From October through mid-April there's one thing that is a constant in my mountain home - the thermostat and wood stove are always going. There's a downside to being toasty warm when the winter weather is here: dry skin.

You guys, it gets so bad you could often be confused between the flakes on my legs, the flakes from my scalp and the flakes of the snow variety. Thankfully I have a great body lotion I use to combat the dry skin and my beloved Keune hair products for my scalp. Something I'm more excited about that I've recently added into my beauty and health care, is the Venta Airwasher. I know. Who gets excited about a humidifier and air purifier? This girl. Since I typically use a humidifier that produces hot steam and is fairly small, I realized pretty quickly that the Venta Airwasher is different. Here are the things I took notice of right away:

• The Venta Airwasher LW45 will humidify and purify air in a room up to 800 sqft. - that means it's perfect for a large room like my living room.
• The water tank is huge - 3 gallons! It's not the typical small cylinder I'm used to with my steam humidifier. That means the water tank takes a full 1-3 days before it needs to be refilled (depending on the speed you choose; it has 3.)
• It has two large rotating disk stacks and a fan to create cold evaporation - so no hot steam or mist.
• It is incredibly quiet on speeds 1 and 2; speed 3 is just a low level white noise hum. We like white noise in this house, so it really wasn't noticeable or annoying to myself or my family.
• It doesn't require a filter to purify the air, but you do need to add a water treatment additive. For the LW45 size, it requires the water treatment to be re-added after cleaning every 14 days.

Since this system shouldn't be near a heat source, I set it up on a small table in our living room against a wall without a baseboard. This table is between the stairwell where the heat from the wood stove in our downstairs family room would make its way up and our front door/windows.

In Spring, this will be a great test in terms of how well it purifies all that pollen that makes its way in through the door. My oldest has severe seasonal allergies and I will be thrilled if this helps when he is indoors. (Update: it works amazingly for those with seasonal allergies.)

After the first two weeks of use, I noticed that if we only had the thermostat running and the speed on 1, the water tank didn't need a refill for 3 days. If we had the wood stove + thermostat on, we'd bump up the speed to 2 or 3 and that meant the water would need to be refilled after 24 hours.

Both of these scenarios are much better than my steam humidifier that evaporates all of the water within a very short 8 hours. After 2 weeks, the disk stacks didn't appear dirty or have any build up on them, but the remaining water at the very bottom of the tank was pretty gross. Better at the bottom of the tank than in my air!
After 4 weeks of use, we definitely noticed a difference in terms of less dust floating in the air, no static electricity in the living room area, and the air feeling comfortable and not dry or humid. It was at this point that I noticed mineral buildup on the disks, which are easily cleaned. If you blow up the picture above, you can see it!

We've been using the Venta Airwasher for about 2 months now (update - we're STILL using the Venta 9 years later and it still works as good as day one - and even bought the LW25) and I'm really happy with how it has helped to decrease dry, itchy skin, chapped lips and even the frequency of nose bleeds my sons tend to get due to the dry air.

We're so happy in fact, that my husband and I are considering purchasing smaller versions for each bedroom and my home office (update: we bought more, it works that well.)  I seriously love this thing. A humidifier is probably the last product you're thinking of when adding to your beauty regimen - but it should be one of the first!

Disclosure: Product sent by PR