Ideally, you should be using products that don’t create or reinforce undesirable skin types. Among the offending products are bar soaps and bar cleansers (both can artificially make skin dry and irritated), occlusive moisturizers (these can clog pores and make breakouts worse),
and skin-care products that contain irritating ingredients (causing redness, inflammation, and flaking), including astringents and toners loaded with alcohol and other potentially irritating ingredients. All of these can wreak havoc on the skin. It would be best, then, if the cleanser, toner, and moisturizer you were using matched your skin-care needs—meaning they would be as gentle and brilliantly formulated as possible. Even if that isn’t the case, from this point forward you will be better able to understand your skin type and know how to treat your skin appropriately with what is actually helpful for your skin.
Do not judge your skin type after you wash your face. Because the initial sensation you experience after washing your face can be your reaction to the water or the cleanser, you need to wait at least four hours after you’ve washed your face to accurately judge what is taking place on your skin. (Although with the right cleanser you can mitigate any discomfort after washing your face.) Try to do this assessment on a day when you are not wearing makeup so your foundation and powder won’t affect your evaluation.
Next, look in the mirror. Are there areas on your face that are noticeably shiny? Are those areas all over or just over the nose, cheeks, forehead, and chin? If you’re not sure, take a Kleenex and dab at your face. Wait another hour and dab again. If the Kleenex has oil smears on it, then you are presently dealing with some amount of oily skin (or possibly a moisturizer that is too emollient for you, but as you read the information about your skin type I can help you work through all this).
Do any areas of your face appear dry or matte? If the answer to this question is yes, then you are dealing with dry skin. For more information, see the chapter Solutions for Dry Skin.
1. Are some areas of your face both dry and oily? Then you are dealing with combination skin (though this condition can often be a result of using skin-care products that are both too emollient for your skin type and too drying, but we will work through all this). For more information, see the chapter Solutions for Combination Skin.
2. Whether your skin is dry or oily, do you notice areas of redness over the nose and cheek area that are accompanied by red bumps that look like blemishes but aren’t really pimples? Are there noticeable surfaced capillaries over these sections as well as areas of extreme sensitivity? Do you flush easily? If you’ve answer yes to these questions you may possibly have rosacea. Rosacea is a medical condition requiring the attention of a dermatologist. For more information about rosacea, see the chapter Solutions for Rosacea.
3. Do some areas of your skin tend to break out with small to medium size blemishes, particularly around the time of your menstrual cycle? If you’ve answered yes to this, you have mild to moderate acne. For more information, see the chapter Solutions for Blemishes.
4. Do some areas of your skin have more significant, consistent breakouts that are sometimes deep and painful and/or that lead to scarring? If you’ve answered yes to this you have more severe acne. For more information, see the chapter Solutions for Blemishes.
5. Do areas of your skin, particularly around your nose, chin, cheeks, or forehead, have noticeable blackheads? If you’ve answered yes to this you can have a mix of skin problems but dealing with blackheads takes some special steps. For more information, see the chapter Getting Rid of Blackheads.
6. Eventually all of us will see the impact of unprotected sun exposure on our skin.
If you see wrinkles and skin discolorations appearing, the primary cause will be sun damage that started from the first moments our skin was exposed to the sun when we were babies. Someone at the age of 20 or 30 may have serious sun damage, but the results of that damage won’t show up until later in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. Some amount of sun damage is universal for almost everyone, and it continues from the moment your skin sees daylight. Even diligent, daily use of a well-formulated sunscreen only filters up to 97% of the sun’s rays (but most of us weren’t even thinking about sunscreen when we were younger). Generally, we can all assume we have some amount of sun damage, so everyone’s skin has this condition. That means everyone needs skin-care products with ingredients that fight or prevent sun damage. For more information, see the chapters on Solutions for Wrinkles, and Sun Essentials
7. Do you notice skin discolorations on your face such as areas of new freckling or, for women of color, areas of gray or dark pigment? More often than not, these discolorations are a condition called melasma (also known as chloasma or pregnancy masking). Typically, these skin discolorations are either caused by sun damage or hormonal fluctuations. For more information about these conditions, see the chapter on Skin Discolorations.
8. As I explained previously, because everyone has sensitive skin to one degree or another, you must only use products that are gentle, nondrying, and nonirritating. So add sensitive skin to your skin type. For more information about what can trigger irritation, see the chapter on Irritation and Inflammation.
9. Do you have patches of raised, red, dry, white scaly, crusted skin around your hairline, nose, eyes, or cheeks? This may be a skin disorder called psoriasis or some other dermatitis, which requires medical diagnosis and treatment, potentially with prescription products.
If you have consistently puffy, swollen eyes, you may have allergies to dust or mold, or hay fever, though even food allergies can trigger swelling around the eye. You may want to discuss with your doctor the option of taking an antihistamine (there are great over-the – counter options) to see if that helps the condition. Regrettably, despite the claims, there are no skin-care products that can alter puffy eyes. All you can do is stop using products or engaging in activities that might be causing the problem, such as smoking, drinking too much alcohol, or using skin-care products around the eye (or anywhere on the face) that contain irritating ingredients.
As you modify and adjust your skin-care routine with products that are appropriate for your skin type, you will notice only positive changes that get you closer to the skin you want. Remember that skin type isn’t static: Even with appropriate, well-formulated skin-care products, your skin type can change depending on the season, your hormones, your stress level, and just the fact that skin does go through changes. You should reevaluate your skin as you notice differences, so keep this list close by so you can fully understand what you are dealing with and not blindly apply products that have no chance of helping.