Knowing your skin type is essential to choose the right products for your needs. Before giving you some examples of tests to determine your skin type, let’s define what differentiates one skin type from another.
What is a skin type?
The different skin types
There are five main skin types: oily, dry, combination, sensitive and mature.
Oily skin
Oily skin has large pores and is prone to blackheads. Oily skin is often thick and tends to be shiny at the end of the day.
Skin is usually greasiest at the beginning of the menstrual cycle when estrogen levels are at their lowest. It can also become oily due to external factors, such as pollution, stress, or choosing dehydrating products, which dehydrate the skin and cause a natural protective reaction.
Dry skin
The characteristics of dry skin are easy to recognize: rough, it tends to be tight and peeling. Dry skin lacks sebum and needs to be deeply nourished.
Environmental factors, such as significant climate changes, wind, seawater, or chlorine, can dry out the epidermis.
Combination skin
Combination skin, as its name suggests, is halfway between oily and dry skin. It is characterized by a T-zone (forehead, nose, chin) that is somewhat oily and prone to blackheads, while the cheeks are dry or normal.
Combination skin requires special attention, with products that mattify the T-zone and moisturize the cheeks.
Sensitive skin
Sensitive skin is particularly reactive to external aggressions: cold, wind, humidity… Oily, dry, or combination skin can be sensitive.
This type of skin will tend to redden under cold, wind, and heat and is often subject to cosmetics allergies. Sensitive skin, therefore, requires special attention to ensure that the right products are chosen.
Mature skin
Mature skin (also known as senescent skin) has a slackened, wrinkled epidermis that has lost its tone. Mature skin needs adapted care to regain its radiance and youthfulness.
Observing your face
Your face speaks for itself and should give you many clues about your skin type. To accurately determine your skin type, first, observe :
Its complexion (bright, dull, or greyish), Its thickness, The level of dilation of the pores, The presence or not of comedones, shine, and where they are located, Its texture to the touch (soft, rough, or somewhat oily and moist).
If you have: a dull complexion, A thick epidermis, Dilated pores with a strong tendency to have blackheads, The skin shiny to the naked eye and moist to the touch, then your skin is oily.
If you have: a dull and relatively fair complexion, Thin epidermis, Tight pores with few blackheads, Face rough to the touch,
Then your skin is dry and probably quite sensitive.
If you have: fair complexion on the cheeks but shiny in the T-zone, Fairly thick skin, Shiny T-zone, with large pores and many blackheads,
Then you have combination skin and possibly sensitive skin too.
If you have: a greyish complexion, Thin and increasingly sensitive skin, Significant sagging skin, then your skin is mature.
If you cannot define the above criteria with certainty, you can proceed with the tissue test, after which you will know your skin type.
The tissue test
The tissue test is performed on a cleansed face.
Thirty minutes after cleansing your face, place a tissue on it and press it against your skin for about 10 seconds.
Look at the tissue under the light to see how much oil is left. Oily skin will leave traces on almost the entire tissue. Combination skin will leave traces only on the T-zone, while dry skin will not.
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