Dry patches on face but breakouts won't stop? Problem solved!

Skin is oily in summers but dry in winters? Winter makes your skin dry - but you're having acne/breakouts at the same time?

Hi there! I’m Monika. If you shouted ‘YES’ to any of these questions, you’ve landed on the right page. I faced exactly the same issues and I’m here to tell you how to reclaim your good old healthy skin.

In an ideal world, winter is said to be the best season for oily skin. No stickiness, no oily feel, no frequent break outs- our oily skin would look blissfully soft, healthy & glowing. Unlike dry skin, which tends to give a dull, dehydrated look in winters. In reality however, due to our lifestyle & environmental factors, oily skin is not all that healthy and glowing in winters. We tend to develop dry patches, dull overtones & sudden break outs. The reasons for this bizarre behavior of our skin are many. Whatever the reasons might be, I’ve got some simple fixes to balance out the oiliness in dry weather.

Do I need to change my skincare routine in winters you ask? No big change, but yes, you need some tweaking to your CTMP routine.

Cleansing:

Unsure whether you should change your face wash in winters? The answer is NO.

Tweak: If you are using a soap-free face wash, specially designed for oily - acne prone skin and preferably with active anti-oxidants, and you are comfortable with it, just continue. If you feel slight dryness post face wash, reduce its usage frequency. If you wash your face 3-4 times in a day, make it twice. Alternatively, use a little less-than-usual amount of facewash. Cleansing properly plays a very important role in maintaining pH-balance of the skin, and this is very essential for oily-acne prone skin. Avoid changing your face wash as it might just trigger an acne breakout. Also, wash your face with lukewarm or cold water, not piping hot water.

Toning:

Non-drying and alcohol-free toners are suitable for winter usage.

Tweak: Again you can reduce toner usage to once a day instead of twice. Better still, use it every alternate day. Don't skip toner altogether! It will not only disturb the pH-balance of your skin, but also make open pores appear bigger (read: myths & reality about toners)

Moisturizing:

This is the trickiest step for oily & acne-prone skin ladies like myself! If you are using any gel based or light weight moisturizer, continue using it. I know it may seem like you need to use a heavier winter-cream but that’s not the best idea. Trust me. You can increase the frequency of usage of your light moisturizer from once to twice a day if you feel the need to.

Tweak: Wherever you have dry patches, apply your moisturizing lotion or cream only on those areas. The idea here is to hydrate only the dry parts of your face. The not-so-dry parts of your face don’t need moisturization at the moment.

In case you don’t use a moisturizer, start using a light moisturizer that’s designed for oily/combi skin. There are quite a few options available in the market.

Sunscreen:

Gel-based sunscreen is usually recommended for oily-skin. However, if you don’t find it suitable for dry winter weather, move to a light-weight lotion based (no cream) sunscreen. If you have dry patches on your face, first apply moisturizer (only on dry patches) then wait for a few minutes before you follow it up with your sunscreen lotion.

Quick tip:

Always keep acne spot application cream handy to tackle sudden break-outs. You can use Tea tree oil, calamine lotion or salicylic acid based creams for this purpose. Again this is for spot application only! Don’t use it on your whole face as they are generally drying in nature.

Keep the routine going and don’t try anything new without patch-testing. If you keep at it, I promise winters won’t be so bad for your skin after all!

If you have any experiences with respect to oily skin or just want to tell me how this tweaked winter CTMP worked out for you, leave a comment below or mail the lovely Plum People!

Take care & be good!

Related Posts:

Are you making these 5 winter skincare mistakes?
Caring for Combination Skin
A step-by-step guide to care for oily skin
The ABC of CTMP

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