What Type of Skin Do You Have?

from skin care

To create perfect skin you have to treat each individual cell within it perfectly. You need to know if the cell needs more water, less oil - or just leaving alone to calm down and stop getting hot and bothered. The only way you're going to do this is to know your skin type. Now, you may think you know this already, but many of us are wrong. For starters, skin types change with age, so oily skin in your teens doesn't mean oily skin in your twenties, thirties or forties. Skin types can also change with the seasons, as temperatures affect the levels of oil and water in the skin; they can change with your diet, and even according to the time of the month. So to truly know your skin type, you have to reassess it regularly. Doing so is easy-just answer the following questions and see which letter you choose most often.

First thing in the morning, take a look at your face in bright light. What do you see?

1. It's shiny with noticeable blackheads
2. It looks flaky and feels taut
3. My forehead, chin and nose are shiny, the rest is tight and flaky
4. It's very pale, and there are occasional red or flaky patches
5. The surface is dull, I'm low on colour and there are noticeable lines and wrinkles

Wash your skin with some plain soap and water. Wait for about 20 minutes - now what do you notice?

1. It looks less shiny
2. It looks and feels tighter - plus it's gone a grey colour
3. It's less shiny on my nose and forehead but now my cheeks feel dreadful
4. It's itchy, red and flaky-thanks a lot
5. My lines and wrinkles are even more noticeable - but I've got some colour back into my skin tone

Do you get spots?

1. Yes, I'm prone to blackheads, whiteheads or big red ones that hurt
2. Not really - only around my period or if I use thick moisturizer
3. Only on my nose, forehead and chin
4. Yes, but they're red rather than whiteheads -or I get rashes
5. Very rarely

Look at your nose and the area around it-what do you notice most?

1. Blackheads, whiteheads and oil
2. Flaky patches and redness around my nostrils
3. That my nose and cheeks look like they're from two different faces - my nose is shiny, my cheeks are dull
4. There are lots of little red veins and high colour on my cheeks
5. I've lots of open pores

Take your index finger and lightly press your cheek upwards. What do you see?

1. Nothing really
2. I get loads of tiny lines like crepe paper that vanish when I stop
3. Some lines appear, but when I stop pressing they go away
4. The area goes white, then red or it feels hot
5. I get folds of skin forming and it takes a while to snap back to normal

Now get a magnifying mirror-or at least stand in some really bright natural light. Look at your pores - what are they like?

1. Big, black and shiny
2. Practically non-existent
3. Some lines appear, but when I stop pressing they go away
4. Big on my nose, chin or forehead, but non existent elsewhere

Apply your make-up as normal in the morning, then at lunchtime take a long hard look in the mirror. What's happened?

1. What's left of it is shiny, but most of it has disappeared
2. It's gone blotchy and flaky
3. My cheeks aren't so bad, but my nose is shiny
4. My skin looks a bit red and irritated
5. It's settled on the lines of my face or looks dry