Skin Type?

 

 

WhaT iS Skin Type?

Simply put, skin type is the description and interpretation of how and why your skin looks, feels, and behaves as it does.

The four most common and relatively helpful skin-type categories used by the cosmetics industry are:

1.     Normal (no apparent signs of oily or dry areas)

2.     Oily (shine appears all over skin, no dry areas at all)

3.     Dry (flaking can appear, no oily areas at all, skin feels tight and may look dull)

4.     Combination (oily, typically in the central part of the face, and dry or normal areas elsewhere)

Often blemish-prone skin is included under the oily or combination skin types, though it is sometimes listed as a skin type all by itself. Occasionally, sensitive skin may be listed as an individual skin type. However, I feel strongly that all skin types should be considered sensitive, and I’ll explain why in just a moment.

As nice and neat as those four (or six) categories may be, and they are an excellent start- ing point, the truth is that understanding your skin type is more often than not far more complicated, which is why lots of women find identifying the skin type an elusive, chang- ing puzzle that never settles down in one specific direction. Yet understanding your skin type is incredibly important, and just not in the way the cosmetics industry approaches it or the way we’ve been indoctrinated to think about it. First, skin type is never static. The variations of what is taking place on your skin can not only change season to season but month to month and even week to week. Adding to the complexity is the strong possibility of skin disorders such as rosacea (which affects more than 40% of the Caucasian popula- tion), eczema, skin discolorations, precancerous conditions, blackheads, sun damage, and whiteheads. Four or six categories of skin type just can’t cover it.

When it comes to determining your skin type you need to forget what you’ve been taught by cosmetics salespeople, aestheticians, fashion magazines, and even some dermatologists. The typical categories of normal, oily, dry, and combination are good basics, but they don’t address every nuance, and they can change and fluctuate with everything from the weather to your stress levels.

Why is recognizing all the nuances of your skin type so important? Because different skin types require different product formulations. Even though many skin types often need the same active ingredients such as sunscreen agents, antioxidants, cell-communicating

 

 

ingredients, and so on, the base they are in (lotion, cream, gel, serum, or liquid) should match the needs of your skin type. Skin type is the single most important factor influencing the decisions we make about the kinds of skin-care routines and products we buy. But we need to be careful about the way we categorize our skin or the very products we thought would help could actually make matters worse.

 

WhaT influenceS Skin Type?

Almost everything can influence skin type, which is why it can be so tricky to attribute a single skin type to what you see on your face. Both external and internal elements can and do impact the way your skin looks and feels. To effectively evaluate your skin and determine the correct skin-care routine, here are some of the factors that need to be considered:

 

Internal Influences:

•          Hormonal changes (pregnancy, menopause, menstrual cycle, and more all cause skin conditions to fluctuate from oily to breakouts, skin discolorations, and dryness)

•          Skin disorders (rosacea, psoriasis, dermatitis, with each one posing its specific concerns)

•          Genetic predisposition of skin type (oily versus dry, prone to breakouts, sensitive skin)

•          Smoking (cause of necrotic skin that cannot be corrected by skin-care products)

•          Medications you may be taking (some birth-control pills can increase oily skin and breakouts while other types can actually improve the appearance of acne)

•          Diet (there is research showing a diet high in antioxidants and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids can improve the appearance of skin)

External Influences:

•          Climate/weather (cold, warm, moist, dry)

•          Your skin-care routine (over-moisturizing or over-exfoliating, using irritating or dry- ing products, using the wrong products for your skin type can create skin problems that weren’t there before)

•          Unprotected or prolonged sun exposure (the major cause of wrinkles and skin discolorations)

•          Secondhand smoke (see above)

•          Pollution (creates additional free-radical activity that damages collagen and the skin’s genetic stability)

These complex and often overlapping circumstances all contribute to what takes place on and in your skin, which in turn determines your skin type.

 

Will My Skin Type change?

Absolutely! Another problem with skin typing is the assumption that your skin (and skin type) will be the same forever, or at least until you age. That, too, is rarely the case. If your skin-care routine focuses on skin type alone, it can become obsolete the moment the

 

 

season changes, your work life becomes stressful, or your body experiences hormonal or diet fluctuations or other physical changes, and whatever else life may bring.

To complicate things even more, in any given period you may have multiple skin types! It is not unusual for women to have a little bit of each skin type simultaneously or at dif- ferent times of the month or week. An overview of how your skin behaves and changes is necessary to assess what your skin needs so you can then respond by applying the appropriate products to those problems areas.

 

Will i ever have “norMal” Skin?

