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Tips to Figure Out Your Skin Type
There are many factors to take into consideration when it comes to caring for your skin, but your skin type is the most important. This essentially describes how balanced your skin is and will greatly influence the level of care, along with the type of products, that your skin needs.
For some people, figuring out their skin type is easy. Their skin displays clear characteristics that haven’t changed over the years, meaning that neither has their skin type. However, for others, things aren’t quite so simple. Everything from the weather and your environment to your age and your skincare habits can cause your skin type to regularly change, making it difficult to pinpoint.
The good news is that Vine Vera is here to help! Read on as we share the top methods for figuring out your skin type, along with some extra tips to help ensure that your skincare efforts are meeting your skin’s requirements.
But First…What Are the Main Skin Types?
Before you start trying to work out what your skin type is, you need to first have an understanding of all of the skin types. This way, you’ll be able to identify which of the characteristics from the different skin types your skin has:
- Oily skin – this skin type is easily recognizable due to the excess sebum that it produces. This gives the skin an oily feel and a shiny finish. Pores often tend to be larger and more noticeable on oily skin while acne breakouts are common.
- Dry skin – the opposite of oily skin, dry skin doesn’t produce enough oil. This leaves it looking dull and feeling rough. In cases of severe dryness, the skin can also peel, flake, and crack. Make sure that you don’t confuse dry skin with dehydrated skin, which refers to a lack of moisture. This is a condition that all skin types can experience.
- Combination skin – this skin type is a combination of dry and oily skin. Some parts of the face display characteristics of dry skin while others are oily.
- Sensitive skin – due to a compromised skin barrier, sensitive skin is, as you may have guessed, easily sensitive. Discomfort, irritation, redness, and itching are all common when the skin is exposed to stressors.
- Normal skin – with oil production being perfectly balanced, normal skin is the easiest skin type to work with. This is the skin type with the least visible skin concerns to deal with.
How do you determine which skin type is yours? Here are four methods that you can turn to:
Method 1: The Wash Test
One of the easiest and most accurate ways to identify your skin type is with the wash test. Choose a day when your skin feels relatively calm – don’t carry this test out if you’ve just spent all day in the sun without SPF or you’ve been shoveling snow for hours.
Start by cleansing your skin. Using a mild cleanser is absolutely essential. You don’t want to subject your skin to any harsh ingredients or potential irritation as this will only throw off your results. Go with a gentle, sulfalte-free formula, such as the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Mousse Cleanser.
Once your face has been cleansed, gently pat it dry with a clean towel. Then, wait for 30 minutes. After this, take a close look at your skin in the mirror. If it feels dry, tight, and uncomfortable, this is a sign of dry skin. On the other hand, if it looks shiny or feels greasy, this signifies oily skin. Combination skin will show signs of both, usually with the cheeks feeling dry and the T-zone looking oily. If your skin type is sensitive, you’ll likely be feeling some form of irritation, whereas normal skin would experience none, or very little, of the above.
Method 2: The Blot Test
Although the blot test isn’t much help in identifying sensitive skin, it’s still a great way to determine whether your skin type is dry, oily, or combination.
Unlike the wash test, don’t carry the blot test out soon after cleansing as this can skew results. Instead, wait until midday, once your skin has had time to settle but before too much environmental damage takes its toll.
For this test, you’ll need a sheet of blotting paper. Press this against different areas of your face before holding it up to the light to see how much oil it has absorbed. The more oil that the sheet holds, the oilier your skin type is. If there is no oil, or very little, on the sheet, then this means that you have dry skin. Meanwhile, if the sheet only absorbs oil from your T-zone, then this points toward combination skin.
Method 3: The Day Test
The day test is another easy way to figure out your skin type. However, its accuracy can vary depending on the environmental factors your skin has been exposed to that day. For example, even if your skin type is oily, spending the day in a dirty and heavily polluted environment could trigger sensitivities that may make you think that your skin type is sensitive. So, for best results, pick an average day when your skin hasn’t gone through too much turmoil.
