5 Little-Known Causes of Winter Skin Problems

The basic do’s and don’ts of winter skincare are repeated every season in beauty stories: switch to gentler, more hydrating formulas, apply moisturizer while your skin is still damp, don’t linger in a hot shower—you know the drill. So why is it that your skin can still look and feel dry even when you’re diligently following this cold-weather conduct? The culprits that can rob skin of moisture and leave it feeling tight, itchy, and generally uncomfortable are not always obvious, so we often don’t realize when our skin is vulnerable to dryness and irritation.

Our co-founder Jami is well versed in all the sneaky little factors that contribute to winter skin issues. Her husband Klaus, who is co-founder of Retrouvé, is a world-champion competitive skier, so they have spent much of their lives outdoors in whipping winds and frigid temperatures. This inspired the couple delve deeply into the science of how skin reacts to the cold, and it’s one reason why Retrouvé products are formulated to nourish all skin types and protect against damage triggered by harsh elements. You’d be surprised what can set off your skin in the wintertime—here’s what to look out for, and how to keep your skin soft, flourishing, and healthy-looking no matter what even the strongest winter weather dishes out.

1. Don’t rely on water-based skincare when you’re out in the cold

If the thermometer is at or below freezing and you’re heading outdoors for an extended length of time, avoid using a water-based moisturizer or sunscreen beforehand. The water in the formula can freeze on your face, which is as unpleasant as it sounds. Not only can this irritate and dry out your skin, but it may tamper with your acid mantle, a thin film on the skin’s surface that helps keep moisture and nutrients in, and harmful agents like pollutants and bacteria out.

An oil-based product such our Intensive Replenishing Facial Moisturizer, Revitalizing Eye Concentrate Skin Hydrator, and Baume Ultime Body Oil will better protect the skin against potential damage, dehydration and discomfort from subzero temperatures (oils hold up in the cold), and their superb signature proprietary blend of vitamin-rich ingredients and ultra-concentrated hydrators seal in moisture. To check whether a formula is water or oil-based, look at the ingredient label: if the first ingredient listed is water, the product contains water at the highest percentage of all the ingredients and is most probably water-based. Likewise, if oils are listed first, the formula is most likely oil-based.

2. Protect against windy conditions—even the indoor kind

Any time air is blasting on your face, whether it’s a wind chill of 20 degrees or heat cranking from your car’s air vents, it’s drying to your skin. Granted, cold air is harsher, but all that moisture-zapping indoor heat isn’t doing your complexion any favors, either. When you’re in the car, point the air vents down toward your legs so the heat isn’t blowing at your face, and do the same with space heaters in your home or office.

Keep in mind that any wind, even if it’s not biting cold, can dry out skin, so if you’re a runner or often outdoors in windy conditions, you want to help your skin retain moisture. While the age-old trick of patting an occlusive ointment on your cheeks will guard against windburn, it stays on the surface of skin, so it doesn’t nourish at all. For that, you need a powerfully rich and moisturizing cream like our Intensive Replenishing Facial Moisturizer, which acts as a buffer between your face and the wind while at the same time delivering humectants and enriching emollients like vegan squalane into the skin.

3. Ease up on exfoliation

A misconception once perpetuated by the skincare industry is that you need to rev up exfoliation in the winter when skin is drier and more likely to build up dead cells. Now we know that the short-term radiance that comes from lots of exfoliating can, over time, cause the skin to become thinner, which makes it appear older. Overuse of acids and exfoliants can also increase sensitivity, irritation, dryness, and susceptibility to sun damage—none of which you want for your skin in the winter (or ever).

Our goal with Retrouvé is to give you the healthiest, best possible skin for life, which is why we create formulas that support gentle exfoliation, encourage balance and promote the skin’s own natural rejuvenating processes, such as our Conditioning Tonic with Chamomile. When skin is well-nourished and functioning at optimal level, it won’t have as much dry and dead skin buildup, so simply using a soft, damp washcloth with tepid water during cleansing should exfoliate enough that you won’t need anything stronger to keep your complexion smooth and radiant. Even doing a bit of light pressure massage with your fingertips during cleansing can also help gently exfoliate the skin.

4. Maximize hydration while you sleep

Skin loses more moisture at night than during the day, and overnight moisture loss increases in winter when the air is naturally dry and indoor heat makes it even drier. Having parched skin isn’t just uncomfortable—it’s also damaging. The skin repairs itself at night and needs ample nutrients and hydration to renew and replenish cells, so the more supple and nourished your skin is while you sleep, the healthier and more resilient it will be in the long run.

To help make this happen, run a humidifier in your bedroom at night (place it on your bedside table pointed towards your face) and smooth on products before bed that help reduce trans-epidermal water loss, which is when water evaporates from the skin. Our Retrouvé moisturizers are formulated with emollients and hydrators that reduce moisture loss and help skin hold in water better, including ceramides, vegan squalane, and vitamin-rich oils. Each moisturizer doubles as a rich overnight treatment if you slather on a little extra at bedtime.

5. Focus on formulations more than individual ingredients

The best ingredients in the world can’t do much if they don’t absorb into your skin. Hyaluronic acid, for example, gets a lot of buzz for being a great humectant that helps skin hold in moisture—but if it’s not formulated to penetrate the skin’s surface, it’s not very effective and can even block other ingredients it’s combined with from absorbing. To moisturize and protect your skin during the colder months, it’s less about which ingredients are in your products and more about how they’re formulated to work together and on your skin—which, unfortunately, can’t always be determined just by looking at an ingredient label if one is not a cosmetic chemist.

At Retrouvé, we choose ingredients that work synergistically, so that when they’re combined into one product, they do more for the skin than they would if applied alone. We use the best quality moisturizers including ethically sourced, pharmaceutical-grade lanolin, as well as excellent humectants like triglycerides. Both lanolin and triglycerides have a similar composition to natural sebum, so they absorb into skin while still allowing it to breathe. All our formulations deliver maximum absorption so that your skin receives the highest, most concentrated amount of vitamins, nutrients, and hydrators it needs to protect and restore itself—which is the secret to soft, balanced, radiant skin year round.