Seasonal Skin Care - Your Skin Needs You!

First off - I must apologise for my horrendously long absence! Just when I was finding my feet with this whole blogging thing, I had one helluva busy summer (not in a good way!) and just couldn't find the time or inspiration. BUT - I have just turned 25 (oh my GOOOODDD where did that come from, surely I am still 17, no?!) and I am most definitely back with avengeance. So, sorry to keep you waiting - I hope you enjoy!

Recently, my summer long, fail proof skin care routine had been letting me down big time - I was suddenly getting super oily after only a couple of hours wearing my trusty Stay Matte BB cream, or Maybelline Eraser concealer, and I was having break outs all over the shop. Not a pretty sight! And for the life of me, I just couldn't understand why... 


I hadn't changed anything at all about my routine, my products, or even my diet to bring on such an about face from the mostly clear, glowing skin I had grown used to of late.

As I have mentioned before, my skin is oily and really blemish prone, so I do have to put in some work to try and keep those blemishes at bay. My routine consisted of:

• micellar cleansing water (by Garnier - see my post on it and other micellar waters here!) to take off makeup and cleanse skin; 

• if wearing heavier makeup, I would follow with Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pink Grapefruit Cream Facewash, or Clinique Take the Day off Cleansing Balm to really get rid of all traces of makeup and ensure my skin is fully clean;

• an exfoliating toner 2-3 times a week (La Roche-Posay Effeclar Clarifying Lotion is my trusted favourite), 

• a witch hazel blemish gel to target any pesky spots that might be about to rear their head (I have to say that Witch Blemish Gel has been somewhat of a miracle product for me, it seems to stop blemishes in their tracks before they get a chance to reach ugly white head status), 

• and a tea tree moisturiser (from The Body Shop) to finish. 

I rarely had breakouts, and actually was so pleased with my skin that most days I went without foundation or BB cream, just dabbing a small amount of concealer where needed to even out my skin tone a little. Whilst there isn't a whole lot of moisture in the products I was using, I found that if I used a richer moisturiser, my skin would become slightly greasier, and blemishes would appear, so I figured that this was all my oily skin needed (besides SPF of course, on those rare occasions that the sun made its appearence!). 

However, as I continued with this regime into October, with the weather turning decidedly cooler, my face turned into an oil slick, spots appeared - and yet I found that my skin felt decidedly dry and tight in the morning. At first I didn't get it - how could my face be dry at 7am, but shining as if I had run a marathon by 11:30?!

And then I had a lightbulb moment - with winter setting in, maybe it wasn't my routine or products letting me down, but just that my skin had changed along with the seasons, and was now in need of a little something more comforting.

You see, in winter, skin often tends to dry out due to a combination of things: the general decrease of humidity in the air outside as the temperature drops; the central heating in our homes and workplaces being cranked up and drying out the air inside; and taking extra long showers or baths to warm up on those cold evenings also dries out your skin.

When your skin becomes dry for whatever reason - either due to the changing weather, or you stripping your skin of it's natural oils by cleansing, exfoliating or using harsher, more drying products like witch hazel or tea tree (or in my case, a combination of both!) - your skin can react by producing extra oil to compensate.

So, after finally realising this, I switch up my routine slightly. Still continuing to use micellar water to cleanse, and exfoliating 2-3 times a week, I just switched out my moisturisers. I used my trusty The Body Shop Vitamin E Serum in Oil for a couple of days in the evening for a quick boost of moisture, before alternating my Tea Tree moisturiser with Nivea Regenerating Night Cream, and also began to use a day moisturiser (Nivea Oil Free Day Cream) - et voila! My breakouts died down and looked less angry literally the next day, disappearing gradually over the next few weeks, and I no longer needed to powder at all during the day. Bye bye shiny nose and forehead - I'll leave the glowing nose stuff to you, Rudolph!

I think we sometimes tend to overlook our skin, and what we put it through everyday exposing it to the elements - it is the largest organ in our body (ah, so I do remember some GCSE Biology after all!) and yet we can often ignore the signals it gives us. 

Listen to your skin! 

If something that has previously worked for you stops working, it might mean that your skin's needs have changed. Switch it up and see if it makes a difference - you might be pleasantly surprised.

P.S. - I can't mention skincare without giving a massive shout out to the lovely Caroline Hirons, who is the main reason I have actually sat up and taken notice of my skin over the past couple of years. She has a great cheat sheet for Winter Skin, with some great tips on how to beat the dryness in the cold weather - check it out! :) And if you haven't visited her blog before, I highly recommend it - she is one seriously knowledgeable lady, and has a great sense of humour to boot. Plus - look at her skin! Why wouldn't you listen to her?!

I hope you enjoyed this post - please let me know in the comments below if you have any more tips for combating dry skin and the changes brought on by the onslaught of the winter weather.

Winter is coming....(Ah, Jon Snow, when will you be mine?!)

**Disclaimer: all products featured here were purchased by me, and all opinions are my own. This is not an affiliate post, I was not paid for this review. Any links contained here are not affiliate links. I am not a health or beauty professional. The photographs used in this post are my own. Please see my Disclaimer page for full deets on all the boring stuff**