How to Work Out Your Skin Type (Most People Get This Wrong)

Nearly every routine recommendation starts with know your skin type, and then nobody explains how to work it out. So people guess, guess wrong, and spend months treating a problem they do not have.

The confusion that causes most of it

Dry and dehydrated are not the same thing, and mixing them up sends people to entirely the wrong shelf.

Dry skin lacks oil. It flakes, feels rough rather than tight, tends to run in families, and is usually a lifelong setting rather than a phase.

Dehydrated skin lacks water. It feels tight, looks dull and flat, and it happens to oily skin just as readily as to dry skin. It is a temporary state — caused by weather, over-cleansing, air conditioning or too many actives.

Oily skin that feels tight after cleansing is dehydrated, not dry. Reaching for a heavier cream will not fix it, because oil does not solve a water problem. See Hydration.

The bare-face test

Cleanse with something gentle, pat dry, and then put nothing on your face at all. Wait an hour and look properly.

• Shine everywhere, including cheeks — oily.
• Shine on the forehead, nose and chin only — combination. This is the most common result by a distance.
• Tight, possibly flaking, no shine anywhere — dry.
• Comfortable, no shine, no tightness — normal, and you can stop reading.

Do this in the season you are actually in. Most people shift between combination in summer and dry in winter, and the routine should shift with them.

Sensitive is not a fifth type

Sensitive is a state that can sit on top of any of the four. And it splits in two, which matters:

Genuinely sensitive skin has always reacted — to fragrance, heat, wind, certain plant extracts. That is a setting you work around permanently.

Sensitised skin used to be fine and is not any more, almost always from too many actives introduced too quickly. That is a state you can reverse, and the fix is subtraction rather than another product: a gentle cleanser, a plain moisturiser and sunscreen, nothing else, for a fortnight.

If your skin stings when you apply things, that is a barrier problem before it is a type problem. Start at Ceramides.

What each type actually needs

Oily and combination. Stop stripping it. Aggressive cleansing makes skin produce more oil, which is the loop most people are stuck in. Lightweight gel textures, niacinamide to regulate sebum over time, a mild acid two or three nights a week. See Oily & Combination.

Dry. Humectant first to pull water in — hyaluronic acid or snail mucin — then something occlusive on top to stop it leaving. Apply to damp skin and seal within a minute. See Dry Skin.

Combination. It is entirely fine to use different products on different parts of your face. A lighter cream on the T-zone and a richer one on the cheeks is not fussy, it is correct.

Sensitive. Nothing aggressive: centella and cica, PDRN, oat, panthenol. See Sensitive Skin.

The honest summary

Almost everyone is combination and dehydrated, and almost everyone is treating themselves as oily and over-cleansing because of it. If you are unsure, hydrate properly for two weeks before you change anything else — a lot of what people call oiliness settles down on its own once the skin stops compensating.