Winterize Your Skin: 'Sweet Cheeks' Tips

You know the telltale side effects of winter-battered skin: dry, rough, flakey patches, uneven make-up, fine lines that seemingly develop into wrinkly cracks and fissures as the icy air wears your epidermis down. You may even experience flare-ups of skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis during the colder months. Not fun. Fortunately, you don’t have to hide away in your house all winter long or perch yourself in front of a humidifier to keep your skin in good condition.

Since the past few winters have been especially brutal, now is the time to make sure your skin is in optimal shape when sundress and flip-flop season ultimately arrives. Richmond’s Vanessa McCauley, owner of the all-natural, eco-friendly line of skin care called Sweet Cheeks, knows what it takes to keep that glow going now and throughout the year.

McCauley’s locally owned and produced Sweet Cheeks line came about when her young son developed a bad case of eczema and she found nothing that worked well enough to clear it up completely. When her doctor suggested a steroid cream—something McCauley was keen to avoid—she started researching treatments on her own. She discovered many of the creams she had been using contained mineral oil, which can actually make eczema worse. So, she developed her own all-natural recipe for a moisturizing cream made from earthy ingredients that, happily enough, got her son’s eczema to go away. Now she sells her balms, butters and moisturizers to the public, primarily through her Etsy.com store, Kids Grow! in Lakeside and on EcoRoots.net.

"For the longest time, I was just making it for me and my family because we all have really sensitive skin and then, at some point, somebody suggested, ‘Have you ever thought about doing anything with this?’ and I was like, ‘Huh . . . That’s a good idea, isn’t it?’ And that’s really how it started," said McCauley. Since then, her business has evolved organically, you could say, even capturing the attention of VH1, which reached out to her last fall and asked her to contribute some products to their "Battle of the Bands" celebrity swag bags.

The ingredients that go into Sweet Cheeks’ moisturizers—olive, jojoba and grapeseed oils, vegetable glycerin, Epsom salts and shea, cocoa and mango butters—are seemingly good enough to eat (but don‘t). The line offers everything from body butter, body wash and solid moisturizer to lip balm, face balm, lip scrub and salt and sugar scrub for the body. Feeling congested? Try the chest rub, which acts similarly to Vick’s VapoRub. "My dad actually has arthritis in his hip and he started using it on his hip and swears by it," McCauley said.

For men, there are shave soap and after-shave, which come in signature scents of vanilla clary sage and vanilla sandalwood. For babies, you’ll find baby butter, baby oil and the cutely named bum butter, all unscented. The rest of the Sweet Cheeks line is available in such yummy scents as rose, lemon, lavender, grapefruit, vanilla, rosemary mint, coconut lemongrass and seasonal peppermint. McCauley’s next move? She plans to expand her line to include facial peels and serums, nail and cuticle oils, mosquito spray, diaper rash spray and lotions—a lighter alternative to the body butter.

On one of the recent frigid days that make most Richmonders yearn for the breezy, carefree days of spring, McCauley gave us her tips for caring for your winter-weary skin, including one tip that calls for a Sophia Loren-like smothering in olive oil.

1. Moisturize. Try to find an all-natural moisturizer; better yet, one that contains shea butter or cocoa butter. "You want to avoid anything that has a petroleum-based product," said McCauley. "A lot of people will tell you it’s the worst thing you can do to your skin. I’m not that extreme. I just think that there are things that are far better for your skin and it [petroleum] can exacerbate problems."

2. Exfoliate. "If your skin can handle it, get that dead skin off. Your skin can absorb moisture all the better," said McCauley.

3. Be gentle. "When you come out of the shower, rather than toweling off really fast—which, if your skin is sensitive, can just send it into a tailspin—just pat yourself dry . . . gently. Especially if you are prone to eczema, toweling hard on your skin can actually cause your eczema to flair up a little bit," she said.

4. Avoid soap. "Soap is an enemy to dry skin," McCauley added. "It strips the mantle off your skin leaving it really exposed. So, in winter, it is best to use soap just where you need it. Let's face it, your forearm just doesn't get that dirty."

5. Two words: olive oil. "If you want one really inexpensive way to take care of your skin, use olive oil. It’s loaded with antioxidants. It’s one of the best things you can put on your skin and you can do it from head to toe. Everybody always bugs me because they are afraid it’s going to make their skin oily or clog the pores on their face, but it won’t," said McCauley.

Jennifer Pullinger is a writer and publicist in Richmond. Visit her at www.jenniferlpullinger.com