Living in Wanaka for your skin is a bit like living in a fridge. Imagine this, make a sandwich out of fresh moist bread, place it in the refrigerator uncovered for a few hours. What you are left with after those few hours is a dry crusty curled at the edges unappetising, "I am not going to eat that" slice of bread. What has happened is, the cold dry air has pulled out all moisture. Cover the sandwich with cling wrap (read on) and your bread will last many more hours or days and remain reasonably fresh. Now the environment in Wanaka is much the same, very dry/low humidity. Not too bad in the summer but in the winter, it is a bit like that fridge.

Many of our clients have moved to Wanaka from climates high in humidity. When you have a humid environment the pressure of the humidity has an opposite effect on the skin by pressing down and holding the moisture in the skin. This will see you having to change how you treat/cleanse your skin and in some cases what you use on your skin while living in Wanaka.

Today I am going to share with you’re a few ‘basic’ tips on how to care for your skin ‘Wanaka style’ If you are struggling with your skin come and see us at PURE but in the meantime, try these tips as a start and see if they help.

Cleansing: on a normal healthy skin cleanse once a day. Preferably in the evenings to remove, grease, grime and make up from during the day. Removing precious good oils (skins cling wrap) from your skin by over cleansing will leave it dry, tight and dehydrated, sensitised and in some instances inflamed/burning. Avoid foaming cleansers some have a detergent stripping effect.

Have blackheads/congestion? Don’t scrub or exfoliate your face away with harsh exfoliates. Black heads originate under the skin as oil, scrubbing the surface of your skin is not going to make them disappear. When you exfoliate a normal healthy skin, you remove debris or dry dead skin cells from the surface of your skin, leaving your face clean, clear, and refresh. (Our skin cells have an average turnover of around 7-10 day’s so this procedure should be performed around once a week so don’t overdo it)

To remove blackheads is a separate action. You need to use a deep cleansing product that when applied will sit on the skin and emulsify those blackheads/ bad oils without stripping good oils (skins cling wrap) from the skin. I find the Sothys Desquacrem brilliant for this!

Don’t put your face under a HOT water shower. If you just can’t possibly have a shower without this little ritual make the temperature tepid. Not so pleasant in the winter but hey the hot water does un told damage. The hot water strips good oils (skins cling wrap) from the face making it tight and red not to mention bursting/irritating, precious fine veins and capillaries.

When I see a skin that is not happy or not functioning well, it is usually what we are doing or using that is the culprit. Now this doesn’t always mean we have to change products, sometimes a slight tweak in our routine is all that is needed. Call us at PURE and we will see if we can help.

“PURE Skin Therapy where your concerns are our secret”