Gaby
HouseWife shares insights on cosmetic culinary arts, skin nutrition, anti-wrinkle masks, eye exercises, and maintaining facial muscle tone.
How to Protect Your Skin in the Cold: Precautions
Exposed areas of the body react to low temperatures and wind with loss of elasticity, redness, bruising, and flaking skin. Cold weather causes blood vessels to constrict, disrupting circulation in the tissues. This leads to decreased function of the sebaceous glands and dry skin. The dermis loses moisture due to the effects of wind, cold, and dry air in heated spaces.
What to do:
- For frostbite first aid, drink warm fluids and apply an insulating bandage: warm up and rub frostbitten fingers, cheeks, nose, and ears with panthenol or petroleum jelly, wrapping them in a scarf;
- Massage your face to improve circulation and apply a thick layer of cream to exposed areas before spending extended time outdoors;
- In strong winds, soften your skin with almond oil;
- In the morning and at night, nourish your skin with a rich cream;
- Due to increased skin sensitivity in the cold, avoid facial peels and scrubs during winter;
- Use lip balm to prevent chapped lips;
- Replace antibacterial cleansers with soap that has a higher glycerin content;
- Avoid aggressive gels and hot baths in cold weather (paradoxically): hot water dries out the skin;
- Keep your hands in your pockets and wear gloves to prevent skin from drying out;
- Use a humidifier in winter, as heating systems and radiators can dry out the air.
Being Cold is Not Attractive
Unlike a healthy flush on the cheeks, a nose reddened by the cold presents a cosmetic issue, especially if it doesn’t fade over time. Cheeks and the nose are constantly exposed to the elements, and frost and wind can create a network of blood vessels in these areas. The condition of blood vessels that have lost elasticity is known as couperose. Persistent redness occurs due to disrupted circulation and the dilation of subcutaneous capillaries (small blood vessels).
Sensitive skin and hormonal imbalances contribute to couperose manifestations on the face, with frostbite acting as a triggering factor (along with harmful habits that weaken blood vessels and poor nutrition). The network of blood vessels typically covers the faces of those who must work outdoors in winter and summer. A lack of silicon in the body is often the starting point for capillaries losing their elasticity, as this element is responsible for the constriction and dilation of blood vessels.
What to do:
- Consume foods rich in silicon: oatmeal, buckwheat, corn, peas, beans, and Jerusalem artichokes;
- For better blood vessel health, choose foods high in vitamins C, K, and P;
- Reduce your intake of fatty foods: cheese, liver, sour cream;
- Avoid excessive spicy seasonings, canned foods, and coffee;
- Quit smoking and drinking alcohol;
- Avoid cosmetics containing alcohol and acetone;
- Do not exfoliate the skin with scrubs if you have couperose;
- If you have high blood pressure, normalize it and increase your physical activity;
- Avoid extreme temperatures: saunas, hot baths, scorching sun, and frost are not for you;
- A mask made from potato starch and sea buckthorn (you can substitute this berry with lingonberries, raspberries, or strawberries) can help with facial redness: mix one teaspoon of each component, apply to clean skin, and wash off after half an hour with cooled tea or water;
- Steep four tablespoons of chamomile in a glass of boiling water, cool, strain, and apply a cloth soaked in the infusion to the red area for 15 minutes every evening;
- Grate a raw potato and apply it to your face, washing it off after 20 minutes with chamomile infusion;
- In freezing temperatures, apply oil to your hands at night (sleep in cotton gloves), and soften dry skin on your elbows with grated cheese or boiled potatoes mixed with honey.
Wrinkle Remedies
Cold stress reveals wrinkles, so winter facial care includes masks that enhance skin elasticity and combat sagging. These skincare products are prepared for single use and rinsed off with water without soap.
Bean Mask
If you have dry skin, you won’t get through winter without a nourishing bean mask that smooths out wrinkles. Soak a quarter cup of beans in cold water for a couple of hours, then boil until soft. Mash the cooked beans into a paste, add melted butter, and apply to your face for 15 minutes.
Sour Cream and Yeast
Active ingredients tighten mature skin and reduce wrinkles. Mix one tablespoon each of sour cream and mint tincture with one teaspoon of olive oil, half a teaspoon of ground oatmeal, and one gram of yeast. Stir all ingredients until you achieve a liquid sour cream consistency, and apply the mask to your face for 20 minutes twice a week for two months.
Egg Yolk Mask
For skin elasticity, beat an egg yolk with half a teaspoon of buckwheat honey, add five drops each of lemon juice and olive oil, and thicken with ground oatmeal. Apply the mixture to your face for 20 minutes and rinse with cold water.
Cottage Cheese Mask
Mix one teaspoon each of cream or fatty cottage cheese, olive oil, and warmed honey, then add one tablespoon of boiled milk. Apply the mask warm for 15 minutes.
Bread Mask
Heat five tablespoons of oil in a water bath, soak bread in it, and apply to the skin around the eyes for 20 minutes.
Honey Mask
To reduce wrinkles between the eyebrows and at the outer corners of the eyes, mix two tablespoons each of water and alcohol with 50 grams of honey and apply the mask to the problem areas for 15 minutes, then rinse off.
Eye Exercises
Facial muscles can be strengthened with the following exercises:
– Place two fingers parallel to the eye line on the frown line and frown (repeat 50 times, five times a day);
– Close your eyes and slowly open them, counting to five without raising your eyebrows (this strengthens the eye muscles and tightens the skin around them).
Nutrition for Radiance
Errors in skincare, harmful habits, lack of sleep, low-calorie diets, and cold weather harm the elasticity and healthy color of the skin, causing the face to appear dull. You can improve your skin’s condition from the inside out with proper nutrition.
Water
Since metabolic processes occur in a watery environment, skin condition deteriorates due to a lack of moisture. To prevent wrinkles, you should drink five glasses of clean water a day. Tea and coffee cannot replace water: at the very least, caffeine dehydrates the body.
