Good riddance to dry winter skin!

What Saskie among us has not dealt with the dreaded forehead oil slick over the course of a dry Saskatchewan winter? Extra chapped lips, and even cracking skin on your hands and feet – winter skin ailments range from unpleasant and unsightly to downright painful. But here is the incredible part – many of these issues can be treated easily and cheaply with one or two accessible ingredients!

I have had the not uncommon experience of working through the winter in what appeared to be the driest building on the planet. In one office I even brought in a little humidity tester and the only way we could ever get the needle to move away from 0% was to shut the door and run a humidifier all night. In the morning we’d come back in for about five blissful minutes of easy breathing until the accumulated humidity leaked out the open door. When working in this office, every hour or so I’d make a trip to the bathroom to blot the oil from my face.

While working at said office I started reading up on natural skincare. For the preceding decade I’d been using a salicylic acid based facial wash and then applying an oil-free moisturizer every morning. Because I had enough oil building up on my skin, why would I want to add any extra oil in the moisturizer? However I began to realize that this was actually counterintuitive – your skin needs oil to protect itself and makes extra if you keep washing it all off. It turns out there are a few natural oils that can “trick” your skin into thinking it’s got enough natural oil already so it won’t make more. These oils will absorb well into your skin without feeling greasy, AND prevent that hourly forehead oil slick.

Further – I realized I didn’t need to be using a cleanser to wash my face at all! A friend tipped me off that she simply rinsed her face with water and that was all that was necessary. I started doing this and then applying jojoba oil as a moisturizer, and my winter skin was TRANSFORMED. No more hourly trips to the bathroom to blot my face! A $15 bottle of jojoba oil could last a YEAR or more (you only need a couple drops at a time), and that could theoretically be my entire annual skincare budget!

(Jojoba oil is actually a plant-based liquid wax and not technically an oil, but it behaves like one.  You can likely find a bottle in any health and wellness store, and it’s also easy to find online.)

A disclaimer – I don’t regularly wear makeup, unless I’m going to some sort of event where I’m going to be photographed a lot. However even if I am wearing makeup, this system still mostly applies. Oil is an amazing makeup remover and cleanser in itself, so if I need to remove any makeup (or dirt, or sunscreen, etc.) I just apply the oil over the makeup, wash my face, and remove the remaining oil and makeup with a cloth. Then, apply another thin layer of oil to moisturize.

Because I’m the sort of person who likes to experiment, I have tried a few other oils that I also heard were good moisturizers on my face, in place of jojoba oil: macadamia, rosehip, and the all-powerful coconut. Coconut oil actually did make my skin a bit greasy, and seemed to cause breakouts; it is known to have pore-clogging properties. Rosehip oil worked fine but I didn’t like the smell, and it was more expensive than jojoba. Macadamia oil also worked great for me and is thicker than jojoba, so I find it works better than jojoba when my skin is extremely dry, and is also awesome on dry hands and feet.

If I do find I’m developing any acne or stubborn dry spots, jojoba oil has a great antibacterial sidekick that can work on these spot treatments – tea tree oil. I recommend buying the 100 ml bottle from Costco (it’s like $14 which is an insanely good price, but you can only order a pack of two online). You can mix the two every day if you are acne-prone, or just spot-apply tea tree when needed.  It also is awesome at treating dandruff – massage a generous amount into your scalp the night before you plan to wash your hair.

I am pretty committed to natural skincare these days, and make a lot of my own products like deodorant, clay-based "shampoo", and lip balm (and occasionally bar soap). None of this is particularly difficult, but takes a bit of time and collection of a few uncommon ingredients. However using skin-friendly oil in place of facial moisturizer or hand lotion is an easy and lazy step anyone can take towards natural skincare! Your dry Saskie skin will thank you all winter long.


EDIT! April 8, 2020. We went on a vacation to Mexico in early March, and when we returned our skin absolutely hated us. Probably a mix of slight sun damage and 40-50 degree temperature change, but I basically had a white beard of skin flakes for a week. The only thing that helped was PURE shea butter. It's very easy to order online and a little goes a long way. If your skin is so dry that nothing else is working, I'd definitely try shea butter!