You probably have heard about skin types before, but what are they exactly? In this blog we will discuss how to determine your skin type and which ingredients and products you should look for. Let’s begin!

An easy way to determine your skin type is to carefully study your bare skin. You can start by washing your face with a cleanser. Then, gently pat dry with a soft towel and don’t apply any skincare products. After 30 minutes, observe your skin. 

What does it look like? Does it appear shiny on your cheeks and T-zone? Then you might have oily skin. Or, does your skin feel tight and have flaky areas? Your skin is most likely dry. If you see an unbalanced mix of oiliness and dryness, you likely have combination skin. If you don’t notice and type of particular oiliness or dryness you most probably have normal skin.

Another way to determine your skin type at home is to press a clean blotting sheet on various parts of your face. Then, hold the sheet up to a light to see how much oil was absorbed. 

Your skin type will generally be dependent on how much oil is visible, meaning the more oil on the paper, the more likely you have oily skin. If there is little to no oil visible, you most likely have dry skin. If the blotting sheet reveals minimal oil from your forehead and nose, your skin is probably normal or combination.

This one is tricky because there is a pretty good chance that you might feel like everything you are trying out is making you break out. Oily skin is more susceptible to acne because the excess sebum created by our skin clogs our pores, therefore leading to more breakouts. This overproduction even has a scientific name in dermatology, it is called “seborrhea”. Fancy, right?

What to look for: There are a plethora of products you can use to treat acne and/or excessive sebum production . AHAs, BHAs, benzoyl peroxide, sulfur, zinc aaaand my personal favorite, retinoids. Ingredients like niacinamide are also amazing for controlling “seborrhea”.

Many people with oily skin think that they cannot use oils, but short chained oils like squalane or oils that are rich in linoleic acid (a type of fatty acid that people with oily skin lack) such as rosehip seed oil can be wonderful to decrease the sebum production.

What to avoid: Usually oily skin has less sensitive properties, therefore it can handle harsher treatments. However this is certainly not to say you should exfoliate your skin constantly, use all the AHAs/BHAs etc. in moderation. 

Treating acne and excessive oiliness is not an easy task, it is one that requires a lot of patience. Many studies show that in the long run, lower percentages of acne treatments used with a lower frequency give excessively similar results to higher percentages of acne fighting ingredients used with a higher frequency. Time is your friend here. No need to rush things out because you might end up with a damaged moisture barrier.

In terms of ingredients, it is impossible to say, as everyone’s skin is different. Many people will bring up comedogenicity, however the tests that rate the comedogenicity of the products were done on rabbit ears, so my suggestion would be not to pay too much attention to them. But still, there are some ingredients like coconut oil and its derivatives (for example Caprylic/Capric/Coco Glycerides), vitamin e (Tocopherol) and lubricants such as isocetyl stearate etc might be good to look out for. As mentioned before this is certainly not a comprehensive list because it will be different for everyone.