For this test, all you need to do is carry out your regular skincare routine in the morning and then go about your day as usual. Once evening rolls around, it’s time to take a look in the mirror to assess your skin.
If your face looks and feels greasy, this means you have oily skin. If it looks flaky or rough, this is a sign of dry skin. Combination skin will display a shimmer in some areas combined with dryness in others while sensitive skin will likely feel irritated by the end of a long day. As always, none of the above means that you probably have normal skin.
Method 4: The Derm Test
If you’ve already tried all of the three methods detailed above but are still confused about what your skin type is, a visit to your dermatologist would be the next best step. Often, a dermatologist will be able to immediately tell what your skin type is simply by looking at it. However, if this doesn’t provide any answers, they’ll have other tools available that will help to accurately determine this.
Many dermatologists turn to photographic methods to identify skin types. Certain filters clearly show blood vessel distribution, which will tell you whether or not you have sensitive skin. They’ll also show changes in pore size, skin texture, UV exposure, and more. All of this in-depth information will not only enable you to pinpoint your skin type but will also provide clues into your skin’s other requirements.
What’s Next?
So, now that you know what your skin type is, what exactly should you be doing with this information?
The main purpose of figuring out your skin type is so that you can then ensure that the products you’re using and the routine that you’re following are genuinely beneficial for your skin. Here are a few important tips to keep in mind:
Oily Skin
With oily skin already producing so much excess oil, you’ll need to learn how to care for your skin without clogging up your pores, which would only lead to acne breakouts. This involves using lightweight, non-comedogenic products.
Try to prioritize products that hydrate the skin while also rebalancing how oily it feels. The Vine Vera Resveratrol Chianti Revival Serum does this beautifully. It’s brimming with hydrating ingredients, including sodium hyaluronate, seaweed extract, peptides, and ceramides. It also contains a number of ingredients that will help to lighten the look of acne marks and other forms of hyperpigmentation, bringing you a clear and healthy complexion.
Dry Skin
Since dry skin doesn’t produce enough oil on its own, your skincare routine should be geared toward compensating for this. How? With the use of rich moisturizing ingredients.
You’ll find plenty of them in the Vine Vera Resveratrol Pinot Noir Phyto-Silk Mask. This is a leave-on mask, making it fantastic for giving dry skin the extra moisture that it craves. It also contains several ingredients that will soothe and revive your complexion, making it ideal for countering the look of dullness.
Combination Skin
With combination skin featuring two skin types in one, providing the right care can be difficult. While you could use separate products on the oily and dry areas of your face, life becomes much easier if you can find skincare products that can safely be used on all skin types.
Take the Vine Vera Resveratrol Cabernet Toner, for example. It boasts hydrating ingredients that all skin types will love, along with aloe vera and chamomile to soothe the feeling of irritation. The witch hazel extract will help with your oily areas by minimizing the look of large pores.
Sensitive Skin
You need to be very careful when caring for sensitive skin because it often doesn’t take much to trigger a reaction. The products that you use should be free from common irritants while also featuring plenty of soothing ingredients to keep the skin feeling calm and relaxed.
Sun protection is also absolutely essential. Although important for all skin types, it’s even more so if your skin is already damaged and sensitive. Look for a product that offers a minimum SPF of 30, just like the Resveratrol Cabernet Replenishing Moisture Cream SPF 30.
Normal Skin
Normal skin is the easiest skin type to care for. This gives you plenty of options when it comes to deciding which products to use.
Since normal skin doesn’t have any serious skin concerns, keep your daily skincare routine relatively basic. A cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen should form the three main steps that you follow each day. A hydrating antioxidant serum, such as the Vine Vera Resveratrol Vitamin C Serum, would also be a great addition to your regime.
Skincare For Every Skin Type From Vine Vera
While some skincare brands only produce products for certain skin types, Vine Vera caters to all. Whether your skin is dry and flaky, greasy and acne-prone, red and sensitive, or somewhere in between, you’ll find everything that you need and more to care for your skin from the Vine Vera online shop.
