Freez­ing Rain in Ottawa, Decem­ber 2012

Snow, ice, freez­ing rain and minus-way-too-cold tem­per­a­tures are the hall­marks of our Cana­dian win­ters. It’s get­ting chilly up there and we all feel like hiber­nat­ing these days!

Yet, we’d bet­ter enjoy the season—winter won’t be over any­time soon and it can actu­ally be a fun time of the year. Snowy land­scapes are beau­ti­ful, the sun shines on cold­est days and there are many fes­ti­vals to come such as Win­ter­lude.

Here are a few prod­ucts that should make your win­ter more enjoy­able. None of them are spon­sored links; just brands that I found worked well for me. Do share your favourite tips and brands in the comments!

For your lips — Your lips are exposed to the wind and the cold and can get very dry—I learned to always have some kind of lip balm in my bag. I like Burt’s Bee lip balms (some are tinted too!), you can find this pop­u­lar Amer­i­can brand at Wal­mart, Shop­pers Drug Mart, etc. and most lip balms are around $5. If you want to splurge, I def­i­nitely rec­om­mend the French Nuxe’s ultra-nourishing Rêve de miel which comes as a stick (about $7) or in jar (about $20). The honey smell is won­der­ful and it’s a great balm to leave overnight for very dry lips.

For your face — I’m a big fan of Nuxe’s prod­ucts. The very nour­ish­ing honey-scented Rêve de Miel (around $40) and the clas­sic Crème Fraîche de Beauté (around $45) are my favourite, and they last a long time so it’s a small invest­ment. I used to splurge on Shi­seido creams… but splurg­ing is the word here, their prod­ucts don’t come cheap and they are hard to find in Canada!

For your hands — For very dry hands, the best cream I found is Glysomed (around $4): the tex­ture is light, the cream is very nour­ish­ing and the smell isn’t too strong. Herbacine Kamille comes sec­ond, it’s a bit more expen­sive. To splurge, I head to The Body Shop and pick up the Almond Hand & Nail cream or the very nour­ish­ing Hemp Hand Pro­tec­tor (both $20 each). And don’t for­get your gloves in the first place! The iconic Red Mit­tens are always a use­ful and col­lectible hit ($10).

For your body — Nivea is always a good value with their exten­sive range of body milk lotions, you can find this brand just about anywhere—the Pure & Nat­ural (around $7) is my lat­est favourite for very dry skin. The Body Shop ‘s line of Body But­ter creams (around $20) is another favourite, although some fra­grances are very strong. To splurge, you can go with L’Occitane’s Almond Sup­ple Skin Oil ($45). Yes, it’ expen­sive but a bot­tle lasts for a while and it really helps dry skin. I used it a lot when I was preg­nant to pre­vent stretch marks (and I didn’t get any!).

For your feet — Before I even start putting on cream, I invest in a good pair of socks. Old Navy and Roots both sell very comfy plush “win­ter” socks. Ardene is also a good place to stock up on funky and comfy socks, I got 5 pairs for $10 recently. If your feet are very dry, Vase­line is a good inex­pen­sive way to mois­ture your skin. Neutrogena’s foot cream is also pop­u­lar and very effective.

What are your favourite prod­ucts to fight the win­ter blues?