Christmas fever is already here. However, for those who suffer from common chronic skin conditions such as acne, rosacea, psoriasis, eczema and cold sores, that Christmas fever can quickly turn into a Christmas flare up.

Stuffy heated environments indoors, cold biting winds outdoors, increased alcohol, a change in diet and less sleep plus the increased stress of travel plans, gift-shopping and large family gatherings are all triggers for an uncomfortable Christmas skin flare.

Add to that new cosmetics, skincare products and perfumes that often comes as gifts at Christmas and your skin could be dreading Christmas this year.

Dermatologist Dr Eva Melegh gives 12 steps to calmer and clearer Christmas skin this year.

Day 1 - Dust Off Decorations

We get the Christmas decorations fake trees out once a year and often they are stored in lofts or outhouses for the remainder of the year. This means that they will typically be coated in dust and perhaps also some mould both of which can trigger skin allergies in people with dermatitis or atopic skin.

Therefore, always thoroughly dust off Christmas decorations before taking them into the house and preferably leave them outside to air for a few hours. If it’s possible to spray them off with some water that can also help.

Day 2 - Simplify Skincare Routine

Calming sensitive skin prone to rosacea and break outs down before the festive period is essential to staving off a flare up or break out over Christmas and new year. The best way to do this is by simplifying your skincare regime.

For a few weeks before the festive period is to try and cut out as many chemicals and perfumes being applied to skin via skincare products.

Try and switch to chemical and perfume free skincare products and reduce your skincare to the bare minimum a few weeks before Christmas. The less products you use the better.

Many people do the opposite in a bid to try and get clearer skin for the party season by increasing their skincare with facials, exfoliants and face masks, but this can do more harm than good for sensitive skin.

Using a de-sensitising moisturiser that is free from chemicals and perfumes can dramatically help calm skin down in the run up to the festive season.

Kalme Undercoat is a light perfume-free and chemical-free base cream that can be worn as a stand alone cream or under any cosmetics and contains a special tetra-peptide proven to reduce the skin’s sensitivity and protect it from potential irritants.

Day 3 - Turn Down The Heat

Christmas is that time of year when we tend to spend more time couped up indoors in centrally heated environments or in front of cosy indoor fires. Lowering the central heating can help conserve skin as too much heat can be very drying for skin, especially if its prone to dryness or is atopic.

One of the first areas to feel the effects of centrally heated environments are eyes because the delicate skin around the eyes holds less moisture than the skin elsewhere on the body and face.

As soon as the skin around the eyes and on the eyelids becomes dry it can start to feel itchy and over sensitive and trigger conditions such as blepharitis and eye eczema. Therefore, it’s important to pay special attention to the skin around the eyes as soon as the central heating goes on.

Slathering on layers of eyes creams as this can cause puffiness in the mornings. Lighter gels and serums are best for use around the eyes but used more frequently.

Hydrosil Dry Eye Gel contains a plant steroid equivalent proven to help reduce irritation, itching the dryness around the eyes which can be worn under cosmetics as well as overnight.

Intimate vaginal skin can also be very susceptible to central heating at night, causing vaginal dryness and irritation.

Avoid wearing underwear when sleeping and using an intimate moisturiser can help guard against vaginal dryness from centrally heated bedrooms.

In2mate Moisturiser is an almost 100% natural and perfume-free intimate moisturiser that contains a patented antioxidant PROTEOLEA® which helps rejuvenate vaginal skin by slowing down skin cell damage and improving flexibility plus a prebiotic Biolin ®, proven to help increase the good flora in the vagina while reducing the growth of bad vaginal bacteria to maintain healthier intimate skin.

Day 4 - Prepare Skin With Prebiotics

Prebiotics are one of the most helpful ingredients for applying to the skin to fundamentally aide in repairing skin barrier function in dry, fragile, sensitive and red skin. They can also help with skin prone to acne and so preparing the skin well in advance for the onslaught of festivities make be one of the best investments you can make in your skin.

There’s often a confusion about the difference between probiotics and prebiotics.

Probiotics are ‘good bacteria’. Prebiotics are essentially food for good bacteria

Unlike probiotics, prebiotics do not. need to be kept 'live' and so are much easier to formulate into creams and serums for the skin. Applying these to the skin is effective because the prebiotics boost in the skin’s natural production of good skim bacteria.

Good skin bacteria can be depleted through a number of causes, from chemicals in skincare and pollution to antibiotics and medications. Levels of good skin bacteria can also become low due to skin conditions that damage the skin’s barrier function such as eczema and rosacea, as well as hormonal changes to the skin during menopause. Prebiotics can also help prone skin to acne whose good skin bacteria levels are often hugely damaged by the frequent use of anti-bacterial agents in most standard acne skin care.

Applying prebiotics to skin helps good skin bacteria to thrive and replenish a healthier skin microbiome which fundamentally aides in helping to repair skin barrier function in order to reduce redness, dryness and sensitivity.

Kalme TeQ Serum is a natural fragrance-free serum that contains two potent skin prebiotics extracted from Mexican agave that are more hydrating than hyaluronic acid and flood the skin with an abundance of good bacteria food.

Day 5 - Minimise Party Make Up

The more sparkly and the deeper the colours of make up the more likely it is to contain chemicals that can be problematic for skin such as parabens, imidazolidinyl urea, and formaldehyde-releasing agent and synthetic colorants, like FD&C Red 40, can trigger reactions.

