winter

Preparing Your Skin For the Colder Weather

I hate to admit it but I am a sucker for the colder months. As much as I love the summer, Fall and Winter (for the first couple of months) bring out all the happy feelings! Unfortunately, the colder months also bring out the worst in my skin, as I think it does for most.  I’m sharing with you my top tips for preparing my skin for the colder weather so you can have good skin all year round!

1.       Drink water, and lots of it!

Preparing Your Skin For the Colder Weather

This is the easiest thing you can do to improve your skin in the colder months and maintain it all year round. By staying hydrated and drink enough water each day, you’re helping your body clear out all the toxins in your skin  while hydrating it from the inside out! I challenge you to try drinking water every day for a week and document the first day and the last. You will be shocked at the change that it can have on your skin.

2.       Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

Products for Preparing Your Skin For the Colder Weather

Incorporating new and more hydrating products into your skincare can make a big difference for the colder months. During the summer, your skin produces more oils naturally (ie: sweating and humid weather) whereas the air is much drier in the winter (outside and inside due to heaters). To beat the dry air, try using a product like Hyaluronic acid in your skincare before applying your moisturizer. Hyaluronic acid works at helping the skin retain moisture and creating a barrier to protect it from the dry air. The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid serum is the super affordable and works great at adding an extra moisture boost.

3.       Build a routine

Preparing Your Skin For the Colder Weather with a proper skin care routine

It is the hardest thing to get into the habit of, but once you start, you will be thankful you did. Try and get into a routine, morning and night, where you can find 5 minutes or so to do your skincare. It doesn’t have to be a fancy routine that takes hours, but with consistency, you will find your skin can handle the climate change much better.  Something a simple as rinsing your face with water and moisturizing it can be enough to leave your skin feeling good all winter!

The colder weather doesn’t  have to be a time where you fear for your skin’s appearance. Using these three simple tips you can maintain your beautiful skin all year round.

If you want to learn more quick makeup tips that you can add to your everyday makeup routine, check out www.elysemorency.com. You can also find Elyse on Instagram at @elysemor where she talks about the real and raw life of motherhood and makeup!

I won’t let winter swallow me

What is the temperature where you live? Here, just outside of Toronto its the kind of cold that the air hurts your face. I barely venture outside, and even driving somewhere makes me groan. But I am refusing to let winter take me down with it.

Last week I wrote a post about how I was actually enjoying Christmas break. In fact the next day when I re-read it I annoyed myself. Because the next day I unravelled. Actually I unravelled the day after that too. I hit my wall, because doing multiple activities a day with my family left zero time for my introverted side to go into a quiet place and recharge. I was burnt out, peopled out and just done.

I didn’t cry though, which is a big improvement. I more just started stressing audibly about messes in our home and saying loudly, “I need school to start.”

Actually, random fact… I learned last week from my lovely husband that apparently I talk to myself… all the time. According to him I narrate my day. A habit I am assuming I picked up over the past couple years of working from home with kids in school and daycare.

So when Mike would yell, “pardon?” every five minutes from the other room and I had to yell back, “I wasn’t talking to you!” It didn’t help my fraying nerves.

Last year the winter won. I always start fighting seasonal depression each fall, but between having a bad case of strep throat in January of 2017 and immersing myself in the red hot political world of news, I fell into a black hole of despair. It took me a couple months and some big changes to pull myself out, but I finally did.

So by the end of the day on Saturday I had a choice to make. Was I going to let the winter swallow me like it did last year? No I wouldn’t allow it.

So what I am I doing about it? I am taking control. On Sunday I put my foot down and slowed down. I sent my family out of the house and enjoyed three hours of silence. I am still standing up for what works for me.

But the two biggest things of all…

I am hanging onto a routine while life is routine-less. That means setting my alarm for 6:45pm and doing our typical routine to get our twins to daycare, despite our big kids still being off for the holidays. And I am hanging onto my typical grocery shopping and meal planning routines.

I am being careful about what I watch and consume. Whether it’s a disturbing movie, the news, or even too much crappy food. I know that it is tempting to let it all in when you are mostly homebound, but I have finally learned that all of those things have a big impact on my mental state.

How do you feel this time of year? Is there a certain time of year that triggers you? Do you have any tips on how to beat the winter blues?

Here is a look back at some of our family’s summer routine  videos that I created for Baby Center. Maybe we can all take a little motivation from these routines.