Determining skin type

The right treatment and care for your skin depends on your skin type. Before you start treating and caring for your skin, you should first determine your skin type.

Oily skin: produces too much sebum

You have oily skin when:

• your skin is shiny because of excessive sebum secretion, you have an oily sheen on your face
• you often suffer from pimples (comedones) (pores are clearly visible)

Your skin may be flaky and you may sometimes suffer from acne.

Oily skin contains too much sebum. It has an uneven skin surface (more problems with pimples) with deep, wide pores. The skin is shiny due to excessive sebum secretion. The horny layer is thickened with a poor complexion (usually yellowish and pale). Oily skin can also be scaly and is sometimes prone to acne.

Dry skin: produces too little sebum

You have dry skin when:

• your skin has a thin horny layer
• your skin is flaky and lacking in grease (oil).
• the pores are barely visible
• your skin is thin, sensitive and easily irritated.

Dry skin lacks sebum and feels dry all over your face and scalp.

Dry skin is more susceptible to premature skin ageing, such as wrinkles.

Combination skin

You have combination skin when:

• your skin feels tight in places
• the skin on your cheeks and around the eyes feels normal or dry.
• the chin, nose and forehead (T-zone) are shiny and have light comedones

Combination skin is a combination of dry, oily and normal skin.

With combination skin, you have an oily T-zone (forehead, nose, chin) and normal to dry skin on the rest of your face. The T-zone is shiny and slightly prone to impurities, pimples and blackheads (comedones).

Dehydrated skin

You have dehydrated skin when:

• your skin is lacking in moisture
• your skin feels tight and tense
• your skin looks dull

Dehydrated skin is less supple, dull and even unfresh, feels more sensitive, contains fine dry lines and wrinkles, feels itchy and tight and lacks moisture.

Sensitive skin

You have sensitive skin when:

• your skin reacts quickly to products (redness or dry, red patches).
• you are bothered by temperature differences (cold or heat)
• your skin quickly becomes red when touched

Sensitive skin is skin that is out of balance. It manifests itself in redness, itching, burning, dryness, chafing, prickling and/or tightness.

Normal skin: produces normal sebum production

You have normal skin when:

• your skin is smooth (soft)
• your skin is resilient
• your skin has a fresh colour due to good circulation.
• the pores are small, the same everywhere and barely visible.

Normal skin is soft, resilient and even. It has a fresh colour due to good circulation. The nose and chin may be a little oily and therefore shiny. The pores are small, even and barely visible.

Conclusion

With the help of the above information, you can determine your own skin type. Do the test by asking a family member, friend or acquaintance to determine your skin type using the information above. Do your conclusions correspond? Then you can be sure that you are right.

Again: if you have skin disorders, it is best to consult a doctor or dermatologist. A beautician can also determine your skin type.

In addition to determining your skin type, it is also important to check whether there is a skin condition that needs to be treated by a doctor or dermatologist.

Good to know:

There are actually four basic skin types for a healthy skin: dry, oily, normal or combination skin.

In addition, you can also speak of sensitive skin or dehydrated skin. In addition, there are also other skin characteristics such as mature skin, rosacea skin, impure acne skin, etc.

The condition of our skin, however, can vary greatly according to the different internal and external factors it has to deal with.

Questions?

Do you have specific questions that you would like to see answered in this blog? Don't hesitate to send your questions by mail to heidi.geuns@hgts.be.

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This blog text was created in cooperation with a beautician.

- Translated from Dutch by Tamara Swalef -