Skin Care For Your Face

The skin on your face is its armor that protects it from the elements. The first step to taking care of it is preventing damage. A lot of environmental factors such as sun, wind, pollutants contribute to most skin problems. Common skin problems include dry and itchy skin, sagging, wrinkles, age spots and color changes. Fortunately there are steps you could take to make your skin looking and feeling its best and keep it that way.

In order to determine how to deal with your skin problem it is important to identify which skin type you have so that the appropriate facial skin care regimen can be applied.

Oily skin

One way to identify oily skin is the shine it produces on the skin. It is shiny, thick and dull colored. Chronically oily skin is prone to black heads, acne and other upsetting blemishes. Oily skin looks and feels very greasy with coarse texture and large, visible pores.

Skin care plan: The greatest advantage of having oily skin is that this type ages at a slower rate that the other skin types. Soap and water can help clean the skin and using a cleansing bar is a good way to care for it. Your purpose in keeping your oily skin clean is to kill acne-causing bacteria.

Dry Skin

Dry skin produces low level of sebum and tends to be sensitive. It has a parched look because of its inability to retain moisture. Dry skin has the look of being dry, sometimes flaky and most often feels tight, especially after being washed with soap and water. It has a papery and thin texture containing fine pores. There are times that it lacks sebum that helps protect the skin. This results to skin tightening during very hot and very cold weather. It is easily chapped and cracked in a dry atmosphere.

Skin care plan: This skin type requires special facial skin care products like creamy cleansers and not soap. Mild, alcohol-free make up and toner, and a rich, creamy cleanser are your best bet in caring for this type of skin. You need to moisturize your face daily. Include the throat and the skin surrounding the eyes.

Combination skin

Most people have this type of skin. There is an oily center area or a T-zone across the forehead, nose and chin. There are dry areas on the cheeks, and around the eyes and neck. One area may be flaky and dry and another area might be oily and prone to breakouts of acne. This skin type has medium pores, a smooth and even texture, good circulation, healthy color.

Skin care plan: The ideal regimen should be a dual approach: treat the oily areas with products for oily skin and treat the dry areas with products for dry skin. However, this is expensive and unnecessary unless the dry and oily areas are very different. You can use a skin cleanser for the central oily part, and use it diluted with water for the drier areas. You may have to do experiments to find out if the drier areas need or not frequent moisturizing.

Other things to consider besides the basic skin types:

Climate: this is most important if you live in an extremely dry or humid area. The moisture or lack of it in the air, can definitely affect your skin. Changing from one climate zone to another may require a change in your facial care regiment.

Age: along with the rest of the body, skin changes with age. Wrinkles, dryness, sunspots or even acne may occur. Their presence may require different strategies in facial care.

Sun exposure: requires daily monitoring and protection with sunscreen. Many facial moisturizers and sunscreens have ingredients for this purpose. This makes it easier to apply as part of your daily beauty maintenance schedule.

Caring for your facial skin is not based on a whim; it should run all through your life. Your skin care plan may need to be altered over time due to the effects of aging and the environment on your skin.