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Winters never fail to expose our limits. Chapped lips. Little red patches that show up the moment life gets a degree colder than we expected. Your skin never lies.

Every January, dermatologists issue reminders about moisture, SPF, barrier repair but beneath all that science sits something far more human: We’re not meant to stay the same all year. And our routines shouldn’t either.

#Edition10 isn’t really about skincare. It’s about the moment you notice dryness, on your face or in your life, and choose nourishment instead of ignoring it.

Inside this edition:
🍃 Winter Skin Never Lies: The Rituals That Actually Save You
📚 What she’s reading, listening & shoping this week
🗞 5 headlines shaping women’s world
🧰 One ritual to help you refill
✨ Her Spotlight

Take what you need. Leave what you don’t. And let’s talk ‘Winter Skin.’

Cold air pulls moisture from the skin the same way long weeks pull energy from the body. Everything feels thinner, tighter, more reactive.

Your summer routine will not survive a winter. So here’s the good news - you don’t need a 12-step overhaul. Just a few smart swaps, that dermatologists swear by, that make winter feel less like a fight and more like a practice.

Below, the six mistakes almost everyone makes and the small winter-corrections that actually work: 

☀️ Skipping SPF because “it’s winter”

UV rays do not take seasonal breaks. Snow reflects them. Altitude magnifies them. Winter’s thinner ozone layer lets more through. Dermatologists say winter sun damage is one of the top drivers of dullness and pigmentation.

Fix: A sheer mineral SPF with squalane or vitamin E. Think: smoothing balm + sunscreen + barrier support in one.

🧼 Over-cleansing (foamy summer face washes)

Winter skin doesn’t need “squeaky clean.” It needs intact. Foaming cleansers strip oils you desperately need this time of year. A hydrating cream-to-foam or non-foaming cleanser protects your lipid barrier while still dissolving makeup and sunscreen.

Fix: A cream cleanser with ceramides + amino acids so your face feels tended to, not tight.

🧴 Ignoring your skin barrier until it’s already angry

Windburn, retinol irritation, heater dryness. Multi-week assault on your barrier.

Fix: La Roche-Posay B5 family with madecassoside + panthenol. Use it on flaky spots, around the nose, on stressed patches, or as an overnight seal on top of your moisturizer - “a puffer coat for your skin,” and honestly… correct.

🧪 Keeping the same lightweight summer moisturizer

Your skin’s moisture needs double in winter. But most people don’t, so dehydration shows up as dullness, tightness, and breakouts.

Fix: A triple-lipid or peptide-ceramide cream that mimics your natural moisture barrier - cushiony, deeply repairing.

🚿 Scalding-hot showers ( No moisture sealing afterward) 

Long, hot showers feel emotional in winter. But they strip the skin’s protective oils in seconds.

Fix: After your shower, don’t fully towel dry. Apply a hyaluronic acid body gel cream directly on damp skin so the water gets trapped, not evaporated.

💋 Forgetting your lips & hands (first places to crack)

Winter is brutal on thin-skin areas. Derms almost unanimously agree on one product family: petrolatum-based healing ointments.

Fix: Keep a travel-size multitasker in your coat for lips, knuckles, elbows, cuticles. Anywhere your skin is whispering “please moisturize me.”

A winter routine is a grounding ritual.
🌨️ And maybe that’s the quiet power of winter skincare: It reminds you that small, consistent nourishment is how you survive the cold, inside and out.

💬 Ideas to tune into when the world’s too loud.

📚 Read: The Year of “Quiet” Colors—and Why Women Aren’t Buying It
Last week’s edition took an accidental trip. If you missed it, here’s your clean second chance → Open it when you want a reset that actually lands.

🎧 Play: Women of Pop — Spotify
A celebratory mix featuring Sabrina Carpenter, Amber Mark, and Ravyn Lenae. I used it at the gym today and suddenly everything felt lighter, cheekier, more doable → Press play when you want your pace to feel fun again.

🛍️ Try: Just Margo’s Size-Adjustable, Multiway Clothing
Clothes that shift with you across seasons, sizes, and eras of your life. Minimal waste, thoughtful cuts, and slow fashion fits you can wear many different ways → For anyone craving a closet that honors who you are now and who you’re becoming.

✨ Let these be your reset you missed, rhythm that moves you, and a way of dressing that meets you where you are.

🧰 Her Toolkit

✨ Winter Refill List for December and beyond

When I first went to the gym years ago, progress came slowly, painfully slowly, and the only thing that kept me going was a friend who taught me the magic of tiny, frequent rewards. Micro-wins to survive a long journey.

This ritual borrows ✨her wisdom✨

Step 1: Open your Notes app.

Step 2: Write down three things that refill you in under 10 minutes.

Not things that “should” help. Things that actually help.

A warm mug, a sunlit corner, a 7-minute walk, a heating pad, two pages of a comfort book, anything…

Step 3: Moving on, pick one item from your list each day and forget the rest.

✨ Micro-replenishment beats macro-burnout every time.

5 stories shaping the week for women everywhere.

🔥 A New Cancer Driver: Estrone, produced in fat tissue after menopause, is now linked to aggressive ER+ breast cancer and GLP-1 drugs may help slow it.
🕊️ Everard Inquiry Exposes Failures: Sarah Everard’s mother speaks of “rage, panic and guilt” as a new report warns predators still move freely.
🏛️ Women Lose Ground in New Jersey: Next year’s legislature will have fewer women, a sharp reminder that political progress is never guaranteed.
🌍 Melinda French Gates on Truth: “Live a truthful life, then you don’t have any secrets.” Gates also calls out the chronic underfunding of women’s health.
⚖️ Supreme Court Signals Support for Anti-Abortion Centers: Justices appear ready to shield crisis pregnancy centers from state oversight on donor records.

Found her. Loved her. Needed you to see her.

Lisa Cook is the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve Board & did what no Fed governor has ever done: She beat a president who tried to illegally fire her. Trump came at her with baseless mortgage-fraud accusations. She took him to court. She won. Twice. And she’s still in her seat. The irony? Those same mortgage “crimes” he accused her of, he literally did himself (see above).

✨ If you’ve ever been targeted at work for being simply impossible to intimidate, Lisa Cook is your reminder: You’re allowed to stand your ground. And win.

If this edition made you choose some warmth, Tuesdays and Fridays will take you further — with stories that make your winters a little less harsh. 

✨ P.S. Know someone who needs this love and warmth? Send her weekly download. Because the best kind of wisdom is the one we pass woman to woman → Send it her way

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