Carolyn J. Braden • 3 Minute Read
How to Soothe Irritated Skin and Lips In Winter or Year Round
Ahhh…the winter months and how they can harshly affect your skin and lips! Even though I am currently living in Southwest Florida, we’ve had some lower temps this winter and it reminded me of all the years living in Louisville, Kentucky. In Kentucky, winter winds blew cold air onto my face and lips while walking my dogs and no matter how hard I tried to battle the dryness that followed, I continued to fail.
I went on a mission, trying to find better products that would protect my skin and lips and I finally have a good repertoire going and wanted to share it with you. It will also be my go-to product list when I move to North Georgia, back into colder winter months. They won’t be as harsh as Kentucky, but they will still be colder than Florida.
When you’re sick, there are hacks that help (regular honey and hot tea can soothe a sore throat) so I have hacks that I use when my skin gets irritated too, which happens in the winter, but also in other months too! Read on to learn how I soothe my irritated lips and skin.
Try an oatmeal based face mask to soothe skin
Irritated Skin Hack: Colloidal Oatmeal Mask
Something I learned from a facialist when I had a bad reaction to a facial at a spa many years ago: Mix a little bit of colloidal oatmeal (Aveeno makes packets of it that you can get at Walmart, but I like mambino Organics Soothing Colloidal Oatmeal Bath which is cruelty free) with a little water until it’s a smooth paste. Use your hands or a facial brush to apply it to your skin. Allow it to dry (it will crack but it still works) and then rinse with cool water. This always works instantly to soothe my skin when very irritated.
Our dog’s skin love an oatmeal based shampoo
You can also add colloidal oatmeal to a tepid bath to soothe irritated skin too! I also use dog shampoo that has oatmeal in it and it helps my miniature American Eskimo dogs not scratch. Once I started using an oatmeal-based dog shampoo, their scratching stopped. Granted, you have to make sure you find the best one for your dog AND be sure to rinse it out completely, but it does work. See their cute dog wash station that saves our backs in this article I wrote up.
Hydrating Skin Hack: Hyaluronic Jelly or Gel Mask
I recently tested a jelly mask I found on Amazon with great results. I did a treatment on my skin that irritated it, and instantly used my cooling roller (I use one almost every day to depuff my skin in the morning) to calm it down. It worked, but I felt I needed more. I did some research and found a Bulgarian Rose cruelty free jelly mask on Amazon, bought it and tested it out on my husband and myself.
We mixed a little powder with water in my face mask mixing bowl set (I love it for at home facials and it’s good to have tools that are specifically for your facials). I mixed it well and applied a thick layer to mine and my husband’s skin.
We left it on for about 15 minutes and then peeled it off. Both of us felt our skin was soothed and much more hydrated. It almost gave my skin a glow that lasted a couple of days too. Next time, I’d apply it even more thick, as a thin layer is hard to peel off. We had to rinse our faces to get the too thin layer off and it was a bit messy, but it worked.
Eye gels can calm irritated skin
Hydrated Eye Hack: Reusable Eye Gels
Sometimes under my eyes get extra dehydrated in the winter months, so I tested out the Pacifica Reusable Undereye Masks with some of my Kora Organics Eye Cream and it helped. I keep the eye gels in my beauty fridge and add a little cream to my eyes, then I pop these gels on top of the cream.
The cooling soothes and depuffs my skin and the cream is intensified by the gels. I like that they are reusable, as you just rinse them off and put them back in their tin. They also work wonders after a good cry session. I like these stainless steel Cryo Sticks too for puffy undereyes too.
Drink water and use a lip mask for hydrated lips!
Hydrated Lip Hack: Nightly Lip Mask
The first product that I found many year ago to help my severely chapped and dry lips was the Laneige Lip Mask. Then, recently, I discovered it was not a cruelty free brand (and it was kind of getting more and more expensive) and so set out on a mission to find something that was cruelty free, cheaper and just as good as Laneige.
After several brand tests, I found Elizabeth Mott’s Lip Sleeping Mask at a lower price point and hit the target of being cruelty free. I tested it for several months and I can now vouch that the product is great! I use it every night and I wake up to soft lips with zero flakes. Drinking lots of water helps too!
Face lotions and serums help hydrate skin
Hydrated Skin Hack: Soothing Face Lotion
I have been using Kora Organics Turmeric Glow Moisturizer for several years now on my combination skin, and it works. I used to just use it at night, but now my aging skin has decided it needs more moisture during the day, so I use it daily too. I use The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid Serum (and several other serums), which you can read about in this article I wrote up about my skin care routine, which has stayed mostly the same for several years.
If you have severely red or irritated skin, I tested Murad’s Cellular Hydration Repair Serum for several weeks after receiving it complimentary from Influenster and it’s worth checking out. See my one minute video review below or via my YouTube Channel @carolynjbraden:
Kora Organics allows you to buy refills (saving the environment from too much waste is great in a brand!) and it lasts a long time as it’s very hydrating. I also alternate using Kora with DERMA-E Vitamin C Intense Night Cream, which is effective and lower priced.
Red light therapy can help irritated skin
Dermatitis or Pimple or Red Skin Attack Hack: Red Light Therapy
My husband has dermatitis (it’s a form of skin redness and flakiness that you can learn more about from the Mayo Clinic by clicking here) and when he gets an occurrence of this rashy breakout, he uses my Kora Oraganics lotion with a red light I purchased many years ago from Quasar MD. The Quasar MD Plus red light therapy tool is marketed to be anti-aging, but I have found the red light therapy to be really effective on irritated skin.
The Quasar MD Plus is at a pretty high price point, so if you are looking for something similar at a lower price, I found this red light by LifePro on Amazon that has great reviews. According to the Cleveland Clinic, red light therapy is known to reduce inflammation, so you can also test it out on other skin ailments like wrinkles, acne, sun-damaged skin and more. When I have a breakout beginning, I use my red light and it always seems to deter the breakout from getting worse.
A screenshot from one of my videos showing how I use CC Cream
All Day Hydrated Skin Hack: Soothing Foundation and Concealer
It Cosmetics CC Cream has been my go-to foundation for many, many years. I try other brands, but always come back to this one. It not only does a great job of covering my red skin, but it also soothes it too. It has skincare ingredients in it as well as an SPF. If I go several days without using it, my skin seems drier.
I followed Jamie Kern-Lima in her QVC adventure of marketing this product and brand in the wee days of the brand. She invented several products to cover her extreme red skin for the purposes of her job, an on-air newscaster. CC cream stands for Color Control cream, which this product truly does and does well.
She could not find a product that covered her redness on camera, so her and her husband worked together to create the it Cosmetics brand. It took off in a big way and they later sold it for a billion dollars. Despite the sale of the brand, the new ownership has kept many of the formulas the same and kept it cruelty free too. I love many of their products, including the Bye Bye Redness Neutralizing Correcting Cream product that I use to conceal extra redness around my nose area. I also sponge it on as a light foundation on my low-makeup days.
What products/hacks do you use to soothe irritated skin? Let me know in the comments below!
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Carolyn J. (C.J.) Braden is a regular contributor and editor for Carolyn’s Blooming Creations. She has been featured in numerous media publications such as InStyle Magazine, on HGTV, on Bustle.com, and more. She is the author of the books Georgia McMasters in Amethyst Lake Cemetery, How To Be Yourself: 3 Ways To Help You Being You, and the illustrator for the children’s book Bridging Connections. She is a former classroom teacher that now dedicates her life to educating others on how to live their most healthy, creative and happy life. Learn more about her visiting our About Us page.