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The first green leaves have started to turn yellow in the parking lot of Fort Wayne Newspapers. It seems as if August has hardly ended, and yet the first day of autumn looms, less than two weeks away.

Is your skin routine prepared?

The lightweight moisturizers and facial creams necessary to keep summertime skin fresh are just about ready to be retired for the season as fall and winter’s winds prepare to chap lips, whip skin and dry out the face.

Some local beauty experts gave some tips for making sure your face is prepared.

As temperatures change, it becomes more important to moisturize the skin, says Flo Woodword, cosmetology manager at Ravenscroft Beauty College. How to moisturize depends most on skin type. Normal skin, for example, doesn’t require as heavy of a moisturizer because it won’t absorb into the skin.

The most important time of day to moisturize your face is before you go to bed, says Shelly Hayes, assistant administrator at Rudae’s School of Beauty Culture, as the dry heat blasted from furnaces can dry out your face. The best moisturizers come in liquid or cream form, versus oil drops, she says.

The difference is that oils seal in moisture already in the skin, but they don’t penetrate, Heidi Waldorf, associate clinical professor of dermatology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, told O, The Oprah Magazine. Creams and lotions pull moisture from the air and are absorbed into the skin’s outer layer, which plumps it.

Body cells turnover on their own, and when the skin is dry, exfoliating helps the turnover process – especially on the lips, Woodward says. She suggests exfoliating the lips and using a balm during the colder months. A lip gloss, however, is not going to help. Veer instead toward something like Blistex.

Stay away from products that contain mineral oils, Hayes says. It’s like putting petroleum on your face, and it clogs pours and isn’t absorbed, sitting atop and aging your skin.

“It will dry the skin out and cause more wrinkles,” she says. “It’s absolutely terrible for your skin.”

Hayes also suggests avoiding any product for the lip or face with a fragrance, especially if you have sensitive skin: A product like a bubble gum lip gloss or lip stick can have ingredients that may trigger a skin reaction.

The trick to fall or winter makeup, Woodward says, is that it doesn’t require you to actually change the products you use. Instead, it’s about adding products, such as a primer. Using a primer beneath eye shadow, for example, will help the color last.

“When your skin is dryer, it’s going to absorb the product in,” she says.

jyouhana@jg.net