With winter well and truly in full swing, we’ve put together a selection of our favourite natural beauty tinctures, therapies, recipes, tips and indoor activities to give you a taster of how team Content aligns body, skin and soul with the snowy season: from incorporating warming flower essences into our beauty regimes, adjusting our yoga practices to heat us up from the inside-out and getting creative in the kitchen. So curl up next to a blazing fire, grab yourself a glass of our Winter Warm Smoothie and read on…
BEAUTY
Suffering from a case of ‘winter skin’ – e.g. dehydrated or dry, tight and uncomfortable? To bring to you all things winter-skin health, we’ve called on our natural beauty experts to help us tackle the winter months. So, keep your skin soft and supple with our SOS WINTER specials:
- Check out our favourite organic beauty products to quench dehydrated skin in winter here.
- Get our five organic skincare tips for dry skin here.
- Brush up on your dry body brushing skills here.
- Ban dry, chapped winter lips with our tips for lips.
- Combat winter-weary hands and keep them soft with our tips.
- Give your skin the ultimate in hydration with an overnight face mask.
- Just like your face needs a winter regimen update, so does your body – nourish it with our pick of #ContentApproved natural body balms.
Also, check out some of our #ContentApproved tips for treating winter skin:
- Give skin some TLC: If you feel as though your complexion is pale and your skin is scaly, flaky and dry, some TLC around the most susceptible areas (in most cases lips, eyes and hands) will instantly make you feel hydrated and refreshed. Try Tata Harper ‘s Moisturising Mask for an instant dose of skin-loving re-hydration.
- Increase your Vitamin A: The fat soluble vitamin A helps to prevent the skin from becoming keratinized (scaly and dry). It also promotes normalised cell turnover. Vitamin A is found in cod liver oil, organic butter, carrots, pastured egg yolk and organ meats such as liver.
- Drink diligently: Winter is the perfect time to indulge in a variety of herbal teas. Besides an array of various health benefits, it is a convenient way to stay hydrated at a time of year when we don’t consume as much fluid as usual. Favourites include lemon, ginger and turmeric tea to support immune function, or loose-leaf chai tea as a warming digestive. Most herbal teas have antioxidant and cleansing benefits so your skin will most certainly benefit.
- Cleanse efficiently: Do so with a quality muslin cloth such as Pai’s, MV Skincare’s or SKIN & TONIC’S. The special criss-cross design of the weave will gently remove dry, dead skin.
- Lock in moisture: Apply 3 drops of jojoba oil to the face and décolleté before getting in the shower or bath. This will minimise moisture loss and redness.
Also, why not treat your face to a hydrating, natural winter facial? Book your appointment here.
Another tool in our arsenal is the De Mamiel Winter Oil: specially formulated to reduce redness, relieve sensitivity and prevent that persistent winter dryness that many of us experience alongside the season, De Mamiel’s new Winter Oil contains a new blend of flower essences and essential oils to soothe winter-weary skin and work through the body’s acupuncture meridians to positively alter our mood and state of mind. A great natural way to help alleviate the winter blues, we love this oil. It features some of our favourite mood modulating flower essence; Silver Light, included to inspire chance, Golden Light to induce joy and Scots Primrose for its warmth and comfort. Trust us – this floral bouquet of seasonal skin, mind and soul sustenance will prepare your entire being for new beginnings come Spring. Get it here.
Mind & Soul: Yoga is one of our favourite ways to keep warm in the depths of winter. So we’ve asked our resident yoga expert Michaela Olexova to share a yoga routine to gently detox your body, boost immunity and create an optimum wellbeing. Get it here.
Also, it’s easy to get bogged down from the cold, gloom and lack of sunshine. Keep your spirits up with the help of wellbeing expert Jane Kersel’s Content Ritual for the month January and check out our favourite mindfulness apps to help incorporate meditation into your daily life.
Exercise: Whilst darker mornings and evenings make early morning and post-work workouts seem a little daunting, it needn’t be that way, especially if you’re aware of the wonders that outdoor exercise has on your skin. We’re sure all #GreenBeauty winter outdoor exercisers will agree – the rosy glow after-effect that follows a brisk outdoor workout makes it all the worthwhile. If this isn’t enough to get you inspired, increased circulation (also known as the thermic effect) that results from brisk movement revs up the metabolism, aids in digestion and increases energy and alertness thanks to the increased supply of fresh oxygen – all the more reason to get outdoors!
Want to stay indoors? One of our favourite ways to warm up, we’ve been frequenting Glow Yoga at Good Vibes in London which offers Vinyasa flow yoga classes in a room heated by infra red. This allows the body to safely open and release and works wonders for the skin. How? Gentle sweating is an amazing way to detoxify the lymph and cleanse the skin from the inside out! In addition, SAD lighting is included in each class to improve mood and help to combat seasonal blues. Another sure-fire way to get sweating and beat the blues is with FRAME’s workshops: from Britney dance classes, to yoga inversions, whichever you choose be prepared to work hard. But they’re always bloody good fun!
If you simply can’t face trekking out into the cold, we’ve been following some fantastic tutorials over on Yoogaia. Their breadth and variety of yoga and meditation classes make it easy for us to try yoga inversions and workout from the comfort of our home, according to current fitness level and mood – no fancy exercise equipment required!
KITCHEN
Seasonal Sustenance: As we journey even deeper into the depths of winter, we caught up with our resident Nutritional Therapist and Medical Herbalist Jennifer Derham for an insight into the Winter foods worth incorporating into our diets now. In an extensive breakdown of her favourite forms of seasonal sustenance, Jennifer’s nutritional expertise takes us back to basics as she reveals her favourite ‘forgotten’ foods set to make a come back this season. From the nut that is seeing a renaissance, to why slow cooked food should be back on the menu; head over to our post on The Revival of Foods Fit For Hibernation for a round-up of real winter comfort food.
Also, you can’t go wrong with a warming soup in winter! We’ve been tucking into this green soup recipe from Radiance Cleanse, which is just as green and as fresh as their juices, super quick and easy to make. Additionally, if you’ve been looking to change up your usual oat based porridge breakfast, check out our Porridge Chronicles for a host of warming alternatives we’ve been tucking into this month.
When it comes to keeping cosy in the Winter, nothing beats wooly blankets. We’ve had our eyes on the selection of ethical cashmere throws from Reve En Vert which look both cozy and luxurious. Read our interview with the founders and get a special treat here. Also in their home ware section, we’re coveting their colourful, handmade carafes. Next up on our list of cozy covets is this snug yet stylish-looking poncho we spotted over at The ACEY. We love!
Speaking of cosy: if you love a cosy home, don’t miss interior design tips and rituals from HausWitch founder Erica Feldmann to revamp your house in the new year. Get them here.
