4 Expert Winter Skin Tips You Haven’t Heard Before

When winter shows up, so do the usual skincare tips: drink more water, use a heavier moisturizer, avoid super hot showers. All good advice, but if you’re still ending up with tight, itchy, or flaky skin every winter, it means your routine needs a more advanced strategy.

As a master esthetician, I don’t just look at which moisturizer someone is using. I look at the whole ecosystem their skin lives in: their cleanser, their indoor environment, their actives, even their shower water and laundry habits.

Here are four winter skin tips you almost never hear, but that can make a huge difference in how your skin feels all season.

1. Fix Your Cleanser Before You Upgrade Your Moisturizer

Most people jump straight to a thicker cream in winter and keep using the exact same cleanser that’s been quietly wrecking their barrier.

If your skin feels tight, squeaky, or “super clean” after washing, especially when the air is dry, that’s a red flag. It usually means your cleanser is pulling out too many of the natural oils and barrier lipids your skin needs to stay soft and hydrated.

Smarter winter moves with cleansing:

• Use a gentle, low-foaming cleanser at night only. In the morning, many people can skip a traditional cleanser and just rinse with lukewarm water or use a gentle hydrating toner or micellar on a cotton pad.

• Avoid harsh foaming agents like strong sulfates and anything marketed as “oil control” or “deep degreasing” if you are already dry or sensitive.

• If you wear makeup or sunscreen daily, try this routine:

– Step 1: Remove with a cream or oil-based cleanser.

– Step 2: Follow with a very gentle gel or lotion cleanser.

This “double cleanse but gentle” approach gets skin clean without ripping through your moisture barrier.

People are often shocked at how much their “dry skin” improves just by changing their cleanser and doing less, not more.

2. Match Your Skincare To Your Indoor Air, Not Just The Weather App

Your skin doesn’t live in “outside winter.” It lives in your house, your car, your office, your plane seat. Those environments are usually heated, dry, and sometimes blasting hot air directly at your face.

When indoor humidity drops below about 30 percent, the air is so dry that it pulls moisture out of your skin more easily. In that situation, a serum that is mostly humectants (like hyaluronic acid) without enough lipids on top can actually leave you feeling tighter and drier.

How to adjust your products to your environment:

• Pay attention to how your skin feels after 1–2 hours indoors, not just right after your routine. If you feel dry by midday, your environment is winning.

• In very dry rooms, emphasize lipids and occlusives more than humectants. Look for ceramides, cholesterol, fatty acids, squalane, shea butter, and similar ingredients that help lock water in.

• Keep a small “barrier touch-up” product where you spend the most time:

– At your desk, to dab on cheekbones, around the nose and mouth.

– In the car, if vents are blowing on your face.

– In your bag when traveling, especially on flights.

Think of it as chapstick logic, but for your face. You don’t apply lip balm once in the morning and expect your lips to stay perfect all day in winter. Your skin also sometimes needs strategic top-ups.

3. Take “Barrier Breaks” From Actives Instead Of Quitting Them

A lot of people blame their retinoid or exfoliating acids for winter dryness. The usual response is to quit those products completely, but there’s a better way.

Instead of an all-or-nothing approach, treat winter like a “deload phase” for your skin. You keep the benefits of your actives but give your barrier more recovery time.

How to do barrier breaks:

• Retinoids:

– Drop down to 1–2 nights per week in the coldest, driest weeks.

– Use the sandwich method: apply a light moisturizer, then your retinoid, then another layer of moisturizer.

• Exfoliating acids (AHA/BHA):

– Reduce to every 10–14 days if you are prone to dryness.

– Skip exfoliation completely if you see flaking, stinging, or burning.

• Build intentional barrier nights into your week:

– Cleanse gently.

– Apply a hydrating serum with ingredients like glycerin, panthenol, beta-glucan, or ectoin.

– Seal with a richer cream, and optionally tap a thin layer of balm or ointment onto the areas that get the most chapped.

This rhythm lets you keep your skin clear and smooth without creating low-grade inflammation and dryness all season long.

4. Treat Your Water And Fabrics Like Part Of Your Skincare

Two sneaky winter saboteurs almost no one talks about: your shower water and the fabrics that touch your face all day.

Hard water, chlorine, and long, hot showers can all weaken your skin barrier. Then you step out, towel off with a scratchy fabric, put on a wool scarf, and sleep on a pillowcase washed in heavily fragranced detergent. By the end of the week, your face and neck are angry and you think your moisturizer “isn’t working.”

What to do instead:

• Shorten and soften your showers.

– Aim for lukewarm, not steaming hot.

– Cut down the time you spend with water directly hitting your face and chest.

– If your water is very hard or heavily chlorinated, consider a basic shower filter.

• Choose gentler fabrics on high-rub areas.

– For pillowcases, scarves, and turtlenecks, look for smoother, softer fabrics that glide instead of scratch.

– If your jawline and neck are constantly red or rough in winter, this alone can be a game changer.

• Watch your laundry products.

– If you have sensitive or dry skin, especially in winter, try using fragrance-free detergent on pillowcases, face towels, and anything that regularly touches your face and neck.

– Fabric softeners and strong fragrance can be surprisingly irritating when your barrier is already compromised.

Think of all of this as “invisible skincare.” You never see these products sitting on your bathroom shelf, but your skin feels them every single day.

Winter dryness is not just a moisturizer problem. It is a barrier problem, an environment problem, and sometimes a habit problem.

To recap the smarter winter strategy:

• Make your cleanser gentler before you make your moisturizer heavier.

• Build your routine around the air you actually live in, not just the temperature outside.

• Take barrier breaks from strong actives instead of quitting them completely.

• Treat your water, fabrics, and laundry products as part of your skincare routine.

Put these four together, and you’ll notice your skin stays softer, calmer, and more comfortable all winter long.