2024 Winter Skincare: Ingredients, Trends & Formulas for Your Best Skin

All year round, your skin needs love. The tricky part is each season brings on new challenges thanks to different environmental stressors, living conditions and more. One of the harshest, biggest changes we see is in the winter season, especially as the holidays begin, and that’s why many dermatologists are focused on skin wellness during this time.

As the temperature drops, air gets drier inside and outside which causes moisture to be pulled away from the lipid barrier. With this happening, regular cell turnover has more difficulty which causes dry skin. On top of this, a lot of our lifestyle changes during the winter season. We may take hotter showers, utilize our heat much more and change our diet, all of which can have an effect on skin health.

But how can we ensure our skin is healthy, especially as you get ready for the holiday season? It’s by using a few proven practices and clinically-tested products that truly make a difference on your skin. 

In this article, we discuss those practices that will help your skin stay deeply hydrated, smooth, even and toned all winter long. From continuing to use SPF to trends like ‘skin flooding’ Dr. Kaplan goes through his top recommendations below.

Use the Right Ingredients

Leading up to the holiday season, and all winter long, we all want our skin to be healthy and hydrated for a youthful glow. The key to this is of course using the right ingredients to make it happen.

These clinically-proven ingredients are all essential for your skin while going through the dry, winter season if you’re looking at keeping your skin in perfect shape. 

Niacinamide 

This antioxidant is a great anti-aging ingredient, but it also works as a calming ingredient. In the winter, even though our skincare needs to be powerful, it also needs to be calming so that the irritation caused by a cooler climate is lessened. Niacinamide does just this, it calms skin that has been affected by the winter’s environmental stressors while brightening the duller complexion we naturally get in the winter. 

Our newDiamond Contour 20% Vitamin C Skin Resurfacing Oxygen Peel houses Niacinamide as a key ingredient to help your skin stay glowing and calm during the harshest season. This Oxygen Peel is clinically-proven to make skin feel softer and smoother while plumping the skin for a healthier, more youthful look.

Hyaluronic Acid & Squalane for Hydration

Hydration really is one of (if not the) most important things when it comes to your skin’s health during the winter. With the cold air outside, hotter showers and heat being higher during this season your skin’s moisture is diminished and needs to be replenished at a higher level. 

Hyaluronic Acid is one of those ingredients that’s important for hydration. It both hydrates, and plumps skin since it attracts moisture from your surroundings for an immediate boost. Not only this, but it assists in soothing and calming skin.

Squalane is another important addition to formulas for deep hydration. This antioxidant helps to reduce signs of dry skin while also creating a barrier that protects moisture to keep it locked in for long-lasting, more effective hydration for the skin. 

TheDiamond Contour Collagen Boosting Hydration Créme actually contains both Squalane and Hyaluronic Acid for a deep, penetrating boost of hydration to keep your skin feeling its best all winter long. After using it just once, the Hydration Créme improves skin hydration by 54.98% resulting in plumper looking skin. In addition, after just two weeks, participants showed tighter, firmer and more soft skin.

If your lips tend to get extra dry over the winter, ourPerfect Pout Lip Mask holds two forms of hyaluronic acid for more intense hydration on the cellular level for visibly smoother lips which also need a bit of extra love. In just a few minutes, you’ll notice your lips are visibly smoother, softer and more plump thanks to the deep hydration and gentle exfoliation given by the mask.

SPF

The UV Rays don’t stop doing damage once the summer comes to a close! No matter what time of the year, even in the winter, SPF is essential to keep your skin protected from one of the toughest environmental stressors on your skin. That’s why Dr. Kaplan formulated theDiamond Contour Broad Spectrum SPF30 Complete Complexion Treatment, so that you can easily get your SPF protection every single day without making your routine more complicated.

In addition to the Broad Spectrum SPF30 Complete Complexion Treatment protecting you from UV Rays, it feels weightless and smooth on your skin and in clinical trials, all participants felt the product was blended and had sheer coverage. In addition, 97% of them said their skin looked radiant, brighter, more smooth and plump when using it.

Skin Flooding for Moisture

With hydration being a huge focus in the winter, you may have heard of a recent trend called Skin Flooding. Though it might sound intense, it’s actually something that will benefit your skin greatly during the dry winter months.

Skin Flooding refers to layering various hydrating formulas atop one another in order to ‘flood’ your skin with moisture and hydration for healthy skin. Though Dr. Kaplan agrees that deep moisture is needed especially through the winter season, he has always believed that skin care can be kept simple. 

That’s why, using one or two skin-nourishing formulas that do what they promise and deeply hydrate, like theDiamond Contour Collagen Boosting Hydration Créme, will have the same positive effect as skin flooding with a number of products. Except this way, it’s less costly and keeps your skincare routine simple.

TheCellular Rejuvenating Concentrate is also essential for hydration. Using this as your serum will allow for deep hydration to complement the Hydration Créme since it is formulated with 50% concentration high and low molecular weight hyaluronic acid, which means you’ll have deep, long lasting hydration at both surface level and the cellular level of your skin.

Overnight Renewal & Repair

While you're sleeping, your skin is working hard at repairing itself from everything it faced during the day. This is why your nighttime routine is so important! In the winter, nighttime is the perfect time to feed skin nutrient-dense formulas that hydrate and repair all night long. 

Some products Dr. Kaplan recommends using for ideal overnight renewal and repair are the Diamond Contour Supercharged 1-Minute Daily Facial for gentle exfoliation, theDiamond Contour Collagen Boosting Hydration Créme for a deep long-lasting hydration and theDiamond Contour Intensive Anti-Aging Hand Treatment so that your hands that are exposed all day are able to repair overnight. 

Simplicity

2023 was the year where people finally started realizing that skincare doesn’t need to be complicated, you can have a simple routine and get incredible results – it’s all about the formula. Especially when winter hits, it’s imperative to continue this thinking and simply use formulas that are clinically-proven and work. If you decide to add more products to your routine, unfortunately that puts you at risk of skipping steps more often which can do more damage than good. 

By focusing on simplicity and using products like the ones Dr. Kaplan has developed, you can save time and money while not worrying about an exhaustive skincare routine.