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As the weather cools, it becomes increasingly important to nourish and protect your skin – especially here on the Gold Coast, where the sun is still brutal in winter. For winter skincare tips, we spoke to licensed aesthetician Danielle.

“I’ve worked in all types of beauty salons, from wax parlours to luxury day spas and boutique salons,” says Danielle. “My area of expertise is result-driven, ethical beauty treatments and skincare. We recognise the need for educating our clients about preventative and corrective skincare – we want to make sure they leave feeling pampered, but also with a better understanding of the skin concerns that brought them to us in the first place.”

As we head into winter, what skin concerns are your clients coming in to treat?

There are several skincare concerns that crop up in winter, from congestion and sun damage to rosacea. These concerns can present as uneven skin tone, texture, flaky skin, redness and bumps on the surface and underneath the outermost layer of skin.

We see a lot of dry skin at this time of year. The cold weather can strip the skin of its natural oils, especially for those who don’t exfoliate regularly (or, ironically, exfoliate too often). The changes in temperature, stress levels and your skincare routine during the winter can also cause acne flare-ups and rosacea, a skin condition causing redness, swelling and bumps on the face.

What steps should we be taking to prepare our skin for winter?

Step One: Cleanse

It’s essential that you cleanse without stripping away your skin’s invisible natural shield if you want to maintain a flawless complexion. Use a good quality cleanser for 30 to 60 seconds in the morning, and 60 to 120 seconds at night.

A double cleanse with a PH-balanced cleanser is ideal at night – a single cleanse will remove the day’s impurities (makeup, excess sebum, etc.) so the second cleanse can allow the active ingredients to penetrate the skin and remove excess residue. All without removing any natural oils!

Foam and oil cleansers on their own can disrupt your acid mantel, part of the delicate matrix that creates a healthy skin barrier. The acid mantle’s main job is to keep the good stuff in (moisture) and the bad stuff out (bacteria and other pollutants).

Step Two: Exfoliate (sometimes)

Exfoliating twice a week will help to remove the dead skin cells that can build up on your skin over time. This build-up can block your pores, trapping the sebum, dirt and oil which contribute to uneven texture and skin tone. You can have the most expensive serum in the world but if you don’t exfoliate, it won’t penetrate.

In terms of treatments, one of my top winter skincare tips is to get a dermabrasion once every four to 12 weeks. At home, use a gentle exfoliant (our gentle hydro-polish exfoliant can be used for all skin types) at night. Twice a week is sufficient – over-exfoliating is just as bad as not exfoliating at all.

Step Three: Moisturise

Hydration is essential to combating winter skin concerns. As the weather gets colder and drier, it’s important to use a stable moisturiser to prevent dryness, itchiness and flaking – all without clogging your pores. Moisturising oils are preferable in winter for this very reason, but molecular weight and formulation is important. Don’t just slap coconut oil on your face!

Step Four: Protect

Even in winter, it’s essential that you use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30+. Sunscreen won’t just protect your skin from harmful UVA (aging) and UVB (burning) rays, but also any blue light damage that can come from our screens. Ongoing research is being done into the degree of blue light damage to our skin over long periods of time. Remember: protection is better than correction!

Also, one of my most simple winter skincare tips is to wear a hat, scarf and gloves to protect your skin from harsh wind.

What ingredients should we look for when buying winter skincare?

• Hyaluronic Acid: This naturally occurring ingredient acts as a humectant, attracting and retaining water to hydrate and plump the skin. It’s gentle enough to use morning and night and is commonly found in skincare products. In addition to improving texture and wound healing, hyaluronic acid helps to maintain barrier function and reduce trans-epidermal water loss, making it a useful ingredient for all skin types.
• Ceramides: These naturally occurring lipids or fats are a crucial component of the stratum corneum (our skin’s outermost layer) – but, as we age, our natural production of ceramides decreases, leading to dryness and sensitivity. Adding ceramides to your routine helps to strengthen your barrier function, maintain hydration, reduce inflammation and help to soothe and calm irritated or inflamed skin.
• Jojoba: There are so many reasons to love jojoba oil. It’s an excellent moisturizer, leaving your skin soft and supple, and is also anti-Inflammatory, making it particularly useful for people with eczema and psoriasis. It’s also non-comedogenic (meaning it won’t clog your pores) and is rich in antioxidants like vitamin E that help protect against environmental stressors.
• Retinaldehyde: Retinoids are one of the most proven skincare ingredients, with numerous research studies confirming their capability to support skin health, boost collagen production and fight blemishes. They work by increasing cell turnover and supporting collagen production – but not all retinoids are created equal. Retinaldehyde is more immediately effective than other retinoids. Always start on the lowest percentage and applying at night, building up your tolerance gradually to avoid irritation. Try alternating days between use with other active serums, starting on the night you exfoliate. Complete with a layer of moisturizer after one to five minutes to seal in hydration and prevent flakiness.
• Zinc: Never skip SPF! Zinc occurs naturally in our body – we have over 100 different enzymes that use it to function properly, and 60 percent of them are on the surface of our skin. Our skin is craving this beautiful ingredient to assist in protecting and correcting from premature aging.

