Seven reasons your skin gets worse every New Zealand winter
If your skin is fine in February and difficult by July, that is not your imagination and it is not your products failing. New Zealand houses and New Zealand winters do something specific to skin.
The heat pump
It warms a room by moving air, and moving air dries everything in it including you. An evening in front of one is hours of steady water loss. It is the single biggest indoor cause and turning it down two degrees is a free experiment.
Houses that are cold and damp, then hot and dry
A lot of New Zealand housing swings between the two within an hour. Skin does not adjust that fast, and the swing is harder on it than either state on its own.
Hotter showers
Nobody takes a cool shower in July. Hot water strips the surface, and the tightness in the ten minutes afterwards is the most direct evidence of it you will get.
Wind, and the walk to the car
Wind removes water from skin faster than still cold air does, and most of the country gets a great deal of it. A short exposed walk twice a day adds up across a season.
Less daylight, worse sleep
Short dark days change how people sleep, and skin shows sleep before anything else does. Some of what looks like winter skin is winter tiredness.
The same routine as summer
A routine built for humid February air is underpowered in July, and most people do not change anything until their skin has been uncomfortable for a month. A seasonal routine is normal rather than a sign of doing it wrong.
Sunscreen quietly dropped in April
The light is weaker and the habit goes, but the New Zealand sun gets through cloud better than people expect and the ozone above us is thinner than almost anywhere. Keeping it going through winter is the least fun advice here and the one with the longest payoff.