It depends on how you define normal. As far as the cosmetics industry is concerned, every woman can and should have normal skin. Yet acquiring normal skin is like trying to scale a peak with a slippery, precarious slope. At some point you are going to take a wrong step. And if you have normal skin, at some point it isn’t going to be normal any more. Like the rest of our bodies, skin is in a constant state of change. Even women with seemingly perfect complexions go through phases of having oily, dry, or blemish-prone skin—and then there are all the issues related to sun damage or merely growing older. In reality, no one is likely to have normal skin for very long, no matter what she does. Chas- ing after normal skin can set you on an endless skin-care buying spree, running around in circles trying everything and finding nothing that works for very long or that makes matters worse.

In any case, identifying skin type is highly subjective. Many women have really wonderful skin but refuse to accept it. The smallest blemish or wrinkle or the slightest amount of dry skin distresses them. Or some women see a line or two around their eyes and immediately buy the most expensive anti-wrinkle creams they can find in the hope of warding off their worst imagined nightmare. This is one of those times where being realistic is the most important part of your skin-care routine.

 

coMbinaTion Skin iS The MoST confuSing Skin Type

Identifying your skin type is made a lot more difficult by the all-encompassing combina- tion skin type. Almost everyone at some time or another, if not all the time, has combination skin. Physiologically, the nose, chin, center of the forehead, and the center of the cheek all have more oil glands than other parts of the face. It is not surprising that those areas tend to be oilier and break out more frequently than other areas. Problems occur when you buy extra products for combination skin, because many ingredients that are appropriate for the T-zone (the area along the center of the forehead and down the nose where most of the oil glands on the face are located) won’t help the cheek, eye, or jaw areas. You may need separate products to deal with the different skin types on your face because you should treat different skin types, even on the same face, differently.

 

 

unSeen Skin TypeS beloW The Surface

Another limitation of skin type is that it cannot address skin-care needs that may not be apparent on the skin’s surface. For example, sun damage is not evident when you are younger, but sun protection is imperative for all skin types. Oily and dry skin present at the same time, along with some redness, may be an early sign of rosacea, not just a sign of combination skin, and rosacea is a condition that cannot be treated with cosmetics and is not easily diagnosed. What you see on the surface of the skin does not always indicate the type of skin-care products you should buy.

 

Skin-care producTS can influence Skin Type and noT in a good Way!

One other important point: The skin-care products you use can influence your skin type. Judging skin type simply by looking at your face and feeling your skin won’t necessarily identify the underlying situation. For example, if you use an emollient cleanser and follow it with a drying, alcohol-laden toner, and then an emollient moisturizer with a serum un- derneath, that could very well be causing you to have noticeably combination skin. Using a moisturizer that is too emollient for your skin could be causing breakouts. Using skin-care products that contain irritating ingredients could cause dryness, irritation, and redness. You may think you have a particular skin type, but you may be looking at your skin’s reaction to the products you are using.

 

everyone haS SenSiTive Skin

More than 60% of women worldwide feel they have sensitive skin (Sources: Skin Research and Technology, November 2006, pages 217–222; and British Journal of Dermatology, August 2001, pages 258–263), and though many physicians feel that this is at best an exaggera- tion, the truth is these women do have sensitive skin and I would suspect the number is much higher.

Regardless of your primary skin type, ethnic background, or age, minor or major ir- ritating skin conditions can be present, even those you can’t feel. The skin can burn, chafe, or crack, and you may have patchy areas of dry, flaky skin related to weather conditions, hormonal changes, the skin-care products you use, or sun exposure. Skin can also break out in small bumps that look like a diaper rash. Skin can itch, swell, blotch, redden, and develop allergic reactions to cosmetics, animals, dust, or pollen.

If that isn’t enough to make you itch just a little, then think about the number of cosmetics most women use daily. The average woman uses at least 12 different skin-care, makeup, and hair-care products a day, with each one, on average, containing about 20 different ingredients. That means her skin is exposed to about 240 different cosmetic ingredients on any given day. The fact that any of us have skin left is a testimony to the skin’s resiliency, the safety of the majority of cosmetic ingredients, and the talent of cosmetics chemists. Whether we like it or not, most of us will react to something along the way, perhaps even daily.

 

 

Your skin is the protective armor that keeps the elements and other invaders from enter- ing the body. We protect most of our anatomy with clothing, but our faces are left painfully exposed to everything. It’s no wonder the skin on our faces acts up now and then. Sensitive skin is probably the most “normal” type of skin around.

Everyone has the potential to have or develop sensitive skin given what it goes through, so women of every skin type should heed the precautions for sensitive skin. What are the precautions? There is really only one and it goes for all skin types: Treat your skin as gently as you possibly can. Whether you think of your face as oily, dry, or mature, you still need to be gentle with your skin and avoid things that cause irritation.

