A GUIDE TO IDENTIFY YOUR SKIN TYPE! – Basic Skin Care

There are 5 basic skin types: normal, oily, dry, combination and sensitive. Before buying your cosmetics, toiletries and other products, do make sure that it is suitable for your skin type. Here’s how to classify your skin correctly…

NORMAL SKIN: It is smooth textured and evenly toned with tiny pores.

This skin type has a balanced oil and water content. Feels smooth and velvety. The colour of the skin glows below the translucent surface. This skin type definitely needs care if it is to last.

What you need to follow as a rule is regular cleansing, toning and moisturizing.

OILY SKIN: This type of skin has over reactive sebaceous (oil-producing) glands, which makes the face shiny especially down the central panel-of your nose, forehead and chin.

The pores of this skin type are enlarged making it prone to black-head, pimple and Acne.

Oily skin needs special cleansing to keep the pores unclogged. Women with oily skin need to adopt a daily proper method of cleansing to prevent accumulation of dirt on the skin surface.

DRY SKIN : This type of skin lacks both sebum and moisture. It looks fine textured, transparent, patchy and fragile. This type of skin flakes and chaps easily compared to other skin types. Tiny expression lines may be obvious.

Signs of a dry skin are:
(i) Flaky patches that disappear with regular moisturizing.
(ii) Finely textured with the pores not being visible.
(iii) Tiny expression lines that do not disappear.
(iv) The skin of neck and cheeks looks creepy.

To prevent further drying up of the skin what is needed is a good, healthy balanced diet, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, 7-8 glasses of water, eight hours of sleep, exercise in fresh air and daily beauty regime.

Avoid harsh soaps to prevent loss of natural oils and exposure to sun and air-conditioners which rob the water content of the skin.

Contributed by: Women Ftness (http://www.womenfitness.net), a complete online guide for women to achieve optimum health and fitness. Headed by Ms Namita Nayyar, Women Fitness offers latest information on diet, exercise, beauty, motivation and other women-related issues.”

“COMBINATION SKIN: It is very common and requires separate treatment for each area. It is oily down the central panel and dry on the cheeks.

The forehead, nose and chin need extra attention as they may be prone to clusters of blackheads and enlarged pores.

Remember that oil is not moisture, and regular cleansing, toning and moisturizing has to be done with the area being dealt in mind. Clean and tone up the oily patch and moisturize the dry patch with extra care.

Guidelines for caring a Combination Skin

SENSITIVE SKIN: This type of skin reacts externally and internally to changes in life. Can be both oily and dry, it can be easily disturbed by skin-care products and cosmetics. It tends to go blotchy and have broken veins at the same time, it might show a flushed or reddened look or might even itch.

You might need to consult a Dermatologist in serious cases, in other instances proper care and attention can help you to survive with this kind of skin type.

Apart from these major skin types, there might be other exaggerated versions of major skin types, like dehydrated skin, acne-blemished skin, ageing and hydrated skin.