Are you looking for a remedy for your dry, itchy winter skin? No matter what moisturizer you use, there are several things to remember in order to effectively keep your winter skin soft and supple. Here are Hollywoodskin's winter skin care tips to treat and prevent dry skin throughout the winter.

Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize
Hydrating your winter skin is the best way to treat dry, itchy skin. During the winter, moisturize your face in the morning and evening right before going to bed. You'll start feeling a difference in your skin almost immediately. As you try different winter skin care products, some may have a lighter feel and others may have a greasy feel. Request samples of winter skin care products from the makeup counter and try a few before you commit. Our fave is Hollywoodskin's Night Cream Intense

Re-apply during the day
Just because experts recommend moisturizing in the morning and before bed, doesn't mean you have to limit your facial interaction to twice a day. Carry your day cream in your purse all winter-long and you'll be ready to moisturize at a moment's notice. Flaky and dry skin in the winter is caused by dehydration thanks to the artificial heat that dries the air around you.

Remember the hands and feet
Your face isn't the only thing that will crave a good moisturizing cream during the winter. Your hands and feet may also become dry and itchy during the winter, so be sure to extend your winter skin care to the rest of your body. We recommend buying pair of cotton gloves and cotton socks, from a pharmacy – most of them last for up to 25 washes. At night, use a heavier moisturizer, coconut oil or african shea butter and wrap your hands and feets in a pair of night gloves and socks, we promise, you will wake up with hands and feets as soft as a baby's.

Use a face-friendly soap
If you think you've found a great moisturizer for your winter skin care routine and your skin is still dry and itchy, your face wash may be the culprit. Products for acne-prone skin may contain acids that are drying out your skin. If you are using products for acne-prone skin, make sure to use products from the same product line. Otherwise your face wash may just be drying out your skin and counteract the moisturizer you're using. Check out Hollywoodskin's Total Acne Solution and Total Acne Solution Ultra. You will get rid of your acne without incurring an over-dehydrated skin. If you are not in need of acne preventing products, look for creamy face washes loaded with vitamin E or Shea. 

Check the ingredients
Beauty products use specific ingredients to moisturize skin and add elasticity throughout the day. Similar to how we read food labels to see what chemicals we're putting into our body, we should also start reading ingredient labels to see what we're putting onto our skin. In fact, the skin is the body's largest organ. Some of the best skin care moisturizers for winter come from natural oils. Something as simple as almond oil or extra virgin olive oil can provide soothing properties to the skin. The fats in natural oils combine with the skin's essential oils to result in a smooth, soft texture. They also have antibacterial properties to protect the skin. Other oils include Shea butter, jojoba, coconut oil and rosehip seed oil.

After a tiring day at work, we can hardly wait to get into our beds. A speedy night beauty routine helps us hit the sheets in under 10 minutes, but we've recently run into a skincare issue that has slowed us down.

Waking up the next morning with breakouts is forcing us to give our satin pillowcases the side-eye. If we're being really good about washing our faces before bed, then these pillowcases must be to blame for our acne, right?

Pillowcases can house dirt and oil.

Like anything else that transfers dirt and oil to your skin, pillowcases can be the cause of something thats called acne mechanica. 

Acne mechanica is any type of acne that is the result of material or objects touching your face. When your pillowcase isn't laundered or changed regularly, a build-up of dirt and oil from the environment as well as your skin and hair touching the pillow is transferred back to your skin. This can clog pores and cause blemishes.

It probably doesn't matter what material your pillowcase is made of, but what's hiding on it.

Although some articles say that satin can cause breakouts, this may not be true. It doesn't really matters what material your pillowcase is made of, if it is not changed regularly, then it can have more grime, dirt and sweat. If you have any thick products on your hair when you sleep, the oils from your hair sit on the surface of your pillowcase and that can transfer to your face.  This can happen no matter what material your pillowcase is made of. 

Not everyone's skin is equally impacted by their pillows.

Not everyone is going to break out from just a pillowcase, but if you're prone to breakouts, whether it's because of hormones, genetics or stress, your pillowcase can exacerbate an already delicate situation and cause micro-irritation.

