Facial Skin Care

Skin Care for Your Face: According to Your Skin Type

Skin care should be designed to fit your type of skin. Some people are lucky enough to have normal skin, but most of us are not that lucky. Your teen and young-adult years are a time when your oil glands tend to be overproductive. There are great skin-care products on the market today; I wish we had had them when I was a teen.

Type of Skin What to Do For Your Face Care

Dry Skin: You tend to have dry, tight, flaky skin due to underproductive oil glands. For some people, this means less acne.
PLAN: Wash your face once or twice a day with a mild cleanser (nothing that calls itself "soap," but "cleansing" or "beauty bar"). Soaps have too much detergent in them for your skin. Use a sensitive-skin bar or sensitive-skin face wash. Follow this with an oil-free moisturizer. If it has a sunscreen, better yet, but do that in the morning.

Oily Skin: Your oil glands are working overtime. Your skin is shiny and your pores tend to get clogged, causing blackheads, whiteheads and zits.
PLAN: Wash your face twice a day with a medicated cleanser. The gels seem to work better. Neutrogena Acne Wash is great for this. Then use a toner or witch hazel. A good product is Neutrogena Clear Pore Oil Controlling Astringent. Try the inexpensive witch hazel first, but it may dry out your skin. For acne use: 2.5 percent benzoyl peroxide lotion (the generic brands work fine). If it dries your skin, take some days off from using it. Don't use the 5 percent or 10 percent benzoyl peroxide.

Combination Skin: This is what most of us have. Your T-zone (see Skin Care) is oily, while your eye area, cheeks and sometimes neck are dry.
PLAN: If you can spend the time and the money, you should use different products for the different areas. But it’s simpler to use one cleanser. Wash once or twice a day with a mild milky or exfoliating cleanser. Use Biore Mild Daily Cleansing Scrub to exfoliate and unclog pores. Apply an alcohol-free toner that contains some salicylic acid to the T-zone and a 2.5 percent benzoyl peroxide to the oily areas at night. Use an oil-free moisturizing lotion on your dry areas. (Clinique Moisture In-Control Oil-Free is good, but costs more than the Neutrogena products.)

Normal Skin: Lucky you! (Although you may tend to get zits before your period if you are female.)
PLAN: Wash your face twice a day with a mild cleanser, like Neutrogena Clear for Normal Skin or Basis Clear Face Wash. You may want to use a moisturizing lotion afterward, like Neutrogena Moisture. If it seems to cause you to break out, stop using any moisturizer. You may not need it. Dove products may be fine for you.