Combination skin is a mix of dry skin in certain areas, and oily in other areas. Usually the oily area is your ” T Zone ” This area is the forehead and nasal area. The cheek and jaw areas tends to be dry. Combination skin is often a symptom of the skin condition called seborrhea and its cousins, seborrheic eczema and seborrheic dermatitis. The Seborrhea is an over production of oil in the scalp and face. If you notice dandruff in your scalp and even in your eyebrows, see a dematologist for help.


To care for combination skin, you need to treat your skin areas differently. Use mild cleansers twice a day to clean your skin. Cleansers with salicylic acid in them will reduce oil production. After cleaning, use an oil free moisturizer. Apply the moisturizer throughout the day to dry areas of your face. For dandruff, use a dandruff shampoo every other day until the dandruff clears up and then you can cut back the use to twice a week. if you like to use facial masks, buy two different ones for the different areas of your face. Apply one for oily skin on your T zone and one for dry on the rest of your face.

In terms of a sunscreen, make sure that it is oil free. Oil free should be the way to go with all products. Oil free products will not dry out your already dry areas of your face.

If you have oily skin then your skin will be shiny and your pores are enlarged and prone to blackheads and blemishes. While other skin types like sun damaged and dry are somewhat easy to camouflage with makeup and lotions, having oily skin is not. Often, even with many layers of makeup, the shininess of your skin will creep through.

Caring for oily skin is a bit time consuming but well worth the effort. Having oily skin mostly will affect your face, while dry skin tends to be all over. So the fact that you mainly need to only concerntrate on one area of your body makes it a bit easier.

The first thing to know is that you should wash your face 2 to 3 times a day with soap and water. If for some reason you are not going to be able to do so, carry a disposable facial cleaning pad, made for your skin type, with you. You will most likely need to experiment with different cleansers and soaps to find one that works for you the best.

When you take a shower or bath, you need to use warm water. Hot water will remove needed moisture from your skin. Now after reading the previous sentence you may be thinking that it does not make sense. The thing to realize is that moisture and oil are not the same. Moisture is needed to keep your skin in balance and removing such moisture has nothing to do with oil production.


When using suncreen and moisturizers read the bottles closely and make sure that they are noncomedogenic. This means that they are oil free and non pore clogging. You should also consult a dermatologist and ask about retinoids. Retinoids are a class of drugs that will reduce production of oil glands and help decrease them in size as well.

Oily skin is believed to be hereditary to some degree so there may not be much to do to get rid of it entirely, but following the above suggestions should help. Another thing to keep in mind, and this goes for most skin types, keep an eye out for triggers like stress and hormones, and sometimes even foods that can cause your skin to break out and get worse.

If you have dry skin then you might have flaky, tight, itchy skin. Dry skin can be wrinkled, sallow and has very small pores. This skin type is very prone to aging quickly and irritation. Treating your dry skin and making it normal, is not hard if you follow a few guidelines.

First and foremost, drink a lot. Drinking water that is. Aim for 8 to 12 glasses of water a day. This will moisturize your skin from the inside out.  If this is too much water for you at first, slowly build up to it. Another important thing is to not wash your face more than twice a day, and do so with a mild facial cleaner designed for dry skin. These cleaners have the right moisturizers built into them to not dry your skin out.

As much as a long leisurely shower or bath sounds good, you need to try to keep your bathing to the shortest amount of time possible, and with warm not hot water. Also, unless absolutely necessary, do not bathe more than once a day. While not recommended often, if you do decide to take a bath, add a few drops of olive or lavender oil to the water to help prevent your skin from getting too dry. Limit your soap usage to the groin and underarm area. For the rest of the body, use a body wash designed for dry skin. You should not use a towel and rub your skin dry, instead pat it. This will dry you off  but at the same time leave some moisture on your skin to help not dry it out.


While you are still damp, you should moisturize your body with a lotion or cream. When you buy a moisturizer look for a few key ingredients. Look for ingredients such as glycerin, alpha hydroxy acids, urea and lactic acids (binders), combined with petrolatum, lanolin or silicone derivatives (barriers). The barriers will keep moisture in the skin and the binders pull water from deep in the skin and bring it up to the top layer.  You can seek professional help to find the right moisturizer for you , though trial and error is your best bet.

The last piece of advice is to try to keep a balanc eof humidity in the air around you. Air that is too dry or too hot will dry your skin out quickly. It may be easy to keep the air balanced at home but if you work in an office, then it may be harder. At work, drink a lot of water and keep some moisturizer close by and apply as needed.

Following the above suggestions closely should bring your skin closer to a normal balance.

There are many different skin types. Each skin type has its own characteristics and different ways to take care of  so learn your skin type before you buy products to treat it.

If you have normal skin then your skin is smooth and evenly toned. You have small pores as well. This is the least problemsome skin type and the easiest to care for. The levels of water and oil are even so that the skin is neither oily or dry. Just because your skin is well balanced, you still need to make sure to take care of your skin to ensure that it stays that way.

• Drink lots of water. Drinking water will keep your skin hydrated. Ideally you want to aim for 10-12 glasses of water but reality is, any amount of water is better than no water so just drink as much as you can.

• Exercise 30 minutes a day. If you are unable to get to a gym, walk around your block.

• Wash your skin with gentle cleaners, There is no need for anything harsh, in fact if you use a harsh cleanser you will do much damage to your skin and easily turn it to either oily or dry. A simple water and baby soap is all you need to use twice a day. Follow the wash with a mild astringent and toner.

• At night, apply a thin layer of a moisturizer before bed, this will keep your skin from getting too dry at night.

• Before applying makeup, use a thin layer of moisturizer.This will keep your skin form drying out or gettiing oily. When buying makeup, try to make sure that at least your foundation includes a sunscreen. If your other makeup products include sunscreen, all the better.

• Use a non drying mask every two weeks to help smooth the skin’s surface and promote circulation.

Once your skin is normal, try your best to keep it this way. By following the above suggestions, it should not be too hard to do so.