The key to product selection and balanced skin
By Valli Manley B.C.N.D, CNHP
Skin Analysis:
As an Esthetic educator for 9 years for the state of New York, and practitioner for 23 years; as an instructor, I would get my best results with skin when my students and I typed the skin, assessed conditions, and then treated the skin accordingly.
In order for you to select products for your skin, let’s look at the different skin types, and conditions, and how you may be able to help bring your skin into optimal health, turning back the hands of time and creating a new more radiant you.
Many people shy away from oil in products, but with regard to anti-aging, oil is not your enemy it’s actually your friend. Close your eyes and visualize a piece of tissue, ball it up, and then open it up and spread it on a flat surface, the tissue will have wrinkles. If you take a small amount of water and oil and pour it over the tissue, the wrinkles will become relaxed. The same thing happens with the application of the right skin care products that are for your skin. When you apply products that are specific to your skin type, you will bring balance to the skin.
Let’s take a look at the differences between skin types and conditions:
SKIN TYPE: Is the amount of oil that the skin produces. The categories that come under skin types are, normal skin, dry skin, and oily skin or a combination of any of the three.
SKIN CONDITIONS Are conditions that present that can be a characteristic of any skin type. Examples of these would be visible sensitivity (redness), acne lesions, pigmentation abnormalities, dehydration, elasticity, or texture issues. These conditions can present in all three skin types. The key to addressing and correcting these conditions is understanding why they present!
Normal Skin:
Normal skin is skin that has a perfect balance of oil and water, very few people have this skin type. This skin type usually has small visible pores on the outer parts of the face, and as you move into the t-zone, the pores become slightly larger. The skin is usually unblemished, with a smooth texture.
Dry Skin:
Dry skin by definition is skin that underproduces oil. Visually the skin has small to invisible pores, the skin is thin, and the texture of the skin is like that of an apple.
If there are any visible pores, they are usually around the nose area. One of the common mistakes with dry skin types is that they tend to use products that are too astringent for their skin type.
These products include sudsy cleansers, and toners that strip the skin of the minimal oil that may produce, this causes oil to rebound (when the skin is forced to produce oil because it has been stripped). When this happens, they will break out with pimples, and use products for acne skin which only exacerbates the condition, and further strip the skin.
Oily Skin:
Oily skin is skin that overproduces oil. The pores tend to be large and can resemble the skin of an orange or a lemon.
Common Conditions:
Acne:
When the skin overproduces oil, and the person does not have enough linoleic acid to keep the oil thin, the oil will be too thick and cannot flow freely to the surface of the skin. When this happens, the pores become clogged with oil and dead skin cells.
There is a bacterium that lives in everyone’s follicle, but it does not become a problem until oxygen is prevented from aerating in and out of the follicle. The bacteria is called the propionic–bacterium, it’s anaerobic and multiplies out of control and causes acne to erupt when the follicle is void of oxygen.
Dehydration:
Dehydration is when your skin lacks water. It can be present on any skin type. If you are using harsh products that strip the skin of hydration, or products that don’t provide hydration, the skin can become dehydrated.
Hypersensitivity:
Hypersensitivity can present if the skin comes into contact with an allergen, or a harsh ingredient in a product. It can also present if a product is too astringent and strips the protective oils and ceramides that support healthy skin barrier function.
In order to have balanced skin, it’s important to use the right products that will balance your skin. It’s important to have an accurate analysis to match the product to your skin type and condition.
Healthy skin needs a balance of oil and water, so for this article, I’m going to deal with the traditional blends which are oil and water and water and oil emulsions.
If your skin, based on an accurate assessment is oily, then you may need a product that is water-based with a minimal amount of oil. Oil in water emulsions have more water than oil, and they are formulated for skin that produces more oil. If you produce oil, you don’t need a lot of the oils that sit on top of the skin and may cause congestion that may lead to breakouts.
If you have dry skin then you may need a product that has a higher percentage of oil, so that would be an oil-in-water emulsion. This type of product will give your skin the protective oil content it doesn’t produce on its own.
The key to great products is their ability to bring balance to your skin. Stay tuned for more information on the benefits of oil cleansing and how to assess your skin type.