A Month of Faves is hosted by Andi, Tanya and Tamara

5 Must Haves for Winter Survival – shout out your favorite brand or stores or favorite items

Fall/Winter in Northern California is pretty mild compared to what some of you guys experience. We do have to break out the coats and scarves and turn on the heater but so far it’s never gone below freezing yet. I’m typing this on a very windy morning though, and it’s expected to storm this afternoon. We’ve been getting a surprising amount of rain this year, especially compared to last winter, and there’s even been quite a bit of snow up in the Sierras.

So here are some of my must-haves

Last year we took the kids to their first ever snow trip up in Soda Springs and I bought these for myself for the trip at the Columbia outlet! They’re so comfy and warm and waterproof too. I know we don’t get snow here but it’s a great pair of boots to wear when it rains.

Body oil

Dryness is such an issue during the cold season, especially with the heater running in the daytime. I started using this body oil from Target (it was cheap!) after showering in the evening and it’s really helped. Sometimes I still slather on moisturizer on top of the oil! I like also that it has a very very light fragrance, as I tend not to use products that smell too strongly.

Facial oil

I am in search of a new facial oil. I’ve been using this one from Boots for more than a year now but I haven’t seen it in stock at the two Targets near me! It’s available on Amazon but for more than twice the price….grrr…. so I would love to know if you use a facial oil and whether you’d recommend it. And if you don’t use a facial oil, what do you use instead? My nighttime routine is wash face, put on eye cream, this facial oil and a night time moisturizer from L’Oreal. The facial oil really helps with my combination skin, as my cheeks and chin can be quite dry sometimes. And when I had a bad cough/cold earlier this month, the skin around my nose was dry and peeling, this facial oil really helped with that. So leave me some recommendations in the comments!

Hand creams

SUCH a necessity when it gets cold. With two kids I wash my hands a lot and my hands are already somewhat dry, and in winter it just gets worse especially the ‘chicken wing’ area as my kids like to call it, between the thumb and second finger. I use a variety of hand creams, mostly from The Face Shop which were a gift last Christmas.