What is the best skincare routine for combination skin?
- Use a cleanser that doesn’t strip your face from natural oils
- Target your issues with a toner and/or serum
- Use a moisturizer. If you feel more on the oily side, use a more lightweight, water based moisturizer
- End the routine with SPF. Always.
Do you know if you're combined..?
As many of us know by now, having that great skincare routine set in place gives a sense of satisfaction. But sadly, that great skin care routine might only be great a short while. Especially since our skin needs vary due to so many different factors like climate, seasons, stress, hormones (I mean just those monthly cycles just kills sometimes, am I right?) etc. And let’s not forget about genes.
One thing to focus on first though is what your skin care needs are according to your skin type.
Do you have a combination skin? Welcome to the club. Checking around it looks like there is a slight majority that claims to have combination skin. Now, let’s just check if that’s true for you (if you’re unsure).
These are the signs of having combination skin:
-You get oily mainly on your forehead, nose and chin which is called the T-zone.
-Your cheeks feel dry after washing your face, but you don’t feel it on the T-zone.
-You have enlarged pores on the T-zone.
Ok, checked them off? Congratulations you’re in the combinations club. Now, it doesn’t stop there. Having combination skin (or any other skin type really) can also mean that you’re sometimes really oily or quite dry. You can also be a bit oily but also have a dehydrated skin which often, but not always comes with age.
Dehydrated and life less skin.
A sign that your skin lacks hydration is the sign of your skin looking duller and almost a bit gray. You can se more fine lines around eyes and mouth (even though it’s also a part of aging and neither negative nor unnatural). When you age, the skin becomes more dehydrated naturally but there are things you can do to help your skin a bit against the worst signs of dehydrated skin.
-Smoking and alcohol seem to affect the skin quite a lot so less is more in this case.
-Less stress can help the skin and Its overall look.
-More water if you’re body needs it. This topic is a bit discussed. The recommendations have long been that water makes the skin look better, but the studies are a bit inconclusive. You can drink liters (or gallons) of water and the skin can still be dehydrated. Drink an amount that makes you feel good and that should at least not be the reason for your dehydrated skin.
-Add hydrating ingredients or products to your skin care.
-Don’t age (kidding).
The best skincare routine for combination skin
Ok, so this is a bit difficult to promise since we all have different needs and may live in different areas of the world and with that, different climates, genes and different outside stressors etc. Generally, you need one routine for the morning and one for the evening. More on that topic in a later post. Hope you’ve enjoyed your reading!
Let us start with the basics for a skincare routine for combination skin.
Cleansers
If you have acne prone skin, then you might want a cleanser that has, for example salicylic acid. Salicylic acid is great against acne but if you plan on using that ingredient in a toner or a serum than that may be too much for your skin. A tip also is to avoid a cleanser that is too stripping. You want to avoid having your face feeling super dry after cleansing it, you want to keep some of your natural oils in your skin. Especially if your face is dehydrated.
A good oil-based cleanser is great, even if you’re oily.
Serums
It’s easy to go overboard and wanting to use every serum under the sun but my recommendation is: don’t. Choose one or maximum two things to target at this step.
-Is your skin feeling dehydrated? Add a hyaluronic acid (not an actual acid that you may think of).
-Is your skin oily and acne prone? Niacinamide is great to target that as well as problems with pigmentation and more.
-Do you feel like you want to target acne scars and other post inflammatory hyperpigmentation marks (as in dark or red scars)? Vitamin C is awesome for that and helps strengthen the skin against UV exposure, against signs of aging, scars and promotes collagen production. This ingredient is recommended to use for the daytime and not nighttime because that’s when it is most efficient.
With combination skin you might want to target different areas for different things and that works too. Maybe Niacinamide on the T-zone and hyaluronic acid on the cheeks?
Moisturizer
Yes, this is an important step, especially if you have dehydrated skin. You can here both add extra moisture to your skin, prevent the skin of loosing more water and lock in the added benefits that you had at your previous step. It protects your skin in many ways.
SPF/Sun screen
Do you want to make sure that you’re giving your skin the best prerequisites for the future? Use an SPF daily. Adapt the strength to the season if you want to but make sure to have that in your daytime skin care routine. And a small heads up: no SPF in make-up is not enough protection.
To summarize the best skincare routine for combination skin
The best routine for combination skin is adapted to your specific needs and that means that you may need some different products depending on the situation and on different areas of the face.
Start by having the basic steps, serums depend on the specific needs and is the product where you target issues you might have like acne, hyperpigmentation etc. Make sure to always moisturize and above all (kind of); don’t forget the sunscreen.
More on how to differentiate between a daily routine and a nightly routine in a later post. Hope you’ve enjoyed your reading so far!