During the cold winter months, especially for those in snowy climates, it can feel like you’re adding extra steps to your usual daily routine.

Adding extra layers to your clothes.

Shoveling a snowy sidewalk.

Scraping frost from your car windshield.

But what about your skincare routine?

While everyone should re-evaluate their skincare routine from time to time, there’s never a better time than during the winter.

That’s because your skin needs extra love in the face of cold, dry air.

So what, in particular, should you be doing differently in your winter skincare routine?

Below, we’ve outlined five steps to consider adding to your routine. These will help your skin to look better and feel better, both now and in the long run.

1. Switch to An Oil for Cream Cleanser

You’ve probably carefully chosen your cleanser based on your skin type. That’s a good approach, but for those who use foaming cleansers the rest of the year, you may find them to be too drying during the winter.

The answer is to switch to an oil or cream cleanser which will remove dirt, sweat, and deadskin but keep the skin’s natural barrier in place.

2. Skip the Hot Showers

At the end of a particularly brisk winter day, a hot shower may sound tempting. However, keep in mind that hot showers will strip your skin of its natural oils and lead to dryness, itching, and rough patches.

It’s best to keep your shower’s temperature lukewarm. You should also avoid showering more than once per day.

Even with these parameters, it never hurts to moisturize your whole body after each and every shower. After all, prevention is the best medicine.

3. Switch to a Richer Moisturizer

A light moisturizer full of humectants (like hyaluronic acid) is a good thing to have in your arsenal. At least for nine months out of the year.

In the colder months, though, humectants alone won’t cut it.

Humectants are substances that pull water from the air and into the skin. In the wintertime, though, you need to lock that moisture in. That’s where emollients and occulsives come in. Emollients will enhance your skin barrier’s functions while occlusives prevent the water from escaping.

Switch to a moisturizer that includes all three and your skin will be happier and healthier.

4. Exfoliate Once Per Week

Exfoliation has plenty of benefits, even outside of the harsh, dry winter months.

It’s most important during the winter months, though, since dry skin flakes can quickly build up and dullen the skin.

For best results, exfoliate no more than once per week. Anything more than once per week can disrupt your skin’s natural barrier which will only make your skin drier and duller over time.

5. Layer Your Skincare for Best Results

Have you ever moisturized only to find your skin feeling dry within hours?

Just like with a thin layer of clothing, the cold, dry air can cut through your moisturizer and leave you feeling exposed.

While a richer moisturizer will help, for best results you should layer your skincare.

What does this look like?

Just like with winter clothing – undergarments first, then a shirt and pants, then a sweater, then a coat – you should layer from “lightest” to “heaviest.” That means oils first, serums second, and moisturizers last.

What’s your favorite winter skincare routine addition or tip?