With the winter months kicking in, a change of weather calls for an updated wardrobe and of course, skincare routine. The crisp, winter air can really take a toll on the skin with it feeling dry, irritated, tight and more sensitive, so it’s important to consider switching up the usual routine to ensure skin is protected during the cold, dry weather.
So, how does the winter affect our skin?
The outer layer of the skin (epidermis) contains the perfect combination of water, fats and lipids which help water retention and skin moisture. But in winter the low temperature and low humidity, along with very hot and drying central heating, will trigger a physical process where water will flow across the membrane of skin cells and be spontaneously sucked out of your skin by the dry air. Our blood circulation will usually recover the water and lipids, however in winter months, the blood flow is diverted from the skin to keep your core warm. As a result. skin self-recovery ability is slowed down in winter and our outer skin barrier (epidermis) is weakened.
So, to summarise… the cold, winter air reduces blood circulation in the face and tightens pores which in turn reduces our natural oils (such as sebum) that act as a protective layer.
Here are a few skincare do’s and dont’s to help protect your skin and prevent further damage during the cold, winter months!
Skincare Do’s
Opt for a mild, gentle, non-foaming cleanser to help moisture your skin and avoid your natural oils being stripped further.
After a warm, relaxing bath or shower, lock moisture into the skin by applying a nourishing body oil onto damp skin within 3 minutes of getting out of the bath or shower. (Try out Body Oils in: Tranquil Fields, Sensual Rose and Citrus Cheer)
Take care of your body by one: staying hydrated – drink plenty of water throughout the day and two: balancing nutrition by eating plenty of essential fatty acids, omega-3 found in avocado and oily fish and omega-6 found in nuts and whole grains which prevents dehydration in the skin cells.
Skincare Dont’s
Take a super a hot bath or shower – this breaks down the lipid barriers in the skin
Further irritate the skin by harshly rubbing or scratching the skin – gently pat the skin when drying and gently massage in skincare products when applying
Don’t over exfoliate the skin if you’re skin is extra dry or flaky as this will further irritate the skin. Instead, remove dead skin cells and reveal your natural glow more gently with our Facial Sonic Cleansing Device
Upgrade your winter skincare and bodycare routine with Kathleen Natural! Shop here
7 steps Skin Care Routine from Make-up Remover to Eye Cream
1 Make-up Remover
Remove your makeup gently with liquid remover. All skin types can benefit from makeup remover with oil, even oily and blemish-prone skin. Oil dissolves oil!
2 Cleanse
Step one: Apply one or two pumps of the Kathleen Refreshing & Lightening Cleansing Lotion to the dry skin, massage deeply with fingertips in a circular motion, ensure your are going against the “gravity”. Clean your face for thirty seconds to a minute to lift dirt, oil, makeup and impurities, cleaning deep into the pores.
Step two: Rinse gauze muslin face cloth in hand-hot water and wiring out before gently exfoliate and remove cleanser. Use a clean section of the cloth for each part of the face, rinsing the cloth thoroughly during cleansing. If you prefer, splash cold water on your face at the final stage to tighten your pores.
Kathleen cleanser is a pH balance one and sulphate free, contains 6 active botantical ingredients including organic tamanu seed oil, avocado oil, rose water, lavender water and lemon extract. After cleansing, you feel soft and comfort (not tight and dry)!
If you want to use a handy beauty device to deep clean your skin, you can choose Kathleen Facial Sonic Cleansing Device. This Sonic Cleansing Device has combined the sonic pulsations with an innovative silicone brush design for a deeper and gentler cleansing. When channeled through smooth, silicon touch-points, the sonic pulsations remove blemish-causing impurities and dirt, leaving the skin clearer and lighter without harsh abrasion. The waterproofing design is perfect for your facial cleansing routine when you bathe or shower.
3 Exfoliate
To achieve optimal daily routine results, you need to use our pure cotton gauze muslin face cloth for gently exfoliation, lifting away makeup and dead skin cells to reveal smoother, clearer and lighter-looking skin. This extra gently way of exfoliation prepares your skin for the next step of skin care treatments.
In addition, you may use chemical or physical exfoliator to scrub gently in a circular motion to remove all the dead skin cells which can give your an unsightly and flaky appearance; but keeps your pores from getting clogged and help your facial skin look fresh and bright.