 

MaTure Skin folly: Skin Type haS noThing To do WiTh your age

Older skin is different from younger skin; that is indisputable. Yet it is a mistake to buy skin-care products based on a nebulous age category. Treating older or younger skin with products supposedly aimed at dealing with specific age ranges does not make sense because not everyone with “older” or “younger” skin has the same needs, yet it’s a trap many women (especially older women) fall into. An older person may have acne, blackheads, eczema, rosacea, sensitive skin, or oily skin, while a younger person may have dry, freckled, or obvi- ously sun-damaged skin. Products designed for older, “mature” skin are almost always too emollient and occlusive, and those designed for younger skin are almost always too drying. The key issue with skin type needs to be the actual condition of your skin, not your age.

In fact, regardless of age, all skin types, young and old, need sun protection, lots of anti- oxidants, ingredients that mimic skin structure, and cell-communicating ingredients. These types of ingredients are of the utmost importance for skin care, and age doesn’t change or alter that in any way. While wrinkles may tend to separate younger from older skin, your skin can still be oily at 60 and you can still struggle with breakouts. Not everyone in their 40s, 50s, 60s, or 70s has the same skin-care needs. In a way it’s simple: You need to pay attention to what is taking place on your skin, and that varies from person to person.

 

doeS Skin color or eThniciTy affecT Skin care?

Regardless of skin color or ethnic background, all skin is subject to a range of problems. Almost always these skin problems have nothing to do with skin color or ethnic background. Whether it is dry or oily skin, blemishes, scarring, wrinkles, skin discolorations, skin dis- orders, skin sensitivity, or even risk of sun damage, all men and women of all colors and ethnic backgrounds share similar struggles and require the same products to improve the situation. So, while there are some distinctions between varying ethnic groups when it comes to skin problems and skin-care options, overall these differences are minor in comparison to the number of similarities.

Think of this in relationship to diet. Despite differences in ethnic backgrounds what constitutes a healthy diet is the same for everyone. As humans, all of us need a diet high in antioxidants, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, whole grains, lean protein, and on and on.

 

 

The same is true for your skin: What is healthy or helpful for skin is the same regardless of skin color or ethnicity. (Sources: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2007, pages 1225–1231; Pharmacological Research, March 2007, pages 199–206; and Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, September–October 2006, pages 377–385.)

According to an article in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (February 2002, pages 41–62), “People with skin of color constitute a wide range of racial and ethnic groups—including Africans, African Americans, African Caribbeans, Chinese and Japanese, Native American Navajo [and other] Indians, and certain groups of fair-skinned persons (e.g., Indians, Pakistanis, Arabs), and Hispanics.... There is not a wealth of data on racial and ethnic differences in skin and hair structure, physiology, and function. What studies do exist involve small patient populations and that often have methodological flaws. Consequently, few defini- tive conclusions can be made. The literature does support a racial differential in epidermal melanin [pigment] content and melanosome dispersion in people of color compared with fair- skinned persons. Other studies have demonstrated differences in hair structure and fibroblast size and structure between black and fair-skinned persons. These differences could at least in part account for the lower incidence of skin cancer in certain people of color compared with fair-skinned persons; a lower incidence and different presentation of photo aging; pigmentation disorders in people with skin of color; and a higher incidence of certain types of alopecia [loss of hair] in Africans and African Americans compared with those of other ancestry.”

One arena where differences do exist was explained in Contact Dermatitis (December 2001, pages 346–349). They noted that “There is a widespread, but largely unsubstantiated, view that certain skin types may be more susceptible to the effect of skin irritants than oth- ers. One expression of this would be that certain ethnic groups may also be more likely to experience skin irritation…. In this study, we have investigated 2 carefully matched panels of Caucasian and Japanese women volunteers to determine their topical irritant reaction, both acute and cumulative, to a range of materials. The results indicated that the acute irritant response tended to be greater in the Japanese panel and this reached statistical significance with the stronger irritants. Cumulative irritation was investigated only with the weaker irritants and, although again the trend was to a higher response in Japanese compared to Caucasian panelists, this rarely reached significance.” But in the long run, irritation is a problem for all skin types so all women need to treat their skin gently and not use products with sensitizing ingredients.

Throughout this book I will point out the special needs, concerns, and treatment options that affect men and women of color when they differ from those of Caucasian skin types. But beyond that, nearly everything in this book, and especially the chapter on inflammation and irritation, is true for everyone.

 

deTerMining your Skin Type

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 combina- tion 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 sec- tions 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 blem- ishes, 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 sun- screen 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 nonir- ritating. 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 appro- priate 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.