Winter Dry Skin Products Forest Hill MD

Banish Winter Dryness

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By Vicky Uhland

You layer on the moisturizer and drink plenty of fluids, but your skin still has those telltale ashy spots, fine lines, and a tight, dry feeling. Blame your parched pelt on the wintertime combo of frosty temperatures and toasty furnaces, both of which lower humidity and cause your skin to lose moisture. But before you resign yourself to scaly skin until the daffodils bloom, try applying a natural body oil.

Body oils work by mimicking the skin’s own oils and forming a barrier that traps moisture next to the skin. In addition, they can plump up the skin and make wrinkles less visible, says Arcadia, California-based dermatologist Dr. David Voron. He notes that body oils are particularly effective for fair-skinned people, who sometimes have less active oil glands, and for the elderly, whose oil glands atrophy as they get older. “Sometimes, you just need to replace the skin’s oils with something external,” Voron says.

But not all body oils are the same. “Petrolatum- or mineral oil-based products are bad news, as these will block the action of [the body’s natural oils] as well as any essential oils in products and inhibit healing and skin moisture self-regulation,” says natural beauty expert Kat James, author of The Truth About Beauty (Beyond Words Publishing, 2003). Oils from plants act similarly to skin oil, known as sebum, and get absorbed more easily into the body. But James cautions that these body oils must be cold-pressed, or processed without heat, to keep their natural characteristics.

Natural body oils also have another advantage. When the ingredient label reads “100 percent oil,” you don’t have to worry about harmful additives. “I’m a big fan of natural oils because you’re simplifying,” says Roxanne Renee, a massage therapist and health and beauty manager for a natural food store in Colorado. “Many have more purity than lotions that have preservatives and stabilizers.”

Renee says body oils can be used by themselves or mixed with essential oils such as lavender, which have their own healing properties. She recommends that body oils be applied immediately after a shower or bath (towel off lightly), so the oil can trap the moisture left on the skin. But she cautions against overdoing it. “Normally when people tell me they feel oily when they put on an oil, they’ve put on too much,” she says. Renee recommends rubbing the oil between your hands to heat and separate it, making it easier to apply. Use just enough to coat both hands with oil, she says.

Beauty expert Kat James suggests these oils for specific skin types:

All skin types
Jojoba, sweet almond and apricot kernel oil, which also work well as carriers for essential oils.

Oily and acne-prone skin
Jojoba, which is actually a wax, mimics the skin’s own oils and can even
remove excess sebum.

St. John’s wort oil—which is usually mixed in olive oil—calms the skin, and grapeseed oil is an astringent. “Two more expensive, newer oils on the scene that do doub...

Author: Vicky Uhland

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