Here are Hollywoodskin's steps to lessens your chances of getting acne from pillowcases

1. Wash your face every night. Seems obvious, but this will help to prevent dirt, grime or makeup from getting onto your bedding. Make sure to wash your face before you are getting too tired. 

 2. Sleep on pillowcases made out of natural fabrics. These materials themselves breathe better and transfer less oil. If you are using acne medications containing for example benzoyl peroxide, that product can deposit onto the pillowcase. So make sure your fabrics are white because the topical treatments may bleach your pillowcases.

 3. Change your pillowcases every two to three days. This ensures you're not lying on a pillowcase with several days' worth of oil soaked into it or pooled on the surface. Liquid fabric softener and dryer sheets leave behind a waxy residue that is highly pore clogging. Avoid using fabric softener on your pillowcases. Fragrance-free fabric softeners aren't any better - in this case, it's the softening agents that are a problem for acne-prone skin.

Beautiful skin is one of the most attractive indicators of beauty and youth. Good sleep, plenty of water and stress free life are some of the most basic and important ingredients of youthful and beautiful appearance. And yes, healthy eating of course! We did a listing below of some basic beauty routines that is easily forgotten. 

Wash your face twice a day

Too much of a good thing sometimes ends up being bad. Most people are under the impression that bad skin is a result of dirty skin, and the obvious solution is to wash it more. The black substance in blackheads, however, has nothing to do with dirt. It's actually the result of a combination of sebum, which your body naturally produces to lubricate your skin, and dead skin cells. Although most cosmeticians agree that washing twice a day is all that's necessary. Washing your face excessively is likely to irritate your skin more than anything else, and that can actually make conditions like acne worse. 

Wash your hands first

This is one of the important steps that most people ignore. It is important to wash you hands first because washing your face with dirty hands means you are transferring all the dirt, germs and grease of your hands on your face. This step is usually overlooked as we assume the hands will get cleaned along with the face, but, it is advisable to clean that grime and germs from your hands before moving to your face.

Use normal or lukewarm water

Avoid using too hot or too cold water for rinsing the face. It is a myth that cold water closes the pores and hot water opens them. Pores do not have muscles to close or open. 

Instead, find a nice in-between temperature. Warm water cleanses better than cold, but if the water temperature is too hot, you can scald the skin, causing irritation, and dilating vessels. Washing with water that's very cold won't harm your skin but it may not be very pleasant. 

Rinse the cleanser completely

Make sure that you rinse the cleanser completely from your face. Skimping on rinsing may leave some residues on the face which can clog the pores and dry the skin later. Rinse thoroughly especially from the hairline, neck and sides of the nose. These are the common places often missed and can lead to skin irritation later. Keep rinsing until all the cleanser is washed off from the skin.

Use a clean and soft towel

Wipe your face with a clean and soft towel. We would recommend to use one towel just for the face and change it at least twice a week. if you wait too long to change the towel, it will start collect dust and germs, which will end up on your skin.

Do not rub the towel on the skin, instead just pat it dry. Also, let a fine mist of water remain on face so when you apply a moisturizer/creme as it will seal the moisture into the surface of the skin.

Apply moisturizer

Use a moisturizer immediately after washing your face when the skin is still damp. Waiting until your skin is completely dry makes it harder for the active ingredients to get absorbed into your skin and can cause the skin to feel greasy.

Waking up in the morning and facing yourself in the mirror isn't always a pleasure when you are suffering from acne and the only thing you can see is new zits and pimples covering your face. 

You have a big day tomorrow and need to clear up a pimple, fast! How do you get rid of acne overnight?

Before bed, use a spot treatment containing a combination of sulfur and benzoyl peroxide to kill the  acne bacteria and clean out the pores. After cleansing your face, apply a spot treatment directly to the pimple. Try Hollywoodskin’s Extreme Acne gel, it contains benzoyl peroxide 10% (the maximum strength available without a prescription) our favorite solution for a quick fix but also, and most important, one of our best long term solutions.