Understanding the Causes of Combination Skin

Is your skin undecided? Maybe a little two-faced?

Occasionally needy and unsure of what it wants?

Well, welcome to having combination skin.

It’s certainly a challenging skin type to treat.

Buckle up, because in this article, we will unravel the complexities of this skin type.

So you can learn how to treat your combination skin effectively.

What is Combination Skin?

This skin type can be part dry, oily, or normal in certain areas.

The most common combination skin types are dry with a normal T-zone or standard with an oily T-zone.

The T-zone often features large pores, shininess, and blackheads. Treating this area can be challenging because it requires a different skincare routine.

Interestingly, seasonal variations can also affect your skin, as this study demonstrates.

Self-diagnosis or looking at your skin will not result in a correct evaluation. A qualified skin therapist can perform a simple skin analysis test if you are unsure of your skin type.

A wood lamp is also an excellent tool for determining your skin type. It’s unique in that it uses a black light to reveal not only the areas of your skin that are hydrated, but also to detect your skin’s natural oil production.

It can determine any pigmentation caused by sun damage, genetics, hormones, and any unusual conditions that may be present under your skin and not visible to the naked eye.

Signs of Combination Skin

We recently surveyed our clients who have combination skin in our clinic.

This helped us understand their challenges, and the results speak for themselves:

• oily T-zone
• blackheads
• whiteheads
• sensitivity
• breakouts
• dryness
• flaky patches
• large pores
• dehydration
• red patches
• dry around the eyes

It’s no surprise, then, that it’s easy to become overwhelmed when treating a combination skin type.

Causes of a combination of skin

Genetics

This has everything to do with your skin type. While you can’t change your genetic coding, understanding your biological parents’ skin types will help you manage your tricky skin.

Environment

Your skin is constantly exposed to various environmental assaults daily, which can exacerbate the causes of combination skin.

For example, summer humidity causes the skin to sweat and increases oil production, leading to excess bacteria in the pores and pimples and breakouts. Cold weather can dry out your skin, causing flaking and inflammation.

Hormones and stress

Fluctuating hormones, stress levels, pregnancy, menopause, prescribed medication, and even the pill are some things that cause your skin to be slightly off-centre.

This can create dry patches in some areas and stimulate sebaceous gland activity, leading to daily shine in the T-zone. This makes sense because there are more sebaceous (oil) glands on the nose and central panel of the face.

Treatments and Products

If you’re a regular beauty enthusiast, have you ever wondered if the treatments or products you use are suitable for your skin type? They could be exacerbating your concerns about the combination.

Treating breakouts with harsh astringents or irritants can stimulate the sebaceous glands, leading to increased oil production in the T-zone. At the same time, it may worsen facial dryness and redness.

Trying to counteract dryness with rich emollient moisturisers will further counteract your oily or dry skin problems.

Likewise, suppose you’re resorting to intensive beauty treatments such as harsh peels like micro-needling or microdermabrasion. In that case, you should be aware that these can lead to inflammation and microtears, impairing your barrier function.

Ageing

This causes the skin to lose its elasticity and oil production to slow, resulting in dryness. As the skin ages, it can become depleted of essential ingredients, leading to different skin types.

Products for Combination Skin

Whilst you can’t alter nature, there are several things you can do to adjust your skincare routine for it to be more effective:

Cleanser: The best way to care for a combination of skin types is to use an ‘oil to water’ cleanser, which is beneficial for dry and oily areas. Miracle Cleanse protects your skin without stripping it of protective oils.

Serums: Our skin shots are the powerhouse of any skincare routine, delivering essential ingredients for maximum results. They can be customised to address different skin concerns at any time.

Moisturisers: You may need to use a moisturiser for oily areas and another for dry regions; fortunately, you can avoid this by using a water-based gel-like Clarify moisturiser with hydrating benefits suitable for different skin types, helping to bring your skin back into balance.

Cosmeceuticals: The A+ Retinol skin shot contains vitamin A, a “normalising vitamin” in skincare. This indulgent serum has been carefully crafted with valuable lipids to restore balance and health to combination and oily skin.

Breakout control: Use a controlled spot treatment. Any picking can spread bacteria and exacerbate your breakouts. Resq clearing skin shot is a potent spot treatment that targets the source—a hero product in our range. It is excellent at targeting pimples, papules, and pustules.

If you want more information on treating combination skin and the key ingredients to look out for, follow the link.

To conclude. The naked truth

As we can see, combination skin is tricky to treat, so being aware of its common causes will help you achieve the best outcome for your skin.

This is simply because we are all so metabolically different. No two skin types are the same.

To recap, it is essential to be aware of your home care routine, the strength of the ingredients in your skincare products, and what each area of your face requires in terms of proper skin treatment when addressing combination skin.

The products flagged for this skin type are often pure marketing hype.

Instead, look for ingredients that naturally balance your skin; sometimes, less is more, so a skincare routine with fewer, gentler products could be your skin’s beauty solution.