How to determine your skin type?

We identify four major categories of skin and here are their characteristics:

• If you have dry skin, your sebum production is insufficient. This phenomenon creates a feeling of tightness, discomfort, redness, and flaking on the skin. Your skin also appears dull and rough to the touch, with wrinkles and fine lines being more pronounced (accentuating skin ageing), your skin is thinner, lacks shine and its pores are tightened, even almost invisible.

• If your skin is smooth, soft, neither too oily nor too dry, if it has few imperfections, if it does not shine, if your pores are smooth, if your complexion is even and you do not feel any discomfort or tightness, then your skin is of a type referred to as normal.

• You probably have combination skin, if the skin in the T-zone (forehead, nose, chin) is oily while the skin on the cheeks, temples and jawline is normal (meaning it doesn't feel tight, it's even and doesn't shine), your pores are enlarged and visible, and it may show blemishes along the midline of the face.

• If your complexion is shiny, your skin tends to gleam across the entire face, it is thicker, the skin texture is uneven, it is prone to blackheads and blemishes, and your pores are enlarged, in this case, you most likely have oily skin.

However, in addition to these four skin types, you may have to deal with skin conditions that can change depending on the season, age, sun exposure or even hormonal fluctuations. These skin conditions can affect all skin types and can accumulate:

• Dehydrated Skin : Dehydration can affect all skin types, even combination to oily skin. It is caused by a lack of water present in the skin, unlike dry skin which lacks oil. It causes a temporary feeling of tightness in specific areas without necessarily peeling, presents fine lines and a lack of complexion radiance.

• Sensitive Skin : Skin is considered sensitive when it quickly shows signs of distress and becomes warm. Indeed, it reacts excessively to external aggressions, stress, and emotions. Individuals with sensitive skin experience a feeling of discomfort: the skin feels tight, presents persistent redness, and frequent skin irritations.

• Mature Skin : With age, the production of collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid gradually decreases, leading to skin sagging, wrinkles and fine lines, pigmentation spots, loss of elasticity, firmness, volume, and skin radiance, under-eye bags, and dehydration.

• Acne-prone skin: Contrary to popular belief, acnedoes not only affect individuals with oily skin or teenagers. Indeed, many women, regardless of skin type, suffer from hormonal acne in adulthood.