The menopause – officially one year after your last period – doesn’t just happen overnight. The time before the menopause, often referred to as the perimenopause, averages around four years. However, for some women, this can go on for many more years.

The biggest issue for your skin is that the fluctuations and drops in your hormones can leave your skin with notable challenges, from thinning to dryness. Skin changes during menopause, especially the often lamented menopause dry skin, are perfectly normal. But it’s probably time to rethink some elements of your skincare routine to help.

If nothing else, the TLC of a new skincare routine will make you feel better both inside and out.

Menopause skin breakouts

Before the common issue of dry skin becomes apparent, skin breakouts are quite common during perimenopause. This is usually due to hormone levels fluctuating. Just like when you were a teenager, this means that your skin may overproduce sebum at times, clogging pores and causing spots. 

But don’t reach for typical face cleansers marketed at outbreaks for teens! They will be too harsh and exacerbate any dryness. Our Cleansing Face Balm with Apricot Powder has been designed for all skin types, but many UpCirclers rave about it as an ideal skin care product to use during menopause. You can use it to clean off your make-up and the dirt of the day, but it isn’t drying like teen cleansers.

Another option is our gentle Cleansing Face Milk, formulated with oat powder and aloe vera to sooth inflamed and irritated skin. Also infused with coconut oil and jojoba oil, this cleanser helps to replenish the skin's moisture barrier. 

Menopause and dry skin

Eventually, the breakouts settle down, but unfortunately many women are then left with dryness in its wake. If your previous skincare routine has stopped working, and you’re battling dryness, it’s very normal as part of the menopause process.

You’ll need to give some thought to specific menopause-friendly skin care. The best skincare for menopausal skin involves using a gentle and mild cleanser. In addition to the Cleansing Face Balm, our Fennel + Cardamom Chai Soap bar is another great option, as it contains Shea butter to help hydrate the skin.

You’ll then want two other anti-dryness products: an excellent toner with hyaluronic acid and an excellent moisturiser. Again, UpCirclers who have been where you are really recommend the Face Moisturiser with Argan Powder. This is a fast-absorbing cream which will lock in hydration and help to tackle dryness whilst also brightening the skin.

For an additional boost, use our Night Cream with Hyaluronic Acid and Niacinamide in the evenings. Helping to replenish the skin's natural barrier, the product is formulated using upcycled blueberries, which are a natural source of pro-retinol and help to protect against blue light. 

Our Face Toner with Mandarin + Chamomile calms and soothes dry skin, but importantly, it is enriched with hyaluronic acid. This will plump up dry skin, helping to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. What’s more, you can spritz this on during the day if your skin feels particularly dry.

Give the skin around your eyes some extra TLC

The skin around your eyes really needs your care and attention as you get older. As you age, your skin naturally loses collagen, which is what effectively enables your skin to bounce back. With less collagen, the skin around your eyes can look slack. This is when wrinkles can become particularly noticeable.

An eye cream is, undoubtedly, going to be amongst your best skincare products for menopausal skin. Indeed, if we were to recommend one item of skincare during menopause, it would be a tough call between our oil, and our Eye Cream with Maple and Coffee.

The repurposed coffee really brightens your skin around the eyes which can seem sallow, and the maple bark extract is immensely soothing. For good measure, we’ve made sure that there is hyaluronic acid in our eye cream as well.

Make sure you protect your skin from the sun too as this can amplify the dryness and cause more damage.

Using a face oil for menopausal skin

There’s another fantastic skincare product which is excellent for all skin types. We absolutely recommend it to those refreshing their skincare during and after the menopause: face oil.

Face oils are designed to send the right ingredients into the skin faster and in a way which is more locked in than a typical moisturiser. Oils also help to balance the tone of your skin, which may look blotchy with age due to the appearance of sunspots.

The UpCircle multi award-winning Organic Face Oil with Coffee Extract has been carefully formulated to work wonders, especially if your skin is prone to dryness. You can apply it morning and night. It has coffee to brighten the skin, along with Vitamin C from rosehip and sea buckthorn which are wonderful skin antioxidants.

The other post-menopause skincare product that you want to pay attention to is a body moisturiser. It’s no longer enough to only consider your face; all of your skin needs some TLC! Also, you’ll probably find that applying a body moisturiser at night will help you feel more comfortable through the nightly hot flushes. 

Try our Soothing Body Cream with Date Seeds. Date seed is wonderfully calming and this body moisturiser really helps to hydrate all over.

Be kind to yourself throughout the menopause

Different women experience the menopause in different ways. For some, it brings a plague of symptoms and for others they barely notice the change. However, you need to be kind to yourself during this time, as you adjust to the change. And your skin needs time and attention in order to adjust too.

Why not treat yourself to our Mature Skin Bundle? It contains all of the best skincare for menopausal skin, and will be an absolute treat to you. By including all of the best of our all-natural vegan skincare designed for mature skin, you can embrace a new skincare routine that will help you tackle menopause skin outbreaks and dry skin.

In addition, by buying everything in a bundle, you make a huge saving. It’s the perfect self-care gift.

Troublesome skin may not be the only change you notice during menopause, with many people experiencing hair thinning and hair loss too. Use haircare products infused with hair-loving rosemary oil, which helps to reduce hair loss and promote new hair growth.