Preparing Your Skin for the Festive Season

Skin Care Tips For People Living In The Southern Hemisphere

If you live south of the equator, you should start preparing your skin for the warm summer that the southern hemisphere experiences during December. This rise in temperature results in the secretion of excess oil from our skin, causing changes in our skin type. Dry skin may become normal and normal skin can become oily.

This excess oil clogs the skin pores, which is a leading factor associated with skin problems like rashes, acne and pimples. To keep the skin clean and healthy, you should clean your skin regularly using a deep cleanser like our Foaming Facial Cleanser. This should help clear your skin’s pores while maintaining your skin’s pH balance.

People with dry skin that becomes normal during summer, should not avoid using a moisturizer.

Skin Care Tips for People Living In The Northern Hemisphere

Countries in the northern hemisphere experience winter during December and your skin experiences a significant amount of stress during this cold period. When you stay outside, the cold temperature inhibits blood circulation in your facial skin. This in turn slows down your skin’s regenerative properties.

Prolonged exposure to cold weather eventually leaves your skin pale or dull. During winter, millions of people living in the northern hemisphere rely on indoor heating to keep themselves warm. However, its effects on your skin health are truly alarming. Indoor heating makes the environment dry, adversely affecting your skin, causing it to lose its moisture and become dry, flaky and tight.

The difference in temperature indoors and outdoors stresses the skin and hampers its natural balance; this makes the skin drier leading to problems such as widened capillaries, redness and irritation. During the winter months, oily skin can become normal and normal skin can start showing signs that are normally associated with dry skin. There are also several instances when the skin becomes extremely sensitive in winter causing severe irritation.

To keep your skin healthy and glowing in winter, you must clean it using a gentle cleanser like our Foaming Facial Cleanser. Avoid using strong alcohol based skin cleansers; this is because those strong cleansers can further weaken your skin’s balance and worsen its condition.

During the winter months, you will need to moisturize your skin more frequently, using moisturizers like those found in our Xtend-Life skincare range.

Nutrition and Skin Care

It’s true that following the above skin care regimen for a few weeks will help you get radiant, vibrant skin during December. However, external care alone will not be enough for improving the overall health of your skin. You should include certain foods and ingredients to your daily diet to support your skin from within.

Vegetables: Vegetables rich in beta carotene help in protecting our skin from the damaging effects of free radicals. You can get beta carotene from vegetables that are red, yellow or orange in color. Examples of veggies rich in this pigment include carrots, peppers and sweet potatoes.

Nuts: Nuts are rich sources of vitamin E, which is great for the skin. Make nuts such as peanuts, Brazil nuts and hazelnuts a part of your daily diet.

Water: To ensure that your skin remains hydrated during the festive period, you should drink 8 glasses of water every day.

Total Balance also helps promote ‘beauty from within’ by supporting your body and skin against the damaging effects of glycation.

For an extra boost, we recommend combining your daily skincare regimen with Total Balance and especially our Omega 3 / DHA Plus as it contains astaxanthin and lycopene…both ingredients have been shown to help support the skin from the inside out.