English for PTA

Skin care in winter

Abbildung © Alexey Kuznetsov / www.fotolia.com © Alexey Kuznetsov / www.fotolia.com

At this time of the year especially facial skin is exposed to the ravages of winter time such as dry central heating air, stuffy unaired rooms as well as biting cold and even sunshine.

During skiing holidays people tend to get sunburn from the rays reflected from the surface of snow. The whole body needs special care and extra moisture in winter, this means using more moisturising cream and lotion than usual. A good water balance helps to retain moisture in the skin and also helps against skin disorders. Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, and drinking enough fluids such as herbal tea and water all help to release water and other essential active ingredients into your system. It’s a time of the year where we should look at the quality of our skin care products and decide if they are suitable for our needs or not. As it takes the skin longer to restore its lipid reserves in winter, peelings are not recommended during this season.

Pharmacy customer: Hello.

PTA: Good afternoon. How may I help you?

I’ve noticed that my skin is very dry at the moment.

Are you taking any medication that might have an effect on your skin?

Not at the moment. No. I think it’s just the weather, you know the usual: central heating air in the office, colleagues who are afraid of airing and then out in the harsh cold outside.

Yes, that’s quite usual at this time of the year. In fact a lot of our customers have similar problems.

Is there anything that you can recommend?

We have several ranges of skin care products from the well-known companies to skin care products that contain mainly organic ingredients.

Which do you think is best?

I would stick to the products that I’m used to and just see if there is a more suitable cream. What skin type are you?

I tend to have dry skin.

First, I recommend a moisturising mask. This one here contains avocado oil and wheat extract. That sounds good! This cream from a natural cosmetic company contains a lot of natural ingredients such as raspberry oil and horsetail extract.

Horsetail!

Oh no, it’s not from the animal, it’s an extract of equisetum, which is a plant!

Well, that’s good to know! I’ll take it and I’ll let you know if it helped or not.

There you are.

Thank you very much.

No problem! Bye, bye!

Bye!

Vocabulary

facial skin Gesichtshaut
ravages verheerende Wirkung
stuffy stickig
sunburn Sonnenbrand
moisture Feuchtigkeit
retain speichern, behalten
plenty reichlich
fluids Flüssigkeiten
herbal tea Kräutertee
release freisetzen
active ingredients Wirkstoffe
restore wiederherstellen
airing lüften
harsh rau
several mehrere
ranges Angebote
mainly hauptsächlich
organic Bezeichnung im englischen für Bio…
stick to dabei bleiben
wheat extract Weizenextrakt
raspberry oil Himbeeröl
horsetail Schachtelhalm
equisetum Schachtelhalm