Skin type: Determine exactly how to care for your skin

If you want to care for your skin properly, you first have to know your skin type. Knowing this will help you purchase the right products to protect and nourish your skin even more. Whether you’re a fan of bold looks or the no-makeup makeup look, your canvas, i.e. your skin, should always look and feel good before you start applying makeup.

But how exactly do you determine the type of skin you have? There are easy and inexpensive ways to experiment with to understand what your skin needs before consulting a pricey dermatologist. Firstly, you can wash your face with a mild cleanser, dry it gently and then wait half an hour before examining your skin. Are some areas shiny? When you smile does your face feel tight? Wait another half hour to see how your skin looks. The second method you can try is mostly for people with oily skin. Use a blotting paper (or coffee filter) and blot your skin. If there’s a greasy residue on the paper, you most likely have combination or oily skin and if there’s isn’t any, then you have dry skin. Let’s discover the different skin types through careful analysis.

Dry skin

Pretty self-explanatory, dry skin is indeed dry. So dry that you feel a tightness in your skin all day long and you will notice dry patches or even flaking. Dry skin is usually due to your genetics, the environment you live in and your lifestyle. If you are noticing flaking, then it means your skin is dehydrated so drink lots of water! Use a daily exfoliant to wash your skin so your serums and creams will be absorbed more easily or an oil cleanser, which is packed with moisturizing oils.

Combination skin

Combination skin is usually when some parts of your face get dry, while others get oily. The oily parts are your forehead, nose and chin (known as the T-zone), while the dry parts are your cheeks and the circumference of your skin. Don’t worry, you don’t have to choose between a greasy forehead of flaky cheeks. Wash your face with a gel or lotion cleanser and add moisture only to the parts of your skin that feel dry. Those with combination skin need to learn to divide and conquer.

Oily skin

Are camera flashes your worst nightmare? Oily skin tends to cause breakouts so you want to use a clay-based cleanser or anything with salicylic acid to prevent clogging your pores and creating pimples. A water gel moisturizer will hydrate your skin without leaving you with a shiny residue and your makeup melting off your face.

Sensitive Skin

Do you get red patches on your skin? Or does your skin fire up when you apply certain products? You might have sensitive skin. Always test new products in the inside of your arm before applying them to your face. There are, of course, tons of products specially made for sensitive skin that are worth a try!

Once you’ve determined your skin type, you will find it much easier to care for your skin. Let’s not forget, your skin is your body’s largest organ, after all, you want to treat it with care!

Cover photo: @katekerrlondon_facialist | Instagram