My skin can always feel the effects of drier, colder winter weather. The cold air gets sharper, the humidity drops, and suddenly my already dry skin type becomes tight, sensitive, and extra reactive. But over the years, I have learned how to protect my skin and keep it strong and moisturized. If you struggle with itchy, flaky, or easily irritated skin this time of year, you’re definitely not alone. Winter is one of the harshest seasons for our skin barrier.

Dry skin on face, hands, and body is super common during winter

Through my own personal skin challenges and my experience as an esthetician, I’ve learned how to keep skin calm, hydrated, and happy even in the driest, coldest weather. In this guide, I’m sharing exactly how I heal sensitive winter skin naturally: the ingredients, rituals, and product combinations that truly make a difference (including some scrub me secrets 🧡)

What Causes Dry, Sensitive Skin in Winter?

Dry air

Cold air holds less moisture. Air with low humidity levels wicks moisture away from our skin. Yes, essentially, the dry winter air is stealing hydration away from our skin, leaving it drier than usual.

scrub me secret: A humidifier is a must during winter months and all year round if you live in a climate with dry air. Humidity in the air is essential for soft, hydrated skin.

Sleet, harsh weather conditions

Sleet is a wintry mix between snow and rain that results in little tiny ice flecks that fall from the sky. When the winds are blowing, and this sleet, rain, ice, and snow are coming down, it can cause damage or little abrasions to the skin. I find that places like hands and face get it the worst because those areas are often uncovered.

Indoor heat

Similar to harsh, cold air, indoor heaters also lower the humidity in the air. Low humidity is moisture and hydration wicking, making our skin more dry than usual. This is why we need to focus on keeping our skin balanced, strong, hydrated, and moisturized, so it can withstand the dry air.

Hot showers and baths

As much as we hate to hear it, (because I know we all love a hot bath or shower), hot water makes skin dry and sensitive. Hot showers or baths strip moisture and make skin drier and more sensitive. Warm or lukewarm water is best; your skin’s barrier will stay healthier and more balanced if you don’t use hot hot water.

scrub me secret: doing a super cold rinse at the end of your shower or trying out my hot/cold shower ritual is great for your immune system, skin health, and hair health

How to Heal and Reset Your Skin in Winter

This is the formula for healing both skin on the face and body.

Balance, calm, hydrate, moisturize

This is the best way I have found to reset or heal your skin when it’s been dried out and affected by cold, dry weather ❄️

1 - Balance

Switch to body soaps and facial cleansers that retain moisture and work to keep your barrier balanced

2 - Calm

Use a calming fluid, mist, or toner with ingredients like CBD, oats, aloe, chamomile, lavender, blue tansy, or centella asiatica will work to reduce inflammation and soothe irritated skin

scrub me secret: is there a difference between hydration and moisture? yes! A hydrating product gives your skin water-based molecules that it needs to stay hydrated and soft. A moisturizer has an oil element that adds nutrients, antioxidants, and moisturizing oils to your skin. Our skin needs hydration and moisture to stay soft and healthy

3 - Hydrate

Apply a hydrating product like hydrating serum, water-based lotion, or hydrating cream to your skin on top of the hydrating fluid/toner. This will add water-based hydration to your skin cells

4 - Moisturize

After applying your hydrating products, apply a moisturizer that contains oils (like sunflower oil, shea, grapeseed, etc.), or you can apply a facial oil for face and body oil for body. This is giving your skin the nourishment and moisture element that it needs to stay soft and strong, and lock in that hydration from the products you applied before

My personal struggles with dry, sensitive, itchy skin:

I have a very dry skin type, meaning I don’t produce a lot of skin-nourishing oils on my own. The skin on my body suffers more than the skin on my face, but I have struggled with excess dryness, sensitivities, texture issues, and inflamed skin my whole life. As a child, my skin would react poorly to certain fabrics, body washes, and lotions, and I would often feel dry and itchy.

I started making skincare because my sensitive skin needed better, simpler options!

When my family moved us from San Antonio, Texas, to Chicago, Illinois, when I was 7, my skin became drier and itchy because of the change in weather. For a long time, I showered in hot water with commercial products, and I did not pay attention to the ingredients in them. I either didn’t apply lotion or I would apply a perfumed lotion product that would oftentimes make my skin itch and burn. My face was often itchy and inflamed in certain areas.

In my early teens, I started seeing an esthetician to care for my skin and treat some inflammation, breakouts, and dryness. From her, I learned what my skin needed and became interested in using more targeted skincare and paying attention to what ingredients my skin liked and didn’t like. It was still a lot of trial and error, but I was getting closer to learning what my skin needed to stay balanced and healthy.

When I was 19, I attended Aveda esthetics school and was able to really deep dive into skin, skincare, and ingredients. I used my knowledge from esthetician school to care for my skin better, and it inspired me to start making my own body products since all the ones I had ever used made my skin dry, itchy, and inflamed. This is when I started making body scrubs, body oils, and whipped shea butters for myself. My mom learned how to make cold process soap and taught me how to make soap and make my own soap recipes. I loved the fact that I was able to make soaps that helped my skin retain moisture and didn’t unbalance my skin’s barrier or make it sensitive.

