Winter is here and it’s making itself known! If any of you are like me with really dry skin, then this time of year is the enemy for your skin.  For me, the winter air sucks whatever life I have left in my skin right out, leaving it dull, lifeless, and so dry. My skin feels like the Sahara Desert most days. I’ll recommend a good skin care routine for your New Year’s Resolution for normal/dry skin.

Just like any other skin care regime, I like to start off with a good cleanser. I suggest using Merle Norman’s Daily Moisture Milky Cleanser. This cleanser contains humectants and emollients. Do you remember last week when I talked about those ingredients? Well they’ll start popping up more. Just to refresh your memory, humectants lock in moisture so, they’re very hydrating. Dry skin loves that hydration! Emollients are used to help smooth out the skin. They’re basically an exfoliant! You’ll find this ingredient in a lot of chemical exfoliants like the AHA Toner I mentioned last week. This cleanser is great because it helps to restore the skin’s moisture barrier and it helps to protect the skin from the damaging effects of the environment.

Moving on to Toners! If the pH levels in your skin are off, the winter air can really do some damage to the skin barrier. Luckily, toners keep those pH levels in check! Merle Norman has a great toner for dry skin. It’s called Daily Moisture Toner. This product, unlike other toners, has a thicker consistency but it’s still lightweight so it doesn’t feel heavy on the skin. I like to describe it as milky, kind of like the cleanser I previously mentioned. I’m going to introduce you to a new ingredient! This toner contains hyaluronic acid. This ingredient is basically a superhero because it can actually hold a thousand times its weight in water! Yes, you read that right: a thousand times its weight! That’s crazy! If you have dry skin, then hyaluronic acid might just be your new best friend when it comes to skin care.

So, remember how I said last week that serums mostly focus on other skin concerns? Fortunately, there is a serum that is absolutely amazing for all you dry skin sufferers! Let me introduce you to Merle Norman’s Energizing Concentrate. This serum contains sodium hyaluronate. Not to be confused with hyaluronic acid, sodium hyaluronate is the salt form of hyaluronic acid in which it can be dissolved in water. It is a smaller molecule created by scientists in order to penetrate the skin more easily. Therefore, it takes much less time to see the results of this product! Just like the hyaluronic acid, it is going to replenish lost moisture and really lock it into the skin. This product is great for this cold weather!

This time around, I’m going to kind of buzz through the eye cream. For dry skin, I’ll recommend the same eye cream as I did last week only because it focuses on general issues such as puffiness, dryness, and fatigue. The Revitalizing Eye Gel helps to soothe, cool, and hydrate the eye area. If puffiness is a big issue, you can always keep this product refrigerated so that the cool gel really helps to alleviate that puffiness!

For dry skin, people really want a good moisturizer! Merle Norman’s Intensive Moisturizer is perfect for this dry, winter air. This moisturizer has humectants (there’s that word again!). Humectants = Hydration. The great part about the Intensive Moisturizer is that it not only relieves dry skin, but it also prevents future dryness! What more could you want in a moisturizer?

Now that you’re a little more knowledgeable about your skin care, it will be much easier to find what’s right for you. Remember, these products are just my personal recommendations, so you’re not limited to only these products if you have dry skin. Try more than one product in order to find the right one. May the rest of your snowy, wintery days be merry and… Moisturized!