What is My Skin Type?

The first and foremost step before commencing a proper skincare regime is to determine your skin type. While it may seem easy at the crux, only when you are actively looking to find your skin type, you will face the different issues associated with it. Of course, there are more than one skin concerns that we face, and our goal in building an apt skincare regime is to address all our skin concerns. However, from a cosmetic point of view, many aestheticians have segregated skin into 5 different types, based on sebaceous secretion, hydration, and sensitivity level. Therefore, based on these criteria your skin type can be determined.

Based on these characteristics, the five different types of skin are: oily, dry, normal, combination, and sensitive skin. One common way to determine your skin type is the Watch And Wait Method. Start by cleansing your face and waiting 30 minutes after. Analyze your results using our guidance on the pink cards below.

Oily skin: With porous, glossy, and bright appearance, oily skin is easier to spot. However, this can also be often confused with combination skin. Due to increased sebaceous secretion, the skin looks oily, is prone to acne, and is highly porous. People in their teens to early 30s, or who live in hot & humid cities, or who have genetically oily skin are more prone to fall under this skin type. Certain foods and some hormonal changes may also be cause for oily skin. Keeping the oil secretion in check is one of the biggest concerns of people with oily skin. Products like Zitlox Salicylic Acne Gel would do wonders for people with oily skin.

Dry skin: While dry skin is mostly temporary, due to harsh winters, low air humidity, usage of hot water, etc., for some people it can also be their lifelong skin type. While oily skin makes you prone to acnes, dry skin, on the other hand, make you prone to tightness, roughness, greying, skin breakouts, itching, desquamation, redness, etc. Dry skin is another type of skin that needs extreme caring and attention. Proper moisturising and keeping your skin away from environmental triggers can make your skin healthier and more rejuvenated. One of the go to strategies to make your dry skin plumper is to use a sleeping mask or seal all the skincare products with a facial oil, like the Vitality Nourishing Facial Oil.

Normal skin: While all the five skin types, nevertheless denote healthy skin, normal skin type is effortlessly simple to maintain and take care of. With no major issues or concerns, regular skin maintenance is all that is needed for normal skin. Sometimes, due to environmental and food triggers, your skin may go to being oily or dry, but that mostly is a temporary phase, and with the right amount of skincare and maintenance, your skin will be supple and healthy. Opt for sun protection like Protec Plus Mineral Sunscreen to keep your supple skin protected.

Combination skin: Often confused with oily skin, this type of skin presents characteristics of both dry and oily skin as the distribution of sweat and sebaceous glands in the skin is not homogeneous. Usually, the area with more oil is the T- zone (forehead, nose, and chin), while the rest of the face (skin on the cheeks) is normal or dry. The skincare for this skin type is a little more intense, but not complicated, you need to work with oily skin products for oily zones and normal moisturizer and sun protection for the rest of your face.

Sensitive skin: With heightened sensitivity to stressors, like sun, some skincare products, weather, etc, sensitive skin are often taught to deal with. People with this skin type struggle with redness, skin peeling, and even discomfort and itching regularly. That said, sensitivity of the skin isn’t always visible also, as it is sometimes just about how our skin feels. If you fall into this skin type, always try your products in sample size first and then buy full size bottles. Also, opt for soothing mist before applying rest of your skincare and makeup.

Apart from these five major skin types, there are also other additional types like scaly skin, which is extreme case of dry skin, aging skin, which is needs anti-aging and hydrating ingredients, and sun damaged skin. These are all issues that need to be addressed along with your skin concerns.

Now, you may wonder how to find which of the above five skin type, you fall into. You can find it by this method: Cleanse tout face with a soothing or hydrating cleanser and let it dry. After 20 minutes, if it gets oily or shiny, you have oily skin, if it is dry then you have dry skin, if only the T-zone is oily, then you have a combination skin, if you feel sensitive or irritated, then you have sensitive skin, and if none of this happens and your skin feels normal, you have normal skin.

So, now that you found your skin type, start building your skincare regime.

Read More:

• How Do Vitamins Benefit Your Skin?
• How To Repair Skin Barrier For Healthy Glowy Skin?