When the temperatures dip and you flip the thermostat on in your home, chances are you’ve noticed a drying of your skin. Heated air is dry air, which means that your skin will lose valuable moisture in a flash.
Renée Rouleau, Dallas esthetician, spa owner and skincare expert, says that a woman’s first instinct to combating dry skin is to moisturize—but over-moisturization could cause even more skincare foibles. “Instead of over-moisturizing, increase your exfoliation,” she says. Rouleau explains, “People tend to load on the extra moisturizer to compensate for the dryness, but this won’t solve the problem. Dry skin means you have dry cell build-up on the surface of your skin (so why re-hydrate dead cells—it doesn’t make sense!).”
Instead, she advises, exfoliate your skin with a gentle facial scrub to remove these dead cells so that when you apply moisturizer it hydrates the new skin cells.
One more thing, she adds, if you’re prone to breakouts you’ll need to avoid heavy hand creams at night. “If you apply [hand cream] before you go to bed, you might suffer from what we call ‘hand-cream acne.’ If you sleep with your hands near your face, your hand cream could be seeping onto your face.” If this sounds familiar, Rouleau suggests sleeping with cotton gloves. For more tips or first-class facials, visit Rouleau at her Dallas spa, Renée Rouleau Skin Care, 214/735-4364, or online at www.reneerouleau.com. dc
