SCIENCE

Dry winter skin? These 4 natural ingredients can help.

Supercharge your skin care routine in the driest days of the years with common ingredients that alleviate the flaking and itching that comes with winter.

a woman with a black winter jacket and a large, fur trimmed hood exposes her face to the sun with her eyes closed. There are snow covered mountains and trees in the background.

Winter can be hard on skin, whether outside in the biting wind or in the dry heat of home. But there are common remedies that might even be in your refrigerator that can refresh and restore skin.

Photograph by Francesco Riccardo Iacomino, Getty Images

ByEditors of National Geographic

February 7, 2024

With minute receptors for touch, pressure, and pain, skin is a sensor, monitoring the body’s surroundings and everything it contacts. With tiny blood vessels, sweat glands, and hairs, skin also acts as a thermostat, ready to release heat or conserve it to regulate body temperature.

Skin is also a watertight barrier, the first line of defense against the outside world. For all its toughness, however, skin can be easily harmed in everyday life, and especially when exposed to heat, sun, and the dry air of winter.

As ancient healers did, modern herbalists still turn to plants to cleanse, heal, and soothe the skin. Here are four ingredients that can help skin retain moisture during times of dryness.

Avocado

Rich in oil and vitamins, avocado is an old remedy for soothing skin irritations and moisturizing dry skin. Some use avocado to relieve symptoms of psoriasis, eczema, and athlete’s foot, although more scientific research needs to be done to fully support those claims.

Avocados are native to Central and South America, where people have been growing them for millennia. The fatty fruit can be used to make skin care treatments at home. Skin and hair care products containing avocado are widespread as well. For dry skin, mash a few slices of ripe avocado and apply it directly to the skin. Leave on for 20 minutes, and then rinse clean.

Calendula

An aerial view of a hand is holding a glass jar filled with small, narrow, yellow and orange petals with a few green pieces here and there. — These calendula flowers, picked by a member of the Mohawk Nation for medicinal purposes, can be used externally or internally, in an ointment or a tea.
Photograph by Kiliii Yuyan, Nat Geo Image Collection

Herbalists recommend calendula lotions, creams, and ointments for chapped skin, eczema, minor cuts and burns, diaper rash, insect bites, hemorrhoids, athlete’s foot, and varicose veins. Taken internally, calendula may relieve throat infections, improve digestion, and heal gastric and duodenal ulcers. Recently, calendula topical ointment has been shown to help prevent dermatitis in breast cancer patients undergoing radiation.

Calendula is cultivated in gardens worldwide from subarctic regions to the tropics. The flowers and the whole plant are used in herbal medicine. The whole plant is harvested fresh for tinctures and extracts. Usually the dried flower heads are used in teas. For topical preparations, Extracts are incorporated into many skin products: soaps, creams, ointments, salves, and lotions with various concentrations of calendula. Apply preparations three to four times daily to heal minor skin conditions.

Coconut

Coconut oil is a great natural remedy for all sorts of skin problems: dry skin, itchiness, athlete’s foot, ringworm, diaper rash, and eczema. The oil contains lauric acid, which gives it antiviral and antifungal properties. One other promising area is hair care, and studies have shown coconut oil to be very effective in getting rid of lice.

Coconuts grow on palm trees found in tropical areas all over the world. Scientists believe that they were first cultivated in two main locations: the islands in Southeast Asia and the coast and coastal islands of India. Some coconut oil labels describe it as “virgin,” but note that, unlike olive oil, no industry standard exists for that term. It generally means that the oil is unprocessed. Coconut oil can be stored at room temperature without spoiling. It will solidify below 76°F. For skin care, take a dime-size amount of coconut oil and massage daily into your hands, arms, legs, and feet.

Oatmeal

A scrub of oatmeal is one of the healthiest ways to care for your skin. Natural healers promote oats to help soothe the skin from skin ailments including itchiness, dryness, oiliness, eczema, dermatitis, bug bites, and poison ivy. Oats soothe skin inflammation with a group of compounds called avenanthramides, which block the release of inflammatory compounds and histamines to reduce redness and itching. Oats also have antiviral and antifungal properties, which makes them useful in fighting the itch from chicken pox, shingles, and ringworm.

Oatmeal in many forms is readily available in any grocery store. It can be found in soaps, shampoos, ointments, and lotions. In the skin care aisle, you can find already prepared finely ground colloidal oatmeal (like Aveeno) available for purchase.