Click here to read Danielle’s take on some common winter skincare myths.

For better or for worse, the Gold Coast has a reputation when it comes to cosmetic procedures. There’s a certain look we’re associated with (you know the one) – but is the stereotype accurate? And if so, are the trends changing? We asked an expert.

Sylvia Crouch is the founder of Angel Aesthetics, a Biggera Waters clinic that offers treatments like dermal filler, skin needling and anti-wrinkle. She’s been a registered nurse for five years and counts popular influencers like Anna Paul and Lily Brown among her clients.

“When it comes to current trends, Anna is a big influence,” says Sylvia. “She’s one of the few people who openly talk about getting their lips done.”

It’s true – back in 2020, Anna went so far as to document the process of getting her lip filler dissolved after it had started to migrate throughout her face (the result of dodgy treatments at cheaper clinics, she said). Sylvia was the one who dissolved Anna’s filler to help her start from scratch.

“I feel like we’re not getting as much of the fake look anymore,” says Sylvia. “People used to want the full, overdone lips – now it’s much more conservative. Ideally people shouldn’t be able to tell that you’ve had filler.”

The trend towards subtlety has many of Sylvia’s clients opting for non-surgical rhinoplasty over traditional nose jobs. It takes 10 minutes, Sylvia says, and requires essentially no down time, but can completely straighten the nose and even lift the tip.

“You usually need a touch up at six months, then just once a year,” she adds. “More people are learning about it in Australia – doctors and nurses were scared to do it because there’s a risk of blindness. It’s very rare and has only ever happened twice in Australia, but it is a high-risk area because it’s where the arteries for the back of your eye are.”

Educating people about the risks of popular cosmetic treatments is important to Sylvia.

“People will trust their injectors, and every injector has a different opinion,” she says.

Take the ‘fox eye’ surgery, for example. Made famous by Bella Hadid – who didn’t necessarily have the surgery, but has been credited with popularising the look it aims to achieve – the surgery lifts and repositions the outer corner of the eye using threads.

“I would never do the fox eye trend because the threads can snap, and you have to get them surgically removed,” says Sylvia. “But I might say one thing, and the next injector might say something else.”

It’s easy to see why people opt to trust their injectors – in the case of fox eye surgery it’s nearly impossible to find reliable, unbiased information about its risks online. Almost every ‘article’ has been published by clinics promoting service, while Instagram and TikTok are splashed with videos and photos of surgeries.

“It’s the same thing with Russian lips, which so many people do even though it’s dangerous and there’s migration,” says Sylvia. “Even dermal filler can lead to infection, and we’ve noticed quite a few reactions called delayed onset nodules where your body attacks the filler.”

It can happen if you’ve been sick – or, if you’ve had a recent vaccination.

“We’ve brought that into our consultations,” says Sylvia. “We won’t inject anyone if they’ve had a vaccine in the last two to four weeks, depending on the circumstances.”

Looking ahead, Sylvia expects that the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s (AHPRA) crackdown on the industry will have a big impact on the trends we’ll see.

“From July 1 we’ll have to do body dysmorphia screenings for all clients,” says Sylvia. “We’ll have to give them a questionnaire that asks things like ‘How often do you look at yourself in the mirror?’ and ‘How often do you deliberately check your features?’.

“If we find that anyone has body dysmorphia, we’ll refer them to a psychologist. There are also rules coming in that will require cosmetic surgery patients to get a referral from a GP.”

The changes are both good and bad, Sylvia says. The guidelines will prohibit the promotion of brand names in advertising, which Sylvia says will restrict how they educate clients about the treatments.

With new products coming onto the market all the time, this could prevent clients from making informed decisions – especially if their injector doesn’t have their best interests at heart.

“There’s a new filler called Profhilo that’s only just hit the Australian market, which is also known as liquid honey,” says Sylvia. “It’s concentrated hyaluronic acid that is injected in five spots on each side of the face, which then spreads throughout the face as you animate to lessen wrinkles.

“It won’t add contour or shape or definition, but it offers a natural plumping look back into the skin. We’ve already had a couple of people coming in to ask about it.”

Could this be the end of the Gold Coast’s reputation for overdone cosmetic treatments? We’ll have to wait and see.