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.