To find the ideal means for caring for your skin, you need to know its characteristics. Cosmetologists distinguish four types of facial skin: normal dry, oily and combination.
In happy owners of normal skin, the level of fat and moisture is balanced, the pH level is 5.5. The skin looks smooth, healthy, the pores are even, small. On a healthy skin, there are rarely irritations, there are almost no pimples and acne. With proper care for such skin, you can prevent the appearance of early wrinkles.
With dry skin, the sebaceous glands work poorly, so it has a dull matte shade. Dry skin often flakes, becomes rough, wrinkles and cracks form quickly on it. The pH level of such skin is lowered, from 3 to 5.
Very often dry skin painfully affects external stimuli, such as sun, wind, water, etc, as well as new cosmetics. Cosmetologists classify such a skin as "hypersensitive" and recommend using special cosmetics for sensitive skin.
Causes of dry skin can be different: hot dry climate, lack of water in the body, dry air in the apartment during the heating season, age over 50, insufficient protection of the skin from external factors, etc.
Apply cleansing milk or lotion on a cotton swab and cleanse the skin of the face. Wait for about an hour, then take a mirror and approach the light. We answer the following questions:
• Look at the pores of the skin. With a dry type, they are small, almost invisible. The blackhead is not at all.
• Dry skin looks dull, matte, to the touch - slightly rough, in color - with a pink or reddish tinge.
• On dry skin wrinkles around the eyes appear up to 30 years.
• In sunny or windy weather, redness appears on dry skin.
If all these points apply to you, then your skin belongs to the dry type. If not all have coincided, test your skin for a mixed (combined type).
Mixed skin type combines the signs of normal skin (most often in the cheeks, temples, eyes) and oily skin (in the T-zone area - forehead, nose, chin). The face shade with the combined skin can be different on the cheeks and forehead. The level of pH-balance in different areas of the skin can vary from 3 to 6. In general, the mixed skin looks smooth and healthy, and with proper care of it, early appearance of wrinkles can be avoided.
We clean the skin with lotion and wait 1-2 hours. Then take a few sheets of tissue paper (you can use ordinary kitchen napkins) and press them to the nose, forehead, chin, cheeks.
With a mixed type of skin on those napkins that you put on your nose and forehead, there will be fatty traces.
If in the area of the T-zone you notice acne and oily shine, and the cheek skin looks even, it means that you can say with certainty that you are the owner of a combined skin type.
Mixed skin in the summer seems to be more oily in the T-zone area, and in the winter on the cheeks and forehead may appear irritation and dryness.
Fatty skin can be recognized immediately. It is always noticeable greasy shine, well visible large pores. As a result of excessive work of the sebaceous glands in the pores of the skin, corks are formed - acne. Oily skin is prone to inflammation, rashes and pimples. Most people in adolescence have faced this problem.
Oily skin has its own plus - it is resistant to wrinkles. Due to the fact that the skin is always covered with a thin greasy film, it retains the necessary moisture level. The pH level for oily skin can reach 6.
In order to say exactly, if your skin can be called oily, you need to pass a simple test. Clean your face with a lotion or tonic and prepare a sheet of tissue paper. After an hour, press the paper to each part of the face in turn: to the forehead, nose, cheeks, chin. If on each leaf you find traces of fat, then your skin belongs to a fatty type. If the skin on the cheeks does not leave fatty traces, rather you are of the combined type.
With a greasy skin type, you can find acne not only on the nose, but also on the cheeks. The skin looks faded, pierced with large pores, poorly supplied with blood. With any external stimuli, the skin reacts with the appearance of acne.