Once the cold weather hits and the heaters come on the air dries up very quickly. With that comes dry skin, chapped lips, and cracked heels and cuticles. I have a few favorite remedies I want to share.

For dry skin there is nothing better than a super thick body butter.  It’s best to put on straight out of the shower.  That way you lock in all the moisture that you can.  If you get those skin bumpies on your upper arms use a moisturizer with Glycolic Acid.

For chapped lips you just have to treat them like the rest of your face. Exfoliate and then moisturize. You can make an at home sugar scrub with a little bit of olive oil and brown sugar.   Then moisturize with chapstick, vasseline, or a thick moisturizing lip balm.

For your face just moisturize!  Do not wash your face a lot.  If you break out chances are it’s dry skin, not excessive oil.  Exfoliate, gently, and moisturize.  I like to use anti-aging moisturizers.  Their thick non greasy formula is great for combination skin and they’re not too heavy.

Painful cracked heels are number one on my list of most despised ailments. Easy fix though. Slather your feet in good ole vasseline and shove ‘em into a pair of thick socks. Come morning your tootsies will be as soft as a babies backside. This works on your hands too. Vasseline works just as well as the creams and special gloves and socks you can buy at a bath and body store. Much more wallet friendly too.

Just a few helpful tips to keep from flaking to pieces during this fall and winter season.

One of the hot trends this fall is a jade green mani.  It’s all over the place.  Chanel built their entire jade collection around it.  Seeing the color all over the place, I started to wonder how wearable it really was for an average Jane.  While I was eager to give it a try, I was not eager to pay nearly $30 for a bottle of it.

Thank goodness for a cheapie drug store version.

So I snagged me a bottle of $2 shiny jade green nail polish and went to work.  I believe the key to pulling this off is keeping your nails short and filed to a naturally round shape.

At first I was afraid that it might come off looking like moss colored fungus was taking over my nails and that I wouldn’t dare wear it out of the house.  But surprisingly, the color looks pretty good.  The real test was wearing to work and hanging out.  I kept my outfit pretty simple.  Wide leg jeans and a gray cardigan.  It worked, sort of.

While it was certainly a fun color to wear for a day, I felt like I was 13 again and painting my nails a different wild color every few days.  Maybe I’m just not adventurous enough to pull off a green manicure.  I would wear it again though, I think.