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The Ultimate Guide to Preventing Windburn Damage on Your Skin

woman standing in the wind

There is nothing like feeling the fresh air on your face during a windy day. However, it’s crucial to remember that as beautiful as nature can be, it can often harm our skin. Windburn is one of those risks we face while enjoying the outdoors. It can be painful, irritating, and damaging to our skin. In this post, we will share different ways you can protect your skin from windburn and keep your skin looking fresh and healthy.

What is Windburn?

Windburn is a type of injury that occurs when the skin is exposed to cold and harsh winds. Just like sunburn, windburn can cause redness, inflammation, and even blisters on your skin. The cold and dryness of the wind quickly strip your skin’s natural moisture, leaving it dry and sensitive. Windburn is often mistaken for sunburn because the symptoms are quite similar.

What are the Symptoms of Windburn?

The symptoms of windburn are easy to spot. They include:

  • redness
  • dryness
  • sensitive skin
  • inflamed skin
  • peeling,
  • itching and
  • even pain.

Once you notice these symptoms, it’s essential to provide your skin with the care it needs to heal.

windburn skin symptoms

Distinguishing Windburn from Sunburn: How to Tell the Difference

Although windburn and sunburn may seem interchangeable, there are some subtle distinctions to take note of. One of the most immediate differences is when the symptoms are experienced. Windburn predominantly surfaces during periods of cold, blustery weather due to the skin being excessively dry and irritated.

On the other hand, sunburn is commonly caused by lengthy exposure to unprotected sunlight. Interestingly, windburn is less significant during the summer months when the winds are calmer, but sunburn can occur at any time of year. However, it is essential to realize that even with sunscreen, Windburn can still occur, whereas sunburn is prevented with proper sunscreen application.

How to Protect Your Skin from Windburn?

Protecting your skin from windburn is not only about anticipating it, but it is also about preparation. Before stepping out, make sure that your skin has a good layer of sunscreen. Although you may not see the sun, the UV rays get through the clouds and can affect your skin.

Moreover, using a humidifier or air purifier can help maintain moisture levels, which are crucial in keeping your skin healthy during the wind season.

One of the best ways to prevent windburn is by avoiding prolonged exposure to the wind. Whenever you are going to be outside, it’s always helpful to ensure you have a scarf or a hat to cover your face. Additionally, putting on an oil-based moisturizer or balm can act as a barrier and shield your skin from the harsh winds.

Protect your skin barrier

Your skin is your body’s first line of defense against daily assaults like pollution, UV rays, and wind. When wind exposure damages your skin’s outer barrier, it weakens its protective powers. To keep your skin strong and healthy,

-stick to your skincare routine of cleansing, toning, and moisturizing daily

– make sure the products you use actually penetrate the skin’s surface to provide the moisture it needs.

– if you notice any redness or inflammation, act quickly to avoid damaging your skin’s barrier. Because when your skin is compromised, it’s more vulnerable to everything that hits it – including harmful UV rays.

skincare ingredient texture

The Importance of the Skin Barrier

Maintaining a healthy skin barrier is key to achieving glowing and hydrated skin. This thin layer of cells acts as a shield, keeping moisture in and environmental irritants out. However, damaging factors like allergens, irritants, pollutants, sun exposure, alkaline detergents, an unbalanced diet, lack of hydration, and sleep can weaken the skin barrier, leading to dryness, sensitivity, and conditions such as eczema. If your skin lacks its natural glow and appears unhealthy, it may indicate a damaged skin barrier, which can be further indicated by breakouts, redness, rashes, and cracks. Thankfully, restoring the barrier function can help mitigate these symptoms and restore the skin back to its healthy state.

The Best Skincare Ingredients to Treat Windburn

If your skin has already been damaged by the wind, don’t worry. There are still ways to treat it.  A few great ingredients that can soothe and calm down wind-burned skin include aloe, shea butter, chamomile, and vitamin E. You can also try using an ointment with hydrocortisone. All of these ingredients have healing properties that can help restore your skin to its natural state.

Metabiotic skincare to the rescue

Metabiotics are 2nd generation probiotics, a mixture of natural hyaluronic acid, lactic acid, peptides, enzymes, and other organic compounds. A specific metabiotic enzyme called SMase has a specialized role in producing the protein sphingomyelin. This protein is a building block of ceramides, essential molecules for skin barrier integrity.

