears up itself naturally.

I found a list of foods recommended for dry skin care here

I have never had a problem with dry skin except in northern Colorado. Everywhere else has been so humid. At night I do use a cheap cream, Jason’s Vit E cream. Super thick, absorbs almost instantly.

I have always had dry skin especially in the winter. And I have always lived places that have cold, painful winters so I always struggled with this. It wasn’t til last year that I started using Ponds (that you can buy at Target or wherever)...light blue lid. I don’t need anything else for my face now. I put it on after I get out of the shower, and maybe once again before bed is necessary.

Also a humidifier is key.

@Aster damn Colorado and it’s dryness!

I just put lotion on and then put a layer of aloe vera gel on my face. The aloe vera gel keeps the moisture in so my face doesn’t feel dry at all the whole day.

For years I’ve used the Green tin of Vermont’s Original bag balm salve. I use it on my face as well as everywhere as night. It smells a bit like medicine, yeah but it works soooo well and there are days I rub the stuff into my cuticles and nails because the hangnails get so sharp and dry. Aside from that I fill the bathtub with lukewarm water (no soap) and soak for a half hour, lotion up after. Once a week soakings are good, the skin is a sponge of sorts and this helps along with what you drink.

Generally dry skin & cuticle issues in the winter time relate to a combination of less moisture & humidity in the air & less moisture in the body. The solution that always works for me is to increase my water intake during less humid parts of the year. I used to practically dip myself in lotions & chapsticks until I started drinking loads of water & now I just use a bit of lotion when hopping out of the shower & that’s it. You’ll be surprised what a gallon of water will do for you – those symptoms are generally related to your level of hydration vs dehydration.

@Jenniehowell I know you said the water helped, but generally people are not dehydrated to the point that their skin is dryer. I have been telling water guzzling people stuff like this for years, and then just to reinforce my feelings on the topic Dr. Oz did a week long non-scientific study with twins, one drank much more water than the other and there was no difference in their skin or hydration. Now, there might be a difference in flushing their kidneys, but they did not test for that, it would need a very long term study. And, did you mean a gallon at once? You do know it is dangerous to consume a lot of water in a short amount of time right?

If anyone wants to have a go at making some stuff themselves, I can point them in the right direction for recipes and stuff…...PM me… I don’t want to sound like a spammer. K?

@Jenniehowell just increasing your water intake doesn’t work where I live. (and I agree with what @JLeslie wrote) The outside of your skin is dead skin… no amount of water inside your body is going to make it there except when you sweat… and that causes smell, so we wash that off. (btw, it’s not the sweat that stinks but the bacteria that live on our skin eat the stuff in the sweat and it’s the bacteria’s excrement that creates the smell)

You need to give the outside a good coat of oily protection just as you step out of the shower or bathtub. The dead skin on the surface is all plumped up with water and a good slathering of a good combination of fat and oil will help keep it looking moisturised for a while. When humidity is low, the surface of your skin dries out. Simple as that. The surface of everything dries out, actually.

@Neizvestnaya: I got the bag balm and have been using it! Seems to be working well on my feetsies so far! thanks for the recommendation.