Think you know your skin type? Think again! Some of the products you may be currently using can be giving you dry or oily skin.

Common causes of dry skin:

Using too harsh of a cleanser
Using too drying of a toner

Common causes of oily skin:

Using too rich of a moisturizer for your skin type
Not cleansing your face

The truth is even discovering your skin type does not guarantee that your skin type will remain the same. Changes in hormones, pregnancy, smoking and diet can all affect the type of skin your have.

There are typically four skin types:

Normal-typical in children pre-puberty (or in adults that I envy)
Dry-tends to have no noticeable pores
Oily-tends to have less wrinkles and larger pores
Combination (oily T-zone)

A good way to determine your skin type is using the lunch bag test. This test should be done in the morning upon rising before washing your face.


The night before

What you need to do is get a brown paper bag and cut it into five 2 x 2 squares approximately. Label each square as follows:

1. Forehead
2. Chin
3. cheek left
4. Cheek right
5. Nose

Put these squares aside you’ll need them the next morning.

In order to get an accurate gauge of your skin type, you must refrain from using any products on your face after cleansing. That means no moisturizer, no serums no facial masks, nothing nada zip zero. It’s one night, you can do it!

After washing your face with a gentle cleanser, relax and unwind your work is done until the following morning. Resist the temptation to do anything more. If your skin feels too tight and dry after cleansing it could be that your using to harsh of a cleanser for your skin.

The next morning provided you didn’t wake up in the middle of the night in a panic and rushed to put on a moisturizer, you can proceed with the test. Do this prior to washing your face!

Using each of the squares that you cut the previous night, press each one in the area that is indicated. After pressing the squares into the different parts of your face, examine them. Do any of them look greasy? Which ones?

If the only squares that look greasy are the Forehead, Nose and Chin (also known as your T-zone), but the cheek squares are dry then you, like most women have combination skin.

If all the squares are greasy, than you guessed it, you have oily skin. If there is no indication of greasiness on any of the squares, then you need to take a closer look, because you either have dry skin or normal skin. The difference between the two is:

Dry skin will have flakiness and also possible redness. Normal skin is more smooth no visible dryness or oiliness.

Now that you know your skin type, you can devise a skin care routine that is right for you!

You should test your skin type with the change of seasons. Some skin types tend to dry out in the winter and increase in oiliness during the spring and summer months. You must adjust your skin care routine accordingly. We’ll learn more about that in future articles.