I’ve been using my own soaps and body care and caring for my facial skin with intentional ingredients since 2010, and my skin has felt so much healthier ever. Because of my dry skin type, I have to make sure I use body butter or body oil at least every other day, and my facial care routine has a hydrating toner, hydrating serum, lotion, and oil to keep it in tip-top shape.

scrub me secret: I stay away from products with perfume or man made fragrance because those types of ingredients make my skin itchy, textured, and sensitive. This is why I also avoid some sulfates, certain preservatives, certain alcohols, and parabens. This helps my skin stay more even, smooth, and healthy overall.

Choosing the Right Soaps and Skincare For Dry, Inflamed Skin

When we are aiming to heal, reset, and soften dry/inflamed skin, we want to use products that add moisture, have anti-inflammatory benefits, and keep our skin’s barrier balanced.

Best Soaps & Skincare Products for Dry, Inflamed Winter Skin

some scrub me soaps are conditioning, some are exfoliating, and some are both!

scrub me skin care soaps are made with blends of nourishing, antioxidant-rich, moisturizing oils. Unlike so many commercial soaps and body washes, these soap bars contain essential oils that have benefits for skin and body, vs. perfumes and fragrance that can dry and irritate skin. Each different type of soap is a blend of simple ingredients from the earth that have benefits for our skin health. So instead of over-cleansing and stressing your skin out, you are caring for your skin while you cleanse.

Some soap bars are even made with exfoliants like crushed loofah, coffee, and poppy seeds so you can buff away dead skin cells and create circulation while washing.

scrub me secret: when creating a cold-processed soap recipe, there is something called a soap calculator. It’s a tool that lets you plug in your oils and other ingredients, and then it tells you if the formulation will work or not. It also tells you what attributes the soap will have (ex: cleansing, conditioning, sudsing). I make a lot of recipes that are highly conditioning.

Best Gentle Cleansers for Sensitive Winter Skin

Josh Rosebrook Moisture Cleanse, Herbivore Tremella Creamy Jelly Cleanser, BYOMA Creamy Cleanser

scrub me secret: my blog on oil cleansing and pre-cleansing is worth a read!

My 3 Favorite Hydrating Serums

Josh Rosebrook Hydration Concentrate, Herbivore Cloud Hydration Serum, COSMEDIX Hydration Complex

The Josh Rosebrook Hydration Kit has a little bit of everything! Mist, hydrating serum, cream, and a mask

My 3 Favorite Hydrating Face Mists

Josh Rosebrook Hydration Accelerator Mist, Peach & Lily Glass Skin Veil Mist, Heritage Rose Water Mist

My 3 Favorite Moisturizers For Winter + My Favorite Oil

Josh Rosebrook Vital Balm Cream, Kinship Firming Ceramide Cream, scrub me skin care shea butter for body, scrub me skin care nourishing serum facial oil

Best Winter Skincare Treatments for Dry Skin:

Wintertime treatments should ideally focus on removing dead skin cells, adding hydration and moisture, and creating energy/circulation/oxygen flow in the cells. This will result in softer, stronger, more radiant skin that functions better in the wintertime.

Body Polish at scrub me skin care studio:

This is my signature body scrub and moisturizing treatment. I use my dry brush scrub gloves to buff away dead skin cells and create a circulation boost that helps firm skin and strengthen it. Then I use warm towels from neck to toes to refresh skin, remove any remaining debris, and add a small amount of moisture. Lastly, I massage in my moisturizer shea butter for the ultimate soft skin.

Body Scrub Spa Treatment:

If you can’t make it to my skincare studio for the body polish, find a spa with great reviews near you that offers a sugar scrub, coffee scrub, or salt scrub. Treat yourself at least once in the winter, your skin will love it!

Body treatments like this should be paired with at-home skincare like the right soaps, some exfoliation, and moisture.

A Custom Facial:

A custom facial with a skilled esthetician every 4-6 weeks will help maintain a balanced, strong, and moisture-retaining barrier. The right esthetician will be able to determine what your skin needs, effectively remove dead skin cells, and promote oxygen flow and circulation. A winter facial should also focus on a lot of hydration, calming, and moisturizing.

scrub me secret: I personally love ingredients like aloe, honey, tremella extract, marshmallow root, ceremides, sunflower seed oil, jojoba oil, hyaluronic acid, rosehip, CBD, and blue tansy for calming and hydrating facials

Gua Sha Facial at scrub me skin care studio:

My signature gua sha facial is one of the most popular treatments in the cold, dry weather. This facial is the perfect combination of skin softening, exfoliation, cell renewal, hydration, and moisture. I utilize skincare and facial massage using gua sha stones to bring circulation, oxygen flow, and energy to your skin cells and tissues while also cleansing and softening skin externally. It’s a fabulous wintertime facial.

How to Heal Sensitive Winter Skin Naturally (My Full Guide)