How to Treat Combination Skin: A Complete Skincare Guide

We all want happy, balanced, blemish-free skin.

It’s not an easy task with combination skin, especially when it behaves like an angsty teenager.

Undecided, moody, and temperamental – sound familiar?

One minute, your skin is dry; the next, it’s oily.

Then there’s a breakout, blackhead, or wrinkle – it is a battleground.

So join us as we learn how to treat combination skin.

Understanding combination skin 

Are some parts of your face dