Mediaplanet caught up with model, influencer, and mother of three, Valeria Lipovetsky, to find out how she preps herself and her family for the winter.
Mediaplanet: Why do you think it’s important to adjust your skin and makeup routines when it gets colder?
Valeria Lipovetsky: I feel like not enough people are looking into skincare, especially when it comes to our diet. When the season changes, we change our products and our clothes but we don’t do it internally. What we put in our bodies has a direct effect on our skincare. So I think it’s very important to stay in tune with how our bodies feel and what our skin needs during different times of the year. It also depends on the fluctuations in your lifestyle — sometimes stress can harm our skin and of course the weather harms our skin.
It’s interesting that you mention diet — do you do anything differently to adjust to the winter season?
I feel like it’s a natural craving we have, right? In the summer I’m a big smoothie person. While it’s still warm and the sun is out, I’m excited to get my smoothie on. But in the winter when it’s cold, I want more comforting foods, so I try to include spices and soups to see if that will give me what my body needs for the season. Eating more of the appropriate seasonal foods is really important.
What are some of your favourite winter or holiday activities to do with your family?
With three kids it sometimes gets difficult to organize things, but we do live up north so we have a lot of nature, so when there’s snow we go outside and go sledding and build snowmen, and when it’s not snowing and it’s chilly, we’ll dress warm and go for walks. We haven’t really got into winter sports quite yet because my husband and I aren’t too immersed in them, but that would be a great way to get some energy out of the little ones.
Has having children changed the way you prepare for winter in terms of health and safety?
Yes, definitely. Now that I have kids, I build a stack of things in advance that I want to give them. I make sure I have elderberry syrup for whenever I hear there’s a sick kid in school, or I hear my kids starting to get the sniffles, as it’s a great natural way to help with their immunity. Vitamin C of course is another one, and again, I give them comforting, warming food in the wintertime to kind of build up that immunity. I also give them probiotics if needed.
Because we’re very style-aware in North America, a lot of people struggle with finding a balance between keeping warm and also looking good. Do you have any tips on that?
I honestly feel like layering is key. We actually have fashionable choices for jackets, coats, and puffers nowadays and that makes things a little bit easier. Layering and using clothes as extra layers is really good. I know UNIQLO has some thermal technology for undergarments and I think that’s genius, and it makes a huge difference with our winters. Investing in a few pieces like those, that you can put under your fashionable clothes, really helps you to stay a little bit more chic this winter season.
