Winter Saviours Part 1 - Face

Whilst I love how pretty the snow makes the world look, it certainly has it's downsides. Snow and cold wind on the face are not kind to our skin, but central heating is our skin's enemy too, making it dull, dry and dehydrated

I've noticed my skin is a lot drier at the moment, not just my face but my body too, including my hands and feet. I am quite lazy by nature but even I have had to make some time to pamper myself a bit to try to keep myself from turning into a dry old biscuit

I thought a little series might be in order so here it is - part one of my Winter Saviours! Products which I rely on to save the day during the colder months. First up - Face. Read on ...

Our faces are usually the only things exposed to the elements when the weather is bad (unless you're a fan of balaclavas) so it makes sense that they come off worst. At this time of year I tend to exfoliate more than usual - every other day or so. I alternate my Liz Earle Gentle Exfoliator with Dermalogica's Daily Microfoliant. Both of these are hero products for me, they have different textures which is why I use both, depending on what I need at the time. I use the Liz Earle one on an evening because the scent is relaxing and it has a slightly oilier texture which is a perfect base for my night cream. The Dermalogica one is a powder which you mix with water to create a paste and I find this is better on a morning as it takes care of any excess oil on the skin and leaves a beautiful, smooth finish - perfect if you're about to apply make up

I like to use a mask after exfoliating on an evening and my favourite is the Liz Earle Intensive Nourishing Treatment Mask - a heavy cream mask which I massage into my skin and allow to penetrate for around 10-15 mins. You can leave it on overnight if your skin is really parched but I find 15 mins is perfect. It leaves my skin plump and soft without that nasty pore-clogging feeling some intensive moisture masks give

My usual evening cleanser is Liz Earle's Cleanse & Polish and I use it twice a day at this time of year rather than using a foaming cleanser in the morning. I like to double cleanse and leave the second application on for 10 mins or so before polishing off - my skin seems to drink it up

I'm experimenting with night creams at the moment and haven't found one I'd recommend but for day time I like to use Dermalogica's Skin Smoothing Cream, which does exactly as it says on the tin. It's aimed at drier or mature skin so is fairly rich but without being cloying and primer/make up go on easily over it

My biggest problem at the moment is dry lips. My lips are dry all year round but the central heating is playing havoc with them at the moment so I like to scrub them every day with Lush's Bubblegum Lip Scrub - a gorgeous, sweet, sugary scrub which you can lick off after use. I follow this up with my all time favourite lip balm - Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Lip Butter. If you suffer with dry lips you MUST give this a try, it's the only lip balm that has any effect on my lips and believe me, I've tried dozens. It used to be widely available at Boots but I've noticed it seems to have disappeared from there, however, you can still get it from Amazon with free p&p and super quick delivery - I just stocked up!

I hope this was useful to you and don't forget to check back tomorrow for Part 2 - Body