Grab yourself a cuppa, this is going to be a long one!
Winter is fast approaching and that means a change in the weather, which means wrapping up in warm scarves, cozy jumpers and breaking out the fluffy socks. I love it! Winter is one of my favourite months (nothing to do with christmas I swear...) I love when it snows, which is rare here, it tends to be sunny on Christmas Day oddly enough. I love when the fires are starting to be lit and you can just cozy up with a nice movie and a cup of tea. Along with all of that is my most favourite part. Winter beauty.
Skin care:
I will start first, by talking about winter skincare. Taking care of your skin in winter is hugely important. The colder weather means dryer skin and with people blasting the central heating you can be sure it will take a toll on your skin. To be perfectly honest not much changes in my winter skincare routine other than I like to moisturize like a crazy person. As I have combination skin I don't like to use heavy products in the summer as I would just be an oily mess, so I save them for winter when my skin can take it more. I have changed up my cleanser this year to
The Body Shop Camomile Sumptuous Cleansing Butter and I love it. This is quite an oily product but it literally melts makeup off your face, reducing the amount of time you spend cleansing. I also try to use face masks that are brightening
and moisturising. I love the
REN Glycolactic Radiance Renewal Face-mask which smells if oranges and really makes your skin glow. Always a winner in my book.
Another product that I highly recommend using in winter is and exfoliator, especially if you have dry skin as it takes away all the dead skin cells that can make your skin look dull. Exfoliating also helps your moisturiser and any other products you apply to your skin, sink in better as it doesn't have to fight through dead skin and makes them work better. I have three I am currently using. My everyday one (which I don't use everyday but it is gentle enough if you want to use it daily) is the
Boots Botanics All Bright Purifying Face Scrub and two REN exfoliator's the
REN Micro Polish Cleanser and the
REN Jojoba Microbead Purifying Facial Polish. These products are amazing at making my skin feel soft and smooth and I love them. I also think that treatments are very important for your skin in winter as the cold weather can really dry it out. I have been thinking recently in investing in the
Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum as it is meant to be the the bees knees and the spiders ankles (I hope people understood that...) It retails for about €80 - €100 making it pretty pricey, although very much worth it from the reviews I have read.
Body care:
As for winter body care, I will start by saying, do not have a super hot shower. This will dry out your skin. I know, I know, hot showers feel amazing when your freezing cold but do your skin a favour and just have a nice warm one instead. You can thank me later. As I have mentioned, central heating is your skins worst enemy come winter time, it completely dries it out. Make sure you are moisturizing well after each shower to keep your skin soft and looking fab. Body brushing is also your best friend this time of the year and you can read up on that in my most recent post
here.
Make Up:
Next up lets talk about makeup. My favourite look in winter is neutral eyes and a deep berry plum colour on my lips. My favourite this year is the
Rimmel London Kate Moss lipstick in 107 which is proving very popular this year from the likes of Suzanne Jackson of
sosueme.ie and Zoella both rocking this colour. Another big trend this winter is orange lips which has been seen on the catwalk and in magazines. I think orange lips are a great change from the usual dark colour's but still keeps it in the winter colour palette. I still love a good smoky eye and a nude lip,
Satin Taupe shadow from MAC being an all time favorite. Foundation wise, depending on your skin type, something more dewy/moisturizing would be appropriate for winter. Having combination skin myself, this is not always an option. So as I have mentioned before I like to apply a good moisturizer and then once that has sank in I will apply my primer to keep the never ending supply of oil at bay. I am currently using the
17 Miracle Matte Primer which is amazing for a Boots brand. It is affordable and works great, what more could you want? I will then apply my favorite foundation of the moment (right now its the
Revlon Color Stay foundation) and Bobs your uncle.
Bronzer is another life changing product in winter. Who wants dull pasty looking skin? I don't that's for sure. I love bronzing up my face in both winter and summer, it makes you look more tan in summer and less dead in winter! YAY! :) I love love LOVE the
Sleek Contour Kit in Light, yes its for contouring but the shade is so perfect it makes my skin look glowy and amazing. The highlighter shade is also a dream, not so shimmery that you become a disco ball, but just right so you have gorgeous glowing skin, just in time for all those Winter parties ;)
A swatch of the Rimmel Kate Moss Lipstick 107
A close up of Satin Taupe from MAC
Hair care:
Right, we all know what winter means for our hair.. it turns it into a dry and frizzy mess. Lovely. How do we combat this? Hair masks and lots of them. Pile them on people just pile them on. Your hair will love you I promise. Now what hair masks do I use I hear you ask? There are
tonnes of them out there. I personally love pure coconut oil as it works well and is relatively cheap and easy to come by ( I am pretty sure Tesco's or a health food store would have this, you can use this for cooking too.) I warm it up in the microwave and apply to the ends of my hair, leave it for a half an hour, rinse and you are good to go. I am currently testing out the
Organix Moroccan Argan Oil hair mask and I will be posting my review once I have tested it thoroughly. Hair serums and oils such as the ever popular
Moroccan Oil (which, surprisingly, I do not own but have used) are also brilliant at keeping frizz at bay but keeping moisture in your hair. One big tip I have for combating frizz is to make sure your hair is completely dry before stepping outside. Any bit of moisture in your hair when the wind blows and POOF you look like Monica from Friends. Yes, I have been their.
Phew! Whoever manages to read this until the end give yourself a huge pat on the back, you are a trooper. I hope you enjoyed this post guys and I do hope it helps you in some way with any winter beauty problems you may have. If you have any more questions feel free to leave a comment down below or on my Twitter or Facebook pages, links are on my profile. :) Thanks for reading guys and a Happy Halloween! :D
