The legend on my business cards, on my website, and everywhere else I advertise, states that I’ve been   “…putting a good complexion on Winnipeg faces since 1985”.  This means that for the past twenty-nine years I have battled the effect of our city’s winter climate not only on my own face, but on others’ faces, too. This year, however, I really have to ask what on earth my grandparents were thinking when they settled here.

Maintaining the truth of my little quote has been a particularly huge challenge.  My own skin is my laboratory, and besides the severity of the weather, I must deal with the fact that I’m well beyond what is called a Spring chicken. The Autumn of my years is more like it.  Aesthetics was not my first career, so you can use your imagination as to the particular problems I confront in the mirror.  Because I experiment with various solutions for myself, and have access to anything I need, I can share the most effective of these with the conviction that they work.

One of the first things I do is double up on night/treatment cream.  Ideally, a night cream is formulated to provide a treatment during the night.  It is while the body is sleeping that the skin ingests elements designed to nourish it.  In winter, though, I use night cream in the daytime, underneath my day cream.  That way the central heating system doesn’t have quite the parching effect.  Furthermore, on top of the day cream, I also apply a sunscreen.  Yes, I know it is Winter, but the sun’s rays are very short.  February and March sunshine can cause devastating pigment rearrangements on the sides of the face, even through the car window; in fact, particularly through the car window.  When I’m not going out all day, and not going to be sitting at a sunny window, I use only the night cream….but several times.  The moment my face doesn’t feel moist when I touch it, back I go to re-apply. 

Dryness isn’t the only problem in winter.  Sudden changes from very cold to really warm can wreak havoc with capillaries on the cheeks and nose.  If that’s your particular problem, a good habit is to cover your face with your mitt or glove, meaning with your hand, when getting into and leaving warm cars and buildings.  Do this just long enough so that the temperature change is gradual, allowing the flow of blood time to adjust, that is, to slow down until the walls of the capillaries can handle it.  The skin is a marvelous organ, protecting everything else inside.  All we really have to do is cooperate with it.

Now about those chapped lips. Lipstick is usually formulated to provide appropriate nourishment, more so than the waxy tubes of stuff at the check-out counter.  Freshen up your lip colour frequently on cold days, or in stuffy central heating.  On days at home when lipstick isn’t needed, good old petroleum jelly should be the moisturizer of choice.  It can be useful inside the nostrils, too.  Apply with the tip of a cotton swab.

I’d like to be sure I’m touching on your concerns in this column, so please email me your questions: [email protected]