How to know your skin type?Updated a year ago
While the concept of skin types isn’t medical, there are still moments when it can be useful. Skin type is basically a question of how much or how little sebum (i.e., a protective blend of lipids or “oils”) your skin excretes.
Skin types aren’t a perfect science because oil production exists on a spectrum, and it can change based on factors like age, hormonal fluctuations, and certain medications. The most valuable part of learning your skin type is actually learning to listen to your skin.
So without further ado, here are the fundamentals for figuring out your skin type:
- Oil production is the primary factor. If your skin often gets shiny during the day, perhaps even a few hours after you’ve washed it, you’re on the oilier side of the spectrum. If it doesn’t, you’re on the dry side of the spectrum. You can even touch your skin to see if it feels greasy. Since this is a spectrum, the determination isn’t binary!
- Pore size is a convenient shortcut, especially for those under 40. Larger pores often correlate with oilier skin, while smaller pores correlate with dry skin. You can expect the pores in the center of the face and the forehead tend to be larger than those on the cheeks and jawline. That said, with age, this becomes less prescriptive.
- Finally, and we’ll touch on this more below, don’t forget to consider your main skin concerns. We can simplify and say that those with oily skin are more likely to have acne and those with dry skin are more likely to experience flakiness or dehydration. More often than not, though, this can confuse the process, since it’s still possible to experience acne when you have dry skin or dehydration when you have oily skin. So definitely take note of your skin concerns, but don’t depend on them to determine your skin type.