Understanding your specific skin condition and adapting to certain circumstances or figure out your skin type is the most important step in caring for your skin. The largest organ in your body is your skin. It is as complex and intellectual as your heart, lungs, liver, and other vital organs. Using too harsh cleansers and treatments, even though they are prescribed for excessive oiliness, can signal your skin that more oil is needed. Applying moisturizers that are too thick or heavy can minimize natural oil content, resulting in even drier skin. Taking the time to learn to figure out your skin type and your skin’s particular needs will help select the best skin balance options, resulting in a healthier, more beautiful complexion.
Everyone’s skin is different. But a few common skin types can help you determine where your skin fits in the most. Oily, Normal/Combination, and Dry are the three most common skin types. Here are some simple methods to figure out your skin type at home:
Why is it important to figure out your skin type?
It is critical to understand the skin type to practice the most effective skincare. Ladies had a limited selection of skincare products to choose from back in the day, such as the perfumey “all-purpose” cold creams on your grandmother’s bathroom counter.
Today, an unlimited number of formulas are developed to care for our different skin types. But they only work at their best if you use the one designed for your skin!
If you misdiagnose your skin type and use the wrong products, it will cause skin irritation, causing inflammation, excess oil, breakouts, or drying out the skin, causing wrinkles to be more apparent.
Follow these steps to figure out your skin type:
1. Clean Your Face
Cleanse with a mild cleanser and pat dry. Remove any makeup. This extracts any oils and dirt accumulated during the day, giving the skin a fresh start.
2. Wait for an hour
During this time, your skin can return to its natural state, the characteristics of which will decide your skin type. Please don’t touch your face and act normally.
3. Use a towel, dab your cheek.
Pay close attention to your “T-zone”—the area between your forehead, nose, and jaw.
Determine Your Skin Type
Oily skin, dry skin, and combination skin are the 3 types.
Skin Types
Oily: The oil on the tissue characterizes oily skin. Big pores and shine are also common in people with oily skin. It is more common in teenagers and is caused by overactive skin glands secreting excess lipids. It is caused or worsened by puberty (hormonal imbalance), stress, excessive sun, or humidity.
Dry: Skin may feel taut or display flakes of dead skin if it is dry skin. A dull complexion defines it, red spots, small pores, peeling, cracking, itching, or irritation. Moisturization is important for this skin type.
Combination: This is the most common. It has characteristics of all three of the skin types listed above. That may be due to genetic causes or hormone levels affecting the amount and location of lipids, causing them to be unevenly distributed in the skin. The skin is usually oily in the T-zone and natural to dry elsewhere.
1. Think you have dry skin?
What dry skin looks like?
Dry skin has a flaky, scaly look which can look dull. You won’t have particularly noticeable pores (for which you can be grateful), but fine lines are common.
What dry skin feels like?
Dry skin can feel rough in places, and you’ll be used to the skin feeling tight after a cleanse. If the skin is dry, you would be more vulnerable to irritation and sensitivity. What are the other signs of dry skin? It’s a tight feeling (especially if you use the wrong cleaner! ), flaky skin, and the feeling that your moisturizer only works for a few hours.
What causes dry skin?
Natural oils are present in healthy skin, and it is their job to keep skin smooth and supple while also lubricating the skin’s barrier to keep moisture in and irritants out. If you have dry skin? It produces less oil regularly than normal skin. According to one study, almost everybody will feel dry skin at some point in their lives. Environmental factors like wind, cold, pollution, and hot air sneakily strip away (even more!) vital moisture, leaving skin feeling dry, rough, and slightly worse off. Don’t forget about harsh soaps and artificial perfumes, which can disrupt the skin’s natural balance and cause it to dry out.
While you can’t put an end to dry skin, you can help keep it hydrated and enhance its appearance. To start, remove any drying ingredients in your products with gentle alternatives such as Geranium Oil, Glycerin, Shea Butter, Allantoin, and Vitamin E, which can gently moisturize nourish the skin.
And it’s a no-brainer that dry skin craves moisture, so use oils and richer, more intense moisturizers in your skincare routine.
2. Think you have oily skin?
What oily skin looks like?
Oily skin is characterized by a shiny face (especially around the T-zone and chin), swollen pores, and spots. Plus, by lunchtime, your makeup may go.
What oily skin feels like?
On the plus side, oily skin feels greasy to the touch but rarely tight or dry.
What causes oily skin?
Our skin contains natural (good!) oils that keep it supple and smooth and keep our lipid barrier in good condition. When our sebaceous glands go into overdrive due to humidity changes, hormones, and, yes, even stress, they release excess oils that can make our skin oily and pores clogged.
How to manage oily skin?
To fight shine, avoid super-rich oils and moisturizers in favor of lighter moisturizers, and try using an oil cleanser (yes, really). While it can seem to be counter-intuitive, oil-based cleansers are among the strongest cleansers for oily skin because oil attracts oil. So, when you rub a cleansing oil onto your skin, it removes extra oils and impurities without dehydrating it.
3. Think you have combination skin?
What combination skin looks like?
If you have combination skin, you probably notice that it is oily around your T-zone and that you have dry patches on your cheeks. Pores on your nose may appear larger than those on your cheeks.
What combination skin feels like?
While your T-zone may feel greasy, your cheeks may feel dry, flaky, and tight.
What causes combination skin?
Combination skin is described as having two or more textures. Pores on your nose, chin, and forehead are more active (hence the shine). Your T-zone might feel greasy, but your cheeks might be dry, flaky, and tight. Some moisturizers can clog pores and cause certain symptoms to worsen, such as the sun, stress, and a lack of exercise.
How to manage combination skin?
If you can seem to have the worst of all worlds, there is a simple way to treat combination skin without wasting hours in the bathroom. What’s the trick? Simply mix and match your ingredients to meet your skin’s needs, or search for ones that tackle multiple issues.
In conclusion
Our skin’s needs will change over time, and taking steps to identify those needs best is vital for it to function and look its best. Maintaining your skin’s health by “checking in” regularly to see if any changes to your new ritual are needed will keep it healthy and flawless.
