7 Best products for your winter skincare routine

Let’s face it, winter isn’t the easiest time for your skin. Low humidity and central heating (if you can afford it…) reduce its water content, and colder temperatures only add to dull skin and fine lines. It took me years to learn that cleansing is as important as moisturising, but so is knowing which ingredients to include in your routine if you have one—and if you don't, start one now. 

Essentially you are looking for ingredients that are hydrating, nourishing, and protecting. Australian TV doctor, podcaster and co-founder of Evidence Skincare (ESK), Dr Ginni Mansberg, explains, “Hyaluronic acid is a great ingredient for its anti-ageing and healing properties. Another useful winter addition is ceramides, which settles skin with a compromised barrier function and retains moisture. There isn’t enough talk about UVAs—the sun’s ageing rays —and a broad-spectrum sunscreen should be the cornerstone of every skincare regime, even in winter.”

Here are seven products to pep up your skin for the winter season.

We’ve all heard of farm-to-table food but Farmacy champions a “farm-to-face” philosophy with a heady mix of ingredients grown by the US brand’s preferred ethical producers. 

Good enough to eat, a honey and coconut blend with soothing and calming turmeric, chamomile, calendula, aloe and licorice is ramped up with our old friend, hyaluronic acid, for hydration and moisturising. 

Massaged onto damp skin morning and night, it gently removes makeup and daily dirt. Not only that but it’s certified cruelty free with 100 per cent recyclable caps and jars, and recycled packaging.

This three-in-one bestseller lasts for weeks and functions as a skin-feeding balm you can leave on as a weekly treatment. Alternatively, warm a pea-sized amount in your palms and massage slowly over your face and chest before removing with a warm face cloth. 

You can also mix it with water to create a looser cleansing lotion. The comforting, energising spa-like smell reflects the skin-softening mix of rose and mimosa wax (created during essential oil production), lavender, chamomile and eucalyptus.

With a name that’s just made for winter and Christmas spirit, e.l.f (an acronym for eyes, lips, face) is a beauty brand for our times, blending affordability with a vegan and cruelty-free ethos.

The New York-based brand’s Holy Hydration range is rich with hydrating hyaluronic acid and peptides, which stimulate your skin to create collagen. 

This mask feels fresh and light like a lotion, and its barely-there fragrance means you can even apply near the eye area (unless you are particularly sensitive). Slather it on at night or use as a rinse-off mask. 

Let’s not forget the lips! For many of us, they are the part of our face that suffers the most in winter. Opening this gift box brings to mind a famous line from the film Jerry Maguire: “You had me at hello.” 

In this case, it was the packaging. Pull open the drawer to reveal a hyaluronic-acid packed lip treatment serum to plump and prevent cracking joined by three moisturising lip “flushes” with vitamins E and C for antioxidant protection. Other ingredients are hydrating hyaluronic acid and smoothing murumuru butter and jojoba oils. 

A brand for our times, everything the conscious company (founded by Abbie Oguntade) creates aims to de-stress minds as well as skin. The brand is vegan, carbon offset by planting 15 trees for each staff member, and comes in FSC-certified paper packaging.

Abi Cleeve, MD Ultrasun UK and SkinSense founder, suggests, “Combat additional dehydration caused by indoor and outdoor temperature change by adding an oil a few times per week to night time skincare routines.” 

The slimline blue ombre dropper bottle with a glass pipette adds charm to your bedside, encouraging you to massage three or four drops into your face and chest each night before sleep. The comforting and fragrant blend of sandalwood, ylang ylang, lavender and camomile relaxes you, while moisturising rose hip and squalene weave their magic as you sleep. 

If you’re obsessed with your eye area, the contents of this pretty, peachy little bottle tick pretty much every box. The cruelty and paraben-free brand’s tagline is “beauty without surgery”, created by founder Rosi Chapman due to her fear of needles. 

The clear serum is vegan-friendly and certainly feels cooling and fresh when dabbed gently around the eye area, and continued use is said to reduce puffiness, minimising dark circles, tired and baggy eyes. Our old friend hyaluronic acid helps with anti-aging and mafane, a flowering herb, soothes and smooths. 

Sun protection doesn’t have to be greasy and make you look ill. If you’ve ever used a product that does this, then you know the stage-make up style horror this can be in the name of that all-important skin protection. 

Ultrasun founder Abi Cleeve explains, “Wear UV protection year round. Opt for an under make up high UV protector—UVA rays penetrate cloud cover and do long term damage to the skin.” 

This light fluid delivers a lot, including protection against UVB rays, pollution from environmental elements and HEVL (blue light). But it’s also a skincare product, meaning it contains antioxidants and hydrating enzymes, and after all that, it functions as a pretty good primer, too. 

Read more: The benefits of AHA body scrubs

Read more: When to throw out expired beauty products

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