My Natural Skincare Pamper Night Routine!

 Our skin is really having a tough time in winter. The lack of humidity makes our skin dry out, the constant change in temperature (cold outside, warm inside) makes it hard for the skin's lipid layer (a very thin layer of fat located on the epidermis that protects our skin from losing moisture) to obtain its complete function. Due to the weakened function of the lipid layer it's easier for germs to settle.
In a nutshell- the change of climate in winter makes our skin come under stress.

Furthermore, we notice blackheads, pimples and their evil brothers and sisters all the more because summer is extremely beneficial for our skin, mainly because of the anti-inflammatory impact of the ultraviolet rays of the sunlight. In winter there's less sun, therefore less ultraviolet rays.
That makes our skin break out even worse.

What can we do to help our skin?

I personally avoid harsh skincare products altogether. I love natural skincare, because its goal and purpose is to be  your skin's friend- not enemy. By using harsh cleansers you destroy the lipid layer, which has already been weakened by the winter's climate. Obviously this won't make your skin any more blemish free! Natural products don't have any ingredients that are harsh enough to have an impact on the lipid layer, which - and I can't stress this enough- is good! Most people that are acne prone try to get rid of all the oil on the face. By the loss of oil our skin thinks it's drying out and therefore produces EVEN MORE OIL, which results in one huge break out!
Most natural anti-acne products have anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial agents like tea tree oil, honey, sage, ...

The main thing to remember about your skin in winter is to keep it moisturised and kill of the bacteria without destroying the lipid layer

Step 1: Remove your  Make Up

This should go without saying- before you put any products on your face, make sure it's free from any product residue! 

Recommendation: Pure Grape seed Oil 

Step 2: Wash the day off

If you've found a gentle cleanser that works for you, use that, I prefer using no cleanser at all! Grape seed oil removes pretty much everything I don't want on my face and I don't want to use too many products since I find that my skin can't really process all of them. 

Recommendation:  warm tap water 

Step 3: Exfoliate

This is probably my favourite part of the skincare pamper routine, it just makes everything feel SO clean and new!
It's also very important and you should do this 2-3 times per week, otherwise dead skin cells and other nasty stuff might get trapped in your pores, resulting in a break out!

Recommendation: Organic Baking Powder, 1 tsp. lemon juice, 1 tsp. tap water

Step 4: Get steamy!

At this point, we've removed everything we don't want on the surface of the skin- now it's time for it to go in-depth: Boil half a litre of tap water, and if you want you can enhance it with a few drops of essential oil.

Recommended Essential Oils: Tea Tree , Eucalyptus, Grapefruit, Lime, Mint, Sage, Rosemary, Lemon

Step 5: Mask

After we have removed everything that does harm to our skin it's time to treat it and pamper it. The best way to do that is by using a mask that targets your skin problems, whether that may be dryness, acne or whatever

Recommendation: LUSH Mask of Magnaminty

Step 6: Moisturise

Moisturising is super important, especially in "dry times" such as winter, however it's really hard to recommend one since I feel like one can love a product and the other one absolutely HATES it. My favourite moisturiser is actually the only non-natural product I use (It's not even cruelty free and I hate that but so far it's the only one that has worked for me)

Recommendation: L`oreal Skin Perfection

What are your favourite products to use on a pamper night?

xo Julia