Every comprehensive skincare regimen includes daily- and weekly-use products. The right face mask can help not only hydrate skin and also detoxifying skin and help improve the appearance of your pore and skin texture after a single use. You can use a face mask once a week or more, depending on your skin type and concerns. Kathleen Natural’s face masks can also act as therapeutic aromatherapy products. Set aside a bit of me-time when applying your mask. Draw a hot bath, light some candles, and let the magic of the mask work for 10 minutes. You will be drawn into a wonderful, sensory experience that will not only relax your mind and body, but will also leave you with fabulous looking skin. Choose the face mask for yourself.
4 Toner
This light scented and alcohol-free Kathleen Rebalancing & SoothingTonifying Mist is ideal for all skin types, even extra sensitive skin, to revitalize and soothe your skin. This exclusive gentle and botanical formula of aloe vera, glycerin, chamomile and lemon extracts helps to moisturize dry skin and heal and soothe skin irritation, leaving skin more tone, less redness and radiant appearance.
5 Essence
The essence affects skin on a cellular level, leading to an increase in elasticity, moisture and firmness. You apply the essence with your fingertips all over your face and neck in a circular motion and move out and up.
Our Silk Miracle Essence is a formula protect your facial skin in 7 dimensions – crystal clear, firmness and elasticity, less visible spots, reduced fine lines, anti-oxidants, anti-irritants and promotes the appearance of radiance. I absolutely see why girls love this lightweight product.
6 Serum
Different serums concentrate on different skin issues. For example anti-aging or dullness, you can give yourself a facial massage while massaging the serums into your skin. Massage in a circular motion for 10-20 seconds working from the chin and upward to cheek and nose and the forehead.
From the age of 30+, you can use our Kathleen Glamour Ageless for classic anti-aging. If your skin is dullness, you must try the Kathleen Amazing White which leaves your facial skin looks more radiant and bright. Serums are a real asset to your skincare routine, keeping your skin firm and glowing.
Alternatively, our therapist recommends: wearing Kathleen Amazing White in the morning for brightening during the day and wearing Kathleen Glamour Ageless Serum at night for rejuvenating your skin while you sleep.
7 Eye Cream
You tap the eye cream around the eye area. Don’t rubbing or pulling. Eye cream protects and nourishes the skin around the eyes. Massage or pat a pea-sized amount of eye cream under your eyes using your fingertips, sweep around the outside corners of your eyes and end with your fingertips at the inside corners. Repeat the motion for 4-5 times. You will feel wonderful after using our Caviar Enrich Eye Cream.
Tips:-
If your skin doesn’t need some parts of the routine, skip them. Sometimes less is more.
Always be gentle to your skin, don’t rub or pull.
Use a cotton and soft facial towel and clean it every time.
Beautiful season, I like to visit our growers and am very exciting to learning about the sun… sunflowers.
Organic sunflower seed oil is rich in vitamin E and essential fatty acid (including linoleic, oleic, palmitic and steraric acids), for promoting skin elastic and preventing premature signs aging. Lovely, they are blended in our brilliant products – Amazing White, Glamour Ageless, Caviar Enrich Eye Cream.
How to Glow
Sunflowers like to grow in full sun in well drained soil. Try to glow sunflower in your backyard from mid-April to the end of May. They are an annual plant and will flower in August.
Lovely summer, we wear sandals, skater skirt, sleeveless dress, shorts and oversized floppy hat. Then, what does our skin wear in summer? Sunscreen may be the simple answer. We, smart ladies, shall learn more.
What does sunlight do to our skin?
Sunlight is a combination of 3 types of rays – infrared, visible lights and ultraviolet. Thanks to the natural world. The ozone layer absorbs most of toxic lights. However ultraviolet A (UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB) penetrate cloud and glass and deep into our skin, causes skin cell damages and premature aging. UVB penetrates into the outer layer of the skin epidermis and damages the cells causing the skin to be inflamed or sunburnt. UVA penetrates more deeply into second layer of skin dermis causing direct damage to supporting tissues leading to ageing effects. Both types of rays are attributed to causing different skin cancers.
How can we read labels right?
SPF stands for “sun protection factor” which represents the length of time you can stay in the sun protecting from UVB. SPF 15 means a person who normally (without sunscreen) would turn red after 10 minutes of sun exposure would take 150 minutes (10 x 15) to turn red. Remember, this does not mean you can stay in the sun for 150 minutes. Red is the one of the symptoms that our skin cells have been damaged. Never risks our skin.
SPF rating system applies to UVB rays only. We need protecting from UVA also which causes of skin premature aging. In the revised EU guidelines for sunscreens products, this should be a UVA seal which requires providing consumers with a minimum level of UVA protection in relation to at least 1/3 of the SPF.
