That's not bronzer, that's windburn.

When I lived in Inner Mongolia it was during the "warm" season between April and September. You'll understand, then, that during my time there, whenever I encountered someone with a pair of rosy cheeks, my first reaction to whomever the flush belonged to - child or adult - was to get right up in their grill and coo, "oh, how ADORABLE!"

It was not until the third month of my stint there, potentially forty or fifty such coos later, that one of my colleagues finally asked me, "What exactly is it about permanent windburn that you find so adorable?"

"Permanent windburn?"

"Yeah, it's July, it's 75 degrees outside, and their cheeks are red, bordering on purple -- what did you think it was? Bronzer?"

Right. That was a bad day.

So you can imagine my horror last night, when, upon arriving home after a blustery 12 minute half-walk, half-jog, I realized I too, had fairly severe wind-whips on the apples of my cheeks.

What's so puzzling is that I don't have fair skin, I don't have dry skin, I don't even have sensitive skin, but there they were, having defied the protection of my thick winter moisturizer, the unmistakable streaks of windburn.

If it can happen to me, it can happen to you. Tips for cold weather skin maintenance - and winter makeup - coming later in the day.