Is your skin dry? Is it oily? Normal? Combination? Sensitive?… or what about… dehydrated?
Figuring out what your skin type is can help you decide on the best kind of external skin care ingredients to use. Here’s a quick description of each:
- Oily – skin produces more oil than it needs. Like a fair bit of oil will come off on your finger when you touch it.
- Dry – skin doesn’t produce enough oil, feeling very dry and maybe flakey to the touch
- Normal – skin produces just the right amount of oil .. not particularly dry or oily to the touch
- Combination – some of the skin on your face is one thing, and other parts another. Like an oily t-zone but dry cheeks, for example
- Sensitive – skin overreacts to external stimuli, usually by producing redness
- Dehydrated – skin lacks water, making it feel tight and prune like (think of a grape vs a raisin)
Okay so here’s something new that I have learned recently which is why I’m writing this blog post:
It’s that dry and dehydrated doesn’t mean the same thing.
For example, lots of people report having oily skin that also feels dry. So what’s up with that? How can you have oily AND dry skin at the same time?
What they actually mean is that their skin is oily and dehydrated.
“Dry” refers to a lack of oil, but “dehydrated” is referring to a lack of water.
So if your skin is oily (or it’s dry, but you just moisturized really well) … but it still feels tight, dry, and prune like… then you are actually lacking water in your skin.
If you refer back to the last post on the skin barrier function, you’ll understand that a lack of water happens in the skin due to a dysfunctional skin barrier, which allows water to evaporate out.
As I mentioned in the last post, without water in the skin, the pores tighten and start trapping dead skin and other debris, like makeup or irritating chemicals from products. This eventually can lead to acne or red, blotchy skin.
Lack of water also just makes your skin look dull, accentuates any “fine lines” you may have (again, think of grape vs raisin), and just feels uncomfortable.
So if you go back and check out the last post, you’ll get some pointers on what causes skin barrier dysfunction and how to get it functioning better. Which will also result in less water loss from the skin.
This post was just a quickie, but next post we’ll go over in detail how to moisturize properly in order to balance your skin’s oil production, and also keep it retaining water.
What’s your skin type?
Elizabeth Resnick says
July 28, 2016 at 6:18 pmGreat post Tracy! My skin is naturally oily but has become much more balanced with oil cleansing. Now that I have stopped obsessively removing every trace of oil, my skin has stopped over producing it! There have been times in the past when it was oily and dehydrated. This has happened sometimes due to external stuff, like too much sun and wind. Thankfully that seems to be a thing of the past now that I am treating it so much more gently.
Rachael says
July 29, 2016 at 9:21 amAwesome post, thanks for the information! I usually have combination skin, but it gets WAY sensitive and dry right after my moon time each month!
I wonder if it’s dehydrated skin as well. I’m sure I need to up my water intake as well.
Looking forward to your next post!
Tracy Raftl says
July 30, 2016 at 5:18 pmThanks Rachael!
sean says
August 1, 2016 at 7:09 pmHey tracy I hope you are well 🙂
This is my first comment on here and yes I am a guy but that should not matter. I love to take care of my skin also!
This is a fantastic post and I really love your homepage!
I will be reading more 🙂
Tracy Raftl says
August 1, 2016 at 10:01 pmWelcome Sean! Glad you enjoyed the post 🙂
Ricki Jones says
August 2, 2016 at 2:13 pmMy son has been “oily and dry” as you say, and we’ve been looking for solutions, but nothing has been working. He also has a dry scalp and is rapidly losing all of his hair. So needless to say I’ll be looking thru your content for solutions. Thank you!
Naomi says
August 6, 2016 at 1:47 pmI feel as though I have tried all of yours and other peoples suggestions with no improvement. I have improved my diet to the best of my abilities, healed my gut after learning i had a parasite, changed my skin care to hardly doing anything other then putting a bit of oil on it, tried to be less stressed( although this one can be a bit hard sometimes) and tried to get more exercise. I am very happy that I was able to heal my gut because it had a lot of inflammation due to the parasite I got rid of but this all started with me trying to improve my skin and i haven’t been able to do that it seems at all. I just dont know what to do anymore.
Tracy Raftl says
August 8, 2016 at 3:14 pmHi Naomi, I’m sorry to hear you’re still struggling! Have you had your hormones tested?
Melissa Armstrong says
January 11, 2017 at 7:33 pmhttp://www.cleanseintruth.com
Charlene says
August 11, 2016 at 1:23 pmThank you! Simple and informative post. So many people don’t really know what their “skin type” is, yet it’s so important to know. Also a good majority of people don’t know the difference between dry and dehydrated, and you have explained it perfectly. 🙂
Tracy Raftl says
August 12, 2016 at 8:58 amThanks Charlene! 🙂
Kimmy says
October 11, 2018 at 12:11 pmI have a question, I have a damaged moisture barrier. And I cant tolerate any chemical moisturizers or cleansers. The only thing I can tolerate is albolene( which is practically vaseline) and glycerin. The oils that are high in linoleic acid are too striping and the ones that are high in oilec acid are nice bit they penetrate deep into my skin and cause irritation. What do you recommend I do, I need an oil that will work for my skin
Tracy Raftl says
October 14, 2018 at 10:05 amHi Kimmy, try cucumber seed oil, it’s what I recommend when you have really sensitive skin. Use a bit of glycerin and aloe (or glycerin and water if aloe is too strong at this point) onto wet skin, and then one drop of cucumber seed oil to lock in the moisture
Kimmy says
October 15, 2018 at 10:36 amThanks, I’ll try it! I am currently trying out argan oil, patch testing hoping it works for me…. because shea butter and almond oil did not work.