The glitterier the make up the more likely it is to contain metals which can cause allergic reactions and additionally nickel is often found in applicators or adhesives for false eyelashes.

Stick to mineral foundations and eyeshadows in lighter shades without glitter or sparkle.

Day 6 - Invest in a Salvation Salve

Salves are a saviour for dry skin in winter and can be very beneficial if added to daily skincare routines and used liberally over the holiday season. Use them on all areas of rough dry or cracked skin such as elbows, ears, nostrils, eyebrows, knees and feet. 

Hydrosil Turmeric Butter & Milk Salve is a rich salve with naturally active ingredients that have a proven anti-inflammatory and soothing action for very sensitive dry skin and skin prone to eczema.

Day 7 – Ditch The Blow Dries

When talking about sensitive skin and skin conditions everyone always talks about skin care.

But, in fact, what you use on your hair can also drastically affect sensitive skin as well as cause itchy scalp.

Hairdressers are typically booked out over Christmas and New year with people rushing to have their hair done for the party season.

So before you head to the salon for that festive new do, switching to a more natural and clarifying hair care product for a week before Christmas will give your scalp a much-needed break to calm down before the party season.

Hydrosil Scalp Shield Shampoo and Scalp Shield Tonic are perfume and chemical free hair care products for dry scalps that contain proven ingredients designed to repair and bolster scalp barrier function.

It’s also helpful to avoid blow dries for at last a week before the party season kicks off. It doesn’t mean you have to have simpler flatter hair forever; it just helps prepare your skin and scalp for the onslaught of styling products and blow dries over the party season.

Day 8 - Shower in Tepid Temperatures

It’s tempting when relaxing during the holiday season to take long, hot showers instead of having to rush out the door to work. However, prolonged exposure to hot water can damage the outer layer of skin cells, preventing them from locking in moisture. This will, of course, exacerbate dry skin.

A water temperature between 96-99F is recommended if you have dry, sensitive skin. Basically, you want the temperature to be lukewarm or around the same temperature as your skin (about 98 degrees). If you get out of the shower and your skin is red and flushed, your shower temperature is probably too high.

Be aware of how often you’re washing. Showering too often can irritate the skin and cause dryness. Those with sensitive skin should shower once per day to avoid irritation. If you're doing more fitness over the holiday season, try to schedule your workouts before your daily shower. And on days you don’t do anything that causes you to sweat, you may consider just rinsing off in the shower instead of using any cleanser.

Day 9 - Seek Winter Daylight Skin Therapy

Get out for a stroll or some exercise during the day. The UV rays promote vitamin D production, even o overcast days. Daylight exposure stimulates the skin to produce vitamin D, which is essential for skin cell regeneration and strengthening the skin barrier.

Vitamin D is important for cell growth and repair, and its anti-inflammatory effects can help speed up the healing process for some skin conditions.

Day 10 - Avoid Quick Skincare Fixes

It’s tempting when pressed for time, traveling for short stay overs at friends or family or in hotels to want to find some last-minute festive ‘glow ups’ and resort to quick or convenient skincare fixes such as cleansing wipes, exfoliants, face masques, under eye anti puffiness patches, all in one products and hotel skincare products. But these quick ‘fixes’ rarely fix anything and in fact if you have sensitive skin can often ended up causing more problems than solving them.

Always take travel sizes of your trusted products with you or decant from your at-home containers into small travel containers and avoid anything that you haven’t tried and teste that promises to give you ‘instant’ results.

Any ‘glow up’ treatments should be done as part of a structured skincare routine over a period of weeks not days and should be thoroughly road tested before the holiday season begins.

Day 11 - Skip Salty Sharp Snacks

Any trauma to the lips can trigger a cold sore outbreak and aside from chapping from dehydrated lips, abrasive foods such salty festive snacks, are the easiest way to damage lips and risk a cold sore outbreak, which effect over 50% of the population.

Tiny micro cuts from crisps and crackers to the lips and corners of the mouth raise the risk of triggering a cold sore.

Salty nuts are a particular problem for cold sore prone lips. The cold sore virus requires arginine (amino acid) to replicate and thrive in your body. Depriving the virus of arginine can help reduce the duration and severity of a cold sore.

Nuts are one of the richest sources of arginine so to ensure you reduce your risk of a cold sore outbreak, keep your mitts out of the nut bowl.

Assume that the festive season is a likely time for a cold sore flare ups  and take preventative action. Lip Q Liquorice & Melissa Lip Gel is a natural rescue lip gel that contains Glycyrrhizic Acid (GA) extracted from Liquoirce root. GA interferes with the production of special proteins that feed cells infected with the herpes simplex virus that causes cold sores. Published research and a trial by the Herpes Virus Association found that GA applied topically at vulnerable skin can help prevent the intensity and frequency of cold sore outbreaks.

Day 12 - Resist Temptation to Test Beauty Gifts

Finally, the big day has arrived, and you’ve been gifted some of the latest beauty must-haves and scented what-nots from well-meaning friends and family.

As much as it may offend, do not feel tempted or pressurised to use new beauty gifts or scents on Christmas Day. This is the most likely way to give yourself a skin reaction which could ruin the festivities.

Store gifts away until after the festive season, take time to check the ingredients and if you decide to use them patch test them on small areas of your skin first before slowly introducing them into your skincare routine.