I don't need a rainbow family... I have skincare

Hear me out before you think I've gone off the deep end from working in windowless solitude 15 floors above humanity. I'm no madder than before, just agonising over posts lately. There's a backlog, you see, and the more projects I pick up (I can't feed myself on mascara and pixels and, if you didn't know, few beauty blogs are yet awash with advertising $£$£), the less precious minutes there are dedicated to das blog, esp. as it battles with husband, exercise (not a natural part of life in the Land of Lincoln, requiring a gym. French women would get fat here), the siren call of the wine cellar... Many things.

Anyway, I got to thinking lately that, really, there isn't any good reason I must segment my thoughts on the skincare gracing my bathroom, because I don't in practice either. I have a very hard time understanding (other than for revenue purposes) why brands swear you shouldn't stray and use -- gasp! -- products from different ranges all that the same time. There should be little harm if used interchangeably or, even, at once... my theory goes that they should, really, enhance each other (the unspoken exception is for 'sloughing' or acidic solutions... probably don't mix those together).

Never have I found this all-embracing attitude towards skincare more effective than with moisturisers. There's no reason (especially if a beauty editor with a bounty of beauty at your fingertips) not to customise your products and embrace the chaos of the extended skincare family. For the last month I've been concocting a powerhouse winter moisturiser in my bathroom-cum-lab every day because my skin is DRY (I mean, can't wear foundation because it sits atop my molting skin dry, more desicated than a mummy dry). At first, I tried using the three moisturisers separately, searching for anything to make the taut gossamer sheen, that telltale sign of supreme dryness, disappear. Alone, each performed okay but, alas, the complexion became ashy and red before too long, no matter how closely I sat next to the humidifier.

Starting in October, I had already also switched to cleansing solely with balms (a hybrid, this time of REN-The Organic Pharmacy-Emma Hardie) at night, using just a splash of warm water in the morning and applying said powerhouse moisturiser (detailed below) the rest of the time... and things seem to be going well for now (we'll get to the, I believe, unrelated outbreak of winter adult acne and bacne later). What's in the mix? Read on to find out...

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5 hand balms for bitter winter weather

Every year, in the non-equatorial world, it gets cold. When it;s cold, it's dry. And almost immediately, my skin starts to crack and itch. Set the clocks back and cuticles start to peel away on cue, finger webbing gets all ashy and the backs of my hands age years. It's a hot look... not really. It's distracting and painful, mostly. I run several humidifiers at full whack in the house but can't stuff one in my bag for the road so hand balm it is when away from the tropical confines of my living room. Don't leave home without one of these five balms this winter (and if you happen to live in the Southern Hemisphere, start stock piling now for autumnal climes to come). While not all of these are necessarily hand balms, all come in sizes small enough to pop into your handbag without a problem. Find out which five work best in winter weather...

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Buy beauty in bulk: Bliss Body Butter

Miss Malcontent is pretty spot-on (heh) with her assesment of Bliss being a brand that makes better body products than facial ones. The product that seems to get the most mileage? The Body Butter. And for those of you who do use it regularly, they've just launched a humongous 'Pro' size... it's like buying your beauty products at Sam's Club. The 32 ounce tub is $79 dollars in the states. The 8.5 ounce tube is $35. If you're really into economising and you know you're going to splurge on this stuff every month anyway, do yourself a favour and pay $2.47 an ounce instead of $4.12 an ounce. That's a savings worth buying in bulk for.