Makeup Tips for Dry Skin Types for Winter and Cold Weather and Situational Skin Types

Makeup Tips for Dry Skin Types for Winter and Cold Weather

In this series, I’ll be writing about my favorite skincare and makeup tips for situational skin types. I’ll kick off this series with my makeup tips for dry skin.

What are Situational Skin Types?
Situational skin types or skin sub conditions are when your skin experiences changes due to changes in weather, your routine, or exposure to allergens, toxins or other environmental factors.

For example, you might not have chronic dry skin, but when the seasons change from fall to winter, and you turn on the heater, your skin might turn dry. And after a couple of days, your dry skin might turn into oily skin as your skin starts overproducing sebum to overcompensate for dry skin.

This is different from your skin type - because this is situational and can easily be remedied. I learned about this concept of “Makeup Cycling” when I lived in Asia. The idea is that you want to change your makeup routine depending on the season, so that you’re not exacerbating your skin condition.

Here’s my quick tips for skin that can’t hold onto moisture:

This can look different on different people. For me, this looks like redness from a damaged skin barrier but surface dryness. I usually get this when the weather changes or if I’m in different varying levels of humidity a lot (ie. I’m in a very humid location, but I go into AC indoors a lot).

For skin that can’t hold onto moisture, I like using sheet masks, gel based toners, serums and moisturizers. I love the texture and consistency of Oxygenceutical's Gel Toner and Belief True Cream Aqua Bomb. The idea here is that the molecule size can help penetrate through skin that’s surface dry. Surface dry skin has tighter pores - and sometimes very thick occlusive creamy moisturizers can’t penetrate deep enough to keep skin hydrated and can then cause clogged pores.

For makeup, I like using our Pregame Primer - this creates a protective barrier between your skin and your makeup. It’s great for dry skin because it’s emollient so you can use this as a form a daytime slugging, to seal all of your skincare. You can use it as the last step of your skincare routine, even on no makeup days to seal in your skincare.

For foundation textures, I would avoid anything too high coverage or waterproof foundation when I'm trying to improve my skin's dryness. The reason why is because "waterproof" ingredients and very high coverage ingredients can be very drying. If you find that a lightweight foundation doesn't have enough grip or is too runny, then I like using our Pregame Setting Spray on a makeup sponge, and then applying foundation on.

Our BYO Blush is great because it’s an oil based which provides your cheeks with a ton of fatty acids and hydration. Your cheeks are the highest points on your face - and it’s exposed to the elements. It’s at risk for a damaged skin barrier - so having something hydrating, rather than drying (like powder blushes) is great.

Plus, our BYO Blush, our Tiktok famous color changing blush oil, diffuses the look of any dry patches or fine lines! You can see it here on my mom.

To finish off, I like using our Pregame Setting Spray. Most setting sprays are made with alcohol, which can be really drying for the skin. The reason why most setting sprays use alcohol is because it helps dry the setting spray formula so it create a film to “set” the makeup. Our true innovation with Serum Setting Spray is we use glycerin - which is an amazing humectant to help hydrate your skin - when it dries, Pregame Setting Spray forms a protective barrier so your makeup is sealed in!

When my skin is too dry, I would avoid setting powders (unless I'm filming or on set). Powders are drying, and can help stop your skin's sebum. I find that if my skin is too dry and I'm using powder, my skin can get really unbalanced - it'll start cycling through very dry patches and my T-zone will start overproducing sebum to overcompensate for the dryness.

Some might call this "combination skin" but I think sometimes this is an issue where your makeup routine can exacerbate the skin sub-condition, without addressing the root cause. I want to again emphasize that your makeup is an extension of your skincare routine.

I also love using Pregame Primer and Pregame Setting Spray as texture adjusters to any foundation or other base makeup. I hate when my makeup looks cakey from dry patches on my skin. Pregame Primer creates a nice canvas so that my foundation doesn’t show dry patches, and Pregame Setting Spray adds a nice grip and radiant finish!