By Elizabeth G Stratte, MD and Maren Stratte
Even though we are hunkered down for the holidays during the pandemic, we can still experience the typical stressed feeling of the holiday season.Cold dry weather, holiday stress, celebrating (we aren’t giving up a glass of holiday cheer this year!) and even lack of sleep from late night present wrapping can all can take their toll. The last thing we need now is seasonal skin problems, beak-outs, dry skin, puffy eyes, dark circles and just the skin blahs. Renew has good news: there are simple skincare and makeup tricks to keep you looking angelic.
It is never too early to get on a good, de-stressing preventative routine. In-office procedures such as moisturizing or exfoliating chemical peels, dermaplaning and light laser treatments such as the Clear + Brilliant will make the skin luminous. Equally important are serums and creams containing anti-oxidants such as vitamin C and retinols to not only prep and but treat stressed skin. And to get a radiant glow concentrate on moisturizing the skin. The colder climate, dry indoor heating and our cloth and paper masks all tend to dry out the skin. Advance to a more emollient moisturizer right now. Using a lotion? Trade up for a cream. Or you may just need a thicker cream this time of the year. Acne prone? There are noncomedogenic creams to use which won’t cause break-outs. Our skin care experts in our Skin Solutions Store will be happy to help you pick the best moisturizer for your skin.
For many of us, acne breakouts are more of a problem during the holidays. It is the only time of year many of us get pimples. To make things worse, students also suffer the stress of finals and deadlines in December. Many dermatologists believe the reason for this is that stress causes the production of testosterone in the skin, which leads to the formation of pimples. The best prevention is regular, but not overly aggressive, exfoliation and cleansing daily with a gentle cleanser and alcohol free toner to remove all traces of make-up and grime. Remember the best prevention of “mask-ne” is clean, well hydrated skin and daily application of a gentle retinol. To zap that zit, apply a product with benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid or retinol directly on the pimple. Make-up tricks to camouflage that pimple include applying Visine eye drops to get the red out of that blemish, and carefully feather a concealer over the spot.
To look refreshed for that early zoom call, target under eye puffiness from evening alcohol consumption by “playing it cool”. Obagi Elastiderm Eye Serum has a cold roller ball applicator and it is very soothing. A rose quartz roller or the Skin Medica Ultra Hydrating Sheet mask will also do the cooling trick, check out these SkinMedica Radiance Infusion Holiday Kits that have both. The Colorscience Total Eye Renewal is not only a sunscreen, but also has a cooling eye applicator and is an under eye primer with light reflecting properties to cover dark circles. Jane Iredale Circle/Delete is also a great, apricot colored concealer for stress or age related under eye circles. Another dermatologist trick for renewing celebration stressed skin is a washcloth soaked in whole milk, cooled and placed on the face for 10 minutes.
We at Renew Skin Solutions wish you the best this holiday season. Although it will be a different celebration this year, we hope it will teach us new ways to practice love and gratitude.