Skin Care

HEALTHY LIVING Winterize your skin and glow all season long

By Lorie Cooper, Owner Glow Salon and Spa

For the Trail-Gazette

Between Estes Park’s high altitude,dry air, mountain wind and cold temperatures, your skin needs adifferent focus in the winter than in summer months. So, while packing away summer clothes and bringing outyour sweaters, coats and boots, remember that your skincare needs to change when the colder weather arrives, too. Try these proven tips to prevent dull, drywinterskinconcernsand help keep skin conditions like cracking skin, eczema and psoriasis (which can be triggered by cold,dry air) from flaring up and getting worse. Exfoliate

Itsounds counterintuitive, but gentle exfoliationwill actuallyhelp your lotions and creams work better.Asyour skin dries out, dead skin cells stop shedding, keeping moisturizer from fully sinkingin. Rev up the process by using amildexfoliant. Time to upgrade your moisturizer

Thecombination of ourelements inthe mountains creates dryskin thatissusceptible to damage. Whilelotions have more alcohol content, wetypically us needricher face and bodycreams during the winter.Whencomparing products, look for theingredients like glycerin or sorbitol, which arehumectants that help pull moisturefrom the air into your skin. Those

Carly Barton Photography /Courtesy photo Winter months are just as important to protect your skin from harmful rays.

containing olive, avocado or jojoba oils and sheabutter can help more moistureinto your skin. Applying moistureafter ashower or bath to damp clean skin will lock in the moisturelastlonger. Same goes afterwashing your hands. COVID Bonus tip: hand sanitizersare packed with drying agents and your hands take abeating! Keep abottle of moisturizerright next to your hand soap. Peel it off

Falland winter are theideal times to consider achemical peel. This procedureis used to improve the appearance of skin on your face, neck, and hands. Asolution isapplied to the exposed skin which causesittoexfoliate and later,peel off. The underlying layersthat areexposed willbesmoother, healthier and moreradiant.

Peels work their magic in several ways They accelerate skin cell turnover,lighten pigmentation and stimulate underlying collagen production. Thereare different levels of chemical peels, from milder treatments to deeper peels that have moredowntime. Mild peels arebest for treating skinroughness or discolorationwhile deeper penetrating treatmentsare used to remove shallow scars or deeper lines and wrinkles.

Right after undergoing a chemicalpeel, yourskinwill be temporarily moresensitive to sunlight. That is why the best time to geta chemical peelisinthe fall and winter months when theweather is cooler,days areshorter, and the sun is not so glaring and incessant. And doing a chemicalpeel in the winter prepares your skin for the warmer months so that your recoveryprocessiscomplete by the time you areready for summer outdoor activities! Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen!

Winter monthsare just as important to protectyour skin from harmful rays. Snow andice create areflective agent that can give you a double whammy –fromthe sky above and the ground below you!Not only aresun rays, cancer-causing, but they canalso prevent skin from holding onto moisture Moisturize your environment

To counteract the dryair See SKIN,pg. 20