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Yes, you have it. With the arrival of cooler weather so comes the drying effects of central heating and cold winds. Just know you don’t need to suffer through the winter in pain, applying bottles of commercial gunk that don’t seem to do much. Nope. You can go natural and achieve amazing moisturizing results with common and not so common food ingredients.
The best place to start when nourishing your skin is to look at what you eat. Dump the saturated and trans fats such as butters, lards, certain hard margarines, palm oils and the like. Instead, try to make sure you’re eating the good oils, such as olive oil, flax, walnut, safflower, sunflower, peanut, sesame, soybean, and hemp. These oils offer excellent health benefits for the body and skin because they’re either high in omega 6 or omega 3 essential fatty acids, or in both, all of which are required elements for healthy skin.
Other excellent food sources for the omega 3s are salmon, mackerel, tuna, trout, sardines, herring, bluefish, anchovy, flax seeds, and nuts and seeds. If you’re not getting any of them regularly it’s a good idea to study up on the omega 3s to understand how crucial their intake is for good health.
After-the-bath or shower is the perfect time to apply a nourishing oil. You can raid the kitchen for a few tablespoons of olive or canola oil. You can also hunt through the health food store and pick up specialty oils, such as cold-pressed sesame (not the toasted kind you use with oriental foods), sweet almond, grape seed, castor, and coconut oils. The bath or shower has a great skin-softening effect, which allows the oils to be absorbed more easily into your thirsty outer layer.
I caution against actually using oils in the tub because they make getting in and out of the tub incredibly slippery! No use moisturizing only to end up in an itchy body cast.
After the bath is also the perfect time to apply handmade or natural products that contain nourishing oils and healing beeswax.
And if you’re in for other adventurous, do-it-yourself methods to help relieve dry skin, try mask treatments for the body that utilize food ingredients, such as avocado for its rich oils, oatmeal for its skin-soothing effects, and pineapple for its ability to remove dead skin cells through enzyme action.
How to apply? For a simple avocado mask, take one ripe avocado and mash the flesh into a smooth paste, discarding the skin and pit. Apply the mask paste to extremely dry body parts such as the feet or hands, then wrap with plastic wrap to hold the avocado against the skin. Sit back and mellow out for twenty minutes or so. A pampering tip to help make the process even more relaxing: try wrapping yourself in warm blankets, putting a hot water bottle under you feet, and listening to some soothing music while the avocados moisturize away.
And to make life easier ‘after the mask,’ have all mask removal equipment on hand, such as bowls and towels, so you don’t have to walk down the hall in avocado and Saran wrap booties to get to the tub.
Here’s to a winter with soft, nourished, happy skin.
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Photo Credit: Nicolas Ramognino
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