The Winter Dry Skin Chronicles

I have extremely dry skin. I pretty much always have. I can never remember being oily, even during the teen years. My skin usually behaves beautifully in the spring and summer months (I’ve always lived in 4 season climates), but come winter, things get dicey. Try as might to keep things so well moisturized, slathering on the richest products I can afford, in the last month I started witnessing some really distasteful dry, almost eczema-like patches on my face, right around my chin and cheeks.

There are multiple potential culprits – since I oil cleanse and tend to forgo traditional face cleanser, was I not cleansing my face properly? Not enough exfoliation? Was it the tap water? Or…a product (of the countless) I’ve been using?

I went on a Chelsea Wears youtube binge this weekend while my boyfriend was out of town for work (love her snarkiness, and love for NARS lip products), and in one of her videos she mentioned how she was letting up on the acid products on her face (like Vitamin C, often found in products that claim “brightening”) and how her chin acne was responding well. I realized that THIS could be a contributing to my problem: <missing media>

I picked up this little one per a vlogwithkendra video (oh, you have no idea how deep my youtube beauty vid obsession runs). I hadn’t been using a serum with any regularity previously, and thought I’d start with baby steps, using a nice affordable option. Unfortunately it just went back to Whole Foods this weekend because I think it was part of my issue.

In tandem, I also picked up this: <missing media>

Which I’d heard about and seen before, but curiosity piqued most recently from a Pure Makeup blog post, I think. Anyway, I’ve been lusting Egyptian Magic for awhile now (still  might pick some up, at some point soon), but I’ve gotta say – this little cheap gem has been a multitasking miracle! I’ve been slathering it on my extra dry patches at night, using it as a lip balm, AND even highlighting my cheekbones and cupid’s bow with it during the day, and it’s a beaut.

So far, my dry patches seem much better with the subtraction of the acid and the addition of the Waxlene. I’m also seriously lusting the Osmia Organics Active Gel Toner, which seems like a miracle product. Oh, and I’ve also been dabbing on Arcona’s eye dew on my dry patches in the mornings, and I think it be the hyaluronic acid that’s doing the trick.