Each season comes with its own annoying beauty challenges, and in the winter, chief among these is the frustration of tracking down the best makeup for dry skin. With the frigid air sucking moisture from your face, you need more than just a solid heavy-duty moisturizer if you want skin that glows and makeup that doesn’t flake—especially now that we’re dealing with chafing and irritation from masks on top of our regular seasonal dryness.
So we went to one of the best celebrity makeup artists in the game, Katie Jane Hughes, for her tips on how to apply makeup when your skin is dry and flaky. True to her excellent form, she let us in on exactly how she pulls off the incredible looks she demonstrates on Instagram, no matter what winter skin issues the season serves up. Her biggest tip: Your skin-care prep before putting on makeup is just as important as the concealer or foundation you use. Read on for Hughes’s advice, plus the best makeup for dry skin.
Cleanse With Micellar Water
During the winter, Hughes says she starts with a micellar water for both herself and the models she works with. The first step is always a few swipes with it on a cotton pad, which leaves your skin clean and free of makeup but not dried out (the danger with too-harsh cleansers—which is why foams are also great in the winter).
Get Rid of Flakes With a Peel Pad
If you’re exfoliating only at night, your life is about to get so much better. Hughes says that a quick, mini chemical peel in the morning is a crucial step, especially during the winter. She recommends a peel pad with glycolic acid, specifically Dr. Dennis Gross’s, to get rid of flakes and dry skin without the harshness of buffing exfoliants. Heads up: In the winter, go super easy around your nose, chin, and brows, where we tend to get most dry.
Mist Your Skin for Extra Hydration
It might feel counterintuitive, but applying moisturizer when your skin is wet actually helps it do its job better. The best way to do that? With a face mist. Hughes swears by Caudalie’s Beauty Elixir and Tatcha’s Luminous Dewy Skin Mist to get her face just slightly damp so her moisturizer has some hydration to lock in. It’s a small thing, but it makes all the difference when you’re heading out into a dry, cold wind.
Add a Heavy-Duty Moisturizer
Then we get to the key player: a thick, creamy moisturizer. Hughes recommends Glossier’s Rich Priming Moisturizer, and her technique is super interesting. If you put on moisturizer from the center of your face out (so, the classic dab on each cheek, T-zone, and chin), she says you’re actually doing more harm than good. We get oily in those spots first, so focusing moisturizer there leaves your makeup slipping away while the rest of your face gets dry. Instead, put on moisturizer starting from the edges of your face and working inward, toward your nose.
Use Eye Cream Before Concealer
Of the undereye trifecta of dark, puffy, and crepey, that last one gets the worst in cold weather. (Common sense: Fragile skin gets even more so in harsh conditions.) Eye cream is notoriously hit or miss, but Hughes says Sunday Riley’s is the rare one that delivers. And even with caffeine and horse chestnut in the formula, she says, it’s good for sensitive eyes: “I actually slept in it the other night, and I can’t sleep in any eye creams—I wake up really puffy. I didn’t look puffy with this one.” The effect is brightening and slightly pearly and leaves a layer of moisture that keeps your concealer from sinking into fine lines.
Keep a Dry-Spot Fixer Handy for Touch-Ups
It’s probably not the worst feeling in the world, but it’s up there. You’re washing your hands or reapplying lipstick, and bam: You see a dry patch. It’s rejecting foundation, it could be red, it’s just generally a nightmare. Hughes’s fix is Weleda’s green tube of Skin Food, a thick, super-moisturizing cream that your face drinks up. She says to massage it onto dry patches (and flaky zits), and you’ll be set. The cream’s so moisturizing that it bounces light away and minimizes the spot, so people’s eyes slide right over it.
Dab On an Ultra-Creamy Concealer
If you’ve ever seen Hughes’s Instagram, you know she’s gung-ho about the power of concealer. Foundation can easily skew cakey in dry weather, so she says most days she reaches for Glossier’s Stretch concealer for allover coverage. She compares the creamy consistency to a solid tinted moisturizer, so if you’re looking for more glowy luster than serious pigment, it’s the pick.
Another concealer Hughes swears by, particularly for midday touch-ups? Laura Mercier. If she notices base makeup starting to separate, she puts Skin Food everywhere with her moisturizing-outside-in technique, then buffs the concealer all over with a brush. The concealer’s heaviness will get sheered down, so it’ll still cover what you need and stay smooth the rest of the day.
Use an Eyeshadow Brush to Put on Concealer
For getting concealer to really sink in and look natural, Hughes skips traditional concealer brushes. Flat brushes can make your concealer look streaky, so she uses a MAC 217 eye shadow brush instead. Any fluffy eye shadow brush would work, she says, since it’ll get into every angle around your nose and eyes to blend.
