With the temperature plummeting and the central heating being cranked up a notch or five, I'm sure I'm not the only one whose skin is certainly beginning to pay the price. Luckily there are a whole host of skin-saving solutions out there, set to revolutionise your winter beauty routine - take note people, you might just finding yourself needing some of these in the coming weeks...
First and foremost on my list is a damn good body scrub. Dry skin is the bane of my life at this time of year, especially on the legs. Arbonne's Vanilla Amber Sugar Scrub (£26, available from www.arbonneinternational.co.uk is my current favourite. A deliciously sugar-scented scrub, just the rights texture to properly slough away the dry bits and leave your skin silky soft.
A couple of bargainous beauties for the bath and shower that always have a place in my bathroom are Radox Nourish Herbal Bath (£2.00 at Boots) with ginger and shea butter - excellent for a properly indulgent bubble bath at a purse-friendly price - and Sanex Zero% Shower Gel (£2.19 at Tesco). Specifically formulated for dry skin, it's a mild, biodegradable formula which contains a reduced number of chemical ingredients for clean and healthy skin, as well ascontaining lactic acid that naturally fights against bacteria and protects the skin's natural pH balance.
Post-ablutions, slather yourself in a rich body lotion for optimum skin hydration. You can't beat the classic of Kiehl's Creme de Corps, (£27.00 for 250ml from www.kiehls.co.uk. Containing beta-carotene, a naturally derived antioxidant, cocoa butter and sesame oil, use every day and you will soon see the difference it makes to your skin. For a slightly more budget alternative, The Body Shop's Body Butter Duo in Macadamia (£13.00 from www.thebodyshop.co.uk) is half a smooth body lotion for normal skin and half a thick body butter for dry skin, meaning you can moisturise different areas with different intensity. It's also currently part of a marvellously money-saving 3 for £15 offer! (PS I can also recommend the Sweet Pea scent, lovely for summer).
Upwards to the face! Always a tricky area, I have recently discovered Boots Botanics Radiant Youth Microdermabrasion Polish (Not pictured. £5.33 from www.boots.com. A brilliant budget face scrub, it's an intensive micro-polishing treatment that encourages cell renewal for a younger looking, more radiant complexion. Dullness banishing microparticles help to refine pores and improve skin texture, for a salon experience at home; with a really sandy, grainy texture - as opposed to the horrid little beads in most cheap face scrubs - it feels like it's working seriously hard and leaves the skin glowing.
Follow with a few drops of SkinCeuticals Hydrating B5 Gel (£59.00 for 30ml. Visit www.skinceuticals.co.uk for stockists). Packed full of vitamin B5, known to help with tissue repair, Hydrating B5 is a moisture-enhancing gel that replenishes the skin's nutrients, containing hyaluronic acid (the body’s natural hydrator) to bind moisture to the skin. Worn underneath your daily moisturiser, it will help maximise its effects and leave your skin plumped and re-hydrated.
My current favourite moisturiser is Vichy Smoothing & Illuminating Cream for Dry Skin (£22.00 for 50ml, available from Boots). Designed for skin showing signs of ageing, with wrinkles, dullness and uneven skin texture, it's enriched with Kombucha, a powerful tea extract that smoothes skin's texture and improves radiance. Non-greasy and non-sticky, it has a pleasantly mild scent, not dissimilar to something like Johnson's Baby Lotion, sinking into the skin effortlessly.
The penultimate product in my list is the Eve Lom Kiss Mix lip balm (£16.00, available from Space NK), of which I always have a pot in my handbag. An indulgent yet soothing combo of beeswax and menthol, it plumps lips with leaving them seriously hydrated, something you just don't get with petroleum-based lip balms that tend to dry your lips out even more. It soothes chapped and cracked lips too, making it perfect for this awkward, chilly weather!
Finally, my last winter skin saviour has to be Sisley's Nutritive Handcare with Harpagophytum (£59.50, available from Harrods, Harvey Nichols & Selfridges), which has fast become my all time favourite hand cream. A complex of botanical ingredients, including lemon, horsetail, carrot, chamomile and Harpagophytum, this advanced anti-ageing cream leaves hands soft and supple. Perhaps a tad on the pricey side, but with Sisley you undoubtedly get what you pay for, and a little goes a LONG way.
Love Laurel x
