In need of some SD acne wisdom--cold weather problem

Factual Questions
1

I’ve seen quite a few posts here about various acne troubles so I thought this would be the appropriate place for my query. I don’t have acne, actually, but uncharacteristically cold winter weather (for my part of the country) has caused some unsavory blemishes to appear where they aren’t wanted. Tea tree oil seems to do the trick, BUT…my skin is now all tight and kind of flaky. This is not acceptable. I’m afraid a heavy-duty moisturizer will only breed more blemishes and start a vicious cycle of breaking out, clearing up, and peeling. Do people in cold climates have a remedy for this? One, say, that won’t cost me too much money?

2

Might I suggest a two step process.

  1. Exfoliate - This will take care of the flakiness. Those flakes are currently only exacerbating your blemishes. A gentle face scrub will do the trick. St. Ives is always a good choice for their product and price.
    Try their Apricot Scrub which is available in most drug stores.

  2. Moisturize – Again I bow to the altar of St. Ives. I don’t see it on their site, but there was once an oil-free moisturizer that was wonderful. Now I use Eucerin Daily Control and Care Moisturizer which supposedly unclogs your pores. It’s a wee bit expensive, but I find it’s worth it.

I have very sensitive blemish prone skin and these work for me, but YMMV.

3

I’ll second Mogwei’s suggestion and add a bit that helps for me (late 20’s male)

I do this at the end of my shower.

  1. Exfoliate (in shower, warm to hot water)
  2. Cleanse (in shower, warm to hot water)
  3. Rinse (in shower, coolish water)
  4. Moisterize (right after shower)
    My wife taught me that procedure and it cleared up my acne within a week. The rinsing with cold water helps close up yur pores. The Moisterizer helps keep down the oils your body produces.

I think I’m using Bath and body Works “Three Ring Citrus” for an exfoliater and Aveeno stuff for cleanser and moisterizer.

Be careful with the moisterizer tho, you want the stuff WITHOUT alcohols in it (look for products without ingrediants with ol endings). We got free samples of this pricey stuff (aveda i think) and it was horrible. Had like 2 or three alcohols in it. dryed up my skin something horrible.