In US, FDA requires the phrase “BROAD SPECTRUM” which will provide protection from both UVA and UVB. Therefore, we are not looking for a SPF product only and also the UVA seal or the phrase “BROAD SPECTRUM”.
Is SPF 30 better than SPF 15? SPF 15 will filter out about 93% of UVB rays and SPF 30 filters out about 97%. In Europe regulations, manufacturers are limited to claiming SPF 50+; in Australia it is even more restrictions for maximum claiming of 30+, while in the US, it is no particular restrictions.
How do sunscreens work?
The main ingredients of a sunscreen product are the UV-filters. UV-filters work in one of two ways: (1) absorbing the UV-light by ‘soaking it up’ like thousands of tiny sponge soaks up water or (2) reflecting the UV-light away from the skin like thousands of tiny mirrors. Absorbing filters, also called chemical or organic filters, soak up UV-light then converting it into lower energy and safer infrared light. Reflecting filters, also called mineral or inorganic filters, are commonly used together with absorbing filters to get more efficient results. Different UV-filters tend to be effective against different wavelengths of UV-light, therefore most sunscreens products include several different UV-filters to provide a broad spectrum of protection, high SPF value and UVA seals.
Many of UV-filters will not dissolve in water, therefore sunscreens must contain large amount of oil ingredients to help dissolve the UV-filters which make people feeling oily and greasy.
3-rule must be followed to ensure the SPF and UVA seals works.
Use 15 to 30 minutes in advance (get the UV-filters ready to work)
Apply a thick layer; 1/4 to 1/3 of a teaspoon for face and 6 teaspoons (golf ball size) for body; Some studies found that people apply only half of the amount required and leaving your skin unprotected.
Re-apply every 2 or 3 hours; The sunscreen layer will be worn off and/or fully soaked of the UV-light.
Are UV-filters toxic our skin?
Based on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) scores, I summarized following table of UV-filters against different level of toxicity concerns.
UV-filters with higher toxicity concerns
UV-filters with moderate toxicity concerns
UV-filters with lower toxicity concerns
Oxybenzone
Homosalate
Titanium Dioxide
Octinoxate (Octylmethoxycinnamate)
Octisalate
Zinc Oxide
Octocrylene
Avobenzone
Mexoryl SX
Avoid vitamin A and related ingredients
EWG recommends that we have to avoid sunscreens and other skin and lip products containing vitamin A, retinyl palmitate, retinol, retinyl acetate, retinyl linoleate and retinoic acid – manufacturers believe these slow the skin aging. Studies found the possibility that these ingredients may speed the growth of cancerous tumor when used on skin exposed to sunlight.
My Recommendation
Avoid
Never expose to sunlight longer than necessary. Try to stay out of the sun between the hours of 10am to 4pm. The longer we are outside, the longer our skin suffered from UV-lights. No matter how – do not let SPF, UVA, hat – fool us into thinking we can stay out in the sun longer.
Shade
Staying under shade, such as a tree or umbrella, can reduce our sunlight exposure, but not completely. Only very broad and thick shade such as thickly wooded areas and widely overhanging structures provide enough protection explained by British Association of Dermatologists.
Cover up
Clothing
We can select dark-coloured, synthetic fabrics, close weave and dry clothing (fabrics get wet, their protection can be halved).
Oversized sunglasses
Please remember to check your sunglasses with ‘real’ sun protection. Remember that the UV-protective chemical on sunglasses is invisible, so the colour of the lens not an indication of protecting. Label must clearly state the following labelling.
“CE Mark” and British Standard (BS EN 1836:1997)
UV400 (it means the sunglasses blocks up to 400 nm of UV-light)
100% UV protection written on the label or sticker
Hat
Hats are great for protecting our face, ears, eyes and head and back of the neck. So choose a wide-brimmed hat for most protection. Baseball caps are not a good choice.
Sunscreen
Nice thick layer sunscreen can sit on our face and protect from UV-lights. National Institute for Health and Care recommends a minimum of SPF 15 and UVA seals in the UK. And don’t forget our lips.
Obviously, sunscreen is not nutrients, so wisely prevent the higher toxicity concerns UV-filters. As sunscreen works as a cover on my face, I always apply my prestigious skin care products, Glamour Ageless and Silk Miracle Essence well before any sunscreen. I don’t like mixing UV-filters with those precious ingredients that blocking the benefits sinking into my skin.