The time it takes to improve your skin barrier depends on how sensitive your skin is and how damaged it is. Overall, it might take from 2 weeks to two months to get your skin back to normal. As the skins hydration levels improve so will the skins health

Final note

Windburn can cause painful and irritating symptoms, but with a few precautionary steps, you can prevent it from damaging your skin. Remember always to cover your face during windy days and apply proper sunscreen. Additionally, keeping your skin hydrated with appropriate moisturizers and skincare ingredients can help your skin cope with the harsh nature elements. So, go ahead, enjoy nature any time of the year, and take necessary measures to protect your skin at all times.

About author

Selma Durmo M. Pharm

“As far as I can remember I have always struggled with sensitive skin. The issues culminated in my mid-twenties when I started having rosacea flares and redness. My personal quest for effective, safe solutions took a professional turn, and I was given the opportunity to apply my (Pharma) background in developing a new skin friendly product line. My goal was to create something new, a clinically proven sustainable skincare brand. This science backed probiotic skincare derived technology is a product of years of research and innovation in personal care products. Metabiotics contain naturally produced hyaluronic acid, lactic acid, SMase, lipoteichoic acid, over 40 peptides and enzymes. All assigned with specific tasks for activating the skins native repair mechanisms.” 

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Clean

Following the principles of Clean Beauty, we have joined the dedicated stream of safe, non-toxic beauty enthusiasts.

Our products contain carefully selected hypoallergenic ingredients suitable for sensitive and reactive skin.

We’re committed to formulating with natural, organically-derived, and skin-friendly synthetics while excluding popular “good feeling” and potentially harmful compounds to provide the best skincare solutions.

“It is easy to get hooked on conventional products, with inviting perfumes and the instantly pleasant skin feeling. The sooner you understand that those sensations are short-lived the better! Choose Clean Beauty and allow the science backed ingredients time to work wonders on your skin.”

Cinically proven

Our products’ superiority has been proven in a controlled study on 50 volunteers where it was shown that four-week product use leads to a significant increase in skin moisture levels (39%), increased skin elasticity (50%), and a decrease in the appearance of wrinkles (23%).

Other beneficial effects include decrease in skin sensitivity, increase in skin cleanliness, evenness of the skin tone, decrease in acne formation.

This study serves as proof of the skin’s gradual return of its protective layer, integrity, and balance. All study results have been published in a peer reviewed journal as well as the full study report.

“Putting all science aside, we are most proud of our users’ testimonials. All tested volunteers claimed visible and tangible improvement in skin feel and appearance.”

Transparency

The greatest breakthrough discovery we stumbled upon is that skincare and cosmetics should not be sensational.

Personal care should be comprehensive, accessible, and efficient, just as all solutions that come from nature are.

We are often faced with labels such as anti aging skin care, organic skin care, natural skincare products, which lack the necessary explanation… What do these phrases actually mean?

“Grown tired of all the misleading, incomprehensive, irrelevant information used in the beauty industry we decided to stick to a no-nonsense approach. It is what it is, and skin care is not magic! It requires commitment, patience and understanding your skins’ needs.”

Sustainable

We are dedicated to neutralizing our negative impact on the environment as much as possible and have joined the stream of sustainable skincare brands. We’re taking you on for the ride (we’ve even packed the goodies)!

To help minimize our carbon footprint, for every product order a tree will be planted thanks to our amazing planters at One Tree Planted. It’s estimated that a mature tree nullifies around 20lbs of CO2 a year.

We’re doing our best to reuse, reduce and recycle. Wishing to inspire a circular economy we have partnered up, to create a customized recycling program. Collect three empty plastic packages to receive your Anbiome Recycling Envelope and follow the instructions on how to take part in our recycling mission. 

Your good deed shall be rewarded. For every three products recycled you receive one product gift!

Technology

Today’s trends in skincare require the use of synthetic active ingredients which interact with the skin. Our approach is to distinguish natural alternatives, which mimic the skins native repair mechanism and are more efficient and ecologically sound.

Translating solutions from nature into industrial settings is hardly an easy task, but it’s one we enjoy undertaking.

We have screened 500+ different wild probiotic strains from the nature, to find the most powerful ones.

Special fermentation process was developed to harvest powerful molecules (HA, LTA, SMase, LA and 40 peptides).

Result is the composition of native signal components and molecules that keep the skin balanced, healthy and protected.