With the weather all wonky for Winter skin can be dry and lips can feel like they need some extra oomph (technical term, I swear). So today I reached for some of my favorite Winter products to protect and emphasize.

I’ll start off with Barrier Repair, a calming “moisturizer” for sensitive skin by Dermalogica. Barrier Repair is a water free silicone and natural oil based “moisturizer” designed to instantly form a soothing barrier for your skin. You’ll notice I keep putting moisturizer in quotes. This is because it’s not a moisturizer in the traditional sense. Most moisturizers add lots of oils to your skin to fill it up and keep it feeling supple, what Barrier Repair does is different because it’s not creating moisture so much as it’s protecting it. It’s also full of other vitamins to keep the health of your skin up during these chilly dry months. Think of it as the grown up version of when your parents put Vaseline on your face before you went out to play in the snow. Added benefit: it can be used as a primer before make-up or instead of make-up because the silicone adds a soft focus feeling and reduces the appearance of pores. Really a great multitask product. That’s what we all need right? Fewer things in our bag?

My other favorite Winter product isn’t as much a multitasker or hugely beneficial, but it always makes me feel like my lips really pop. In the Winter I feel like my lips start to disappear on my face because they get dry and they aren’t shiny so they look thin and, well, blah. Enter Du Wop Lip Venom (I prefer the Gold Flash version for added sparkle). Unlike many other lip plumping products this one stays shiny all day so that long after the effects have worn off it still feels like it’s working. It also has more of a cinnamon “flavor” than mint so I’m quite appreciative of the warmth during Winter instead of just the tingling you would normally get from other products.

So those are my gotta have Winter favorites for my make-up kit. What about you? What Winter product do you always turn to?