And how to tailor your skincare routine accordingly
By Nica Dobles from THREAD PH
The first step to starting any skincare routine is understanding your skin — the most basic part of which is figuring out what your skin type is. Get it wrong, and all those shiny new products you invested in are useless at best and harmful at worst.
Keep on scrolling for a quick guide on the different skin types and how they affect your skincare routine.
What’s the difference between skin type and skin conditions?
Your skin type is the foundation of your beauty routine and will determine what products you use and how often you use them.
Skin conditions like aging/wrinkles, acne-proneness, sensitivity, dehydration, and hyperpigmentation, on the other hand, can be present regardless of skin type and in different combinations. For example, dry as well as oily skin can be sensitive, and you can be dealing with both wrinkles and acne.
What determines skin type?
Your genetics play a huge part, but other factors like your diet, hormonal changes (e.g. pregnancy), and even climate (sun exposure, humidity) can also affect your skin.
How do I know what my skin type is?
Three easy steps:
- Cleanse your face of all traces of makeup, sweat, and dirt. It’s best to use a gentle cleanser that won’t affect your skin’s pH balance.
- Pat your face dry with a soft, clean towel.
- Do not apply anything to your skin, including toners and moisturizers. Wait one hour, then check on your skin.
- If your skin feels fine all over, not too oily and not too dry, congratulations — you probably have normal skin and therefore less to worry about.
- If your skin feels tight, itchy, or a little flaky, you most likely have dry skin.
- If it looks shiny or feels greasy — look at your forehead, nose, and cheeks in particular — you most likely have oily skin.
- If your T-zone (forehead and nose) is oily, but the rest of your face is dry or normal, then you have combination skin.
Feeling impatient? Just pat an oil blotting sheet on your forehead/nose and cheeks and check how much oil was picked up. Compare to the guidelines above to figure out your skin type.
Normal
Normal skin may be low-maintenance compared to the other skin types, but that doesn’t mean you can forego proper skincare. You might still experience breakouts or dryness occasionally, especially because of changes in your environment, but they should go away quickly.
Your skincare routine:
Lucky you, your skin’s already naturally well-balanced, so just be sure to keep up with daily cleansing and moisturizing. Normal skin can become dry as you age, so you’ll also want to add hydrating treatments to your routine.
Dry
Dry skin is caused by a lack of oil production, leading to a lack of moisturethat makes your skin feel dull and tight. It can even feel flaky, scaly, or itchy. The lack of elasticity also makes it more prone to wrinkles and fine lines.
Your skincare routine:
Look to ingredients like hyaluronic acid and facial oils that’ll deliver some much-needed moisture to your skin. Go for a gentle AHA exfoliant that’ll get rid of dead skin cells so your skin can absorb your moisturizing products better.
Oily
Oily skin types have an overproduction of sebum, leading to shiny/greasy skin, with pores that look larger and tend to get clogged easily. For that reason, it’s more prone to blemishes and breakouts — but on the plus side, it’s also less prone to wrinkles.
Your skincare routine:
Counterintuitive as it might seem, make sure your skin’s getting enough moisture. Part of the reason it’s so oily may be because your oil-control skincare products are overly drying (such as those that are alcohol-based or contain sulfates), forcing your skin to produce more oil to compensate for the lack of moisture.
Look for lightweight products that are noncomedogenic, meaning they won’t clog your pores. Incorporating a BHA exfoliant like salicylic acid in your routine will also help better clean out your pores.
Combination
As the name implies, combination skin means different areas of your face have different skin types, and thus different needs. Usually the T-Zone (forehead, nose) is oily, while the U-Zone (cheeks, chin, jaw) is dry.
Your skincare routine:
The goal is balance, so either use different products on the different areas of your skin, or use overall skin-balancing products — try looking at gels, which should be fine for both oily and dry skin.
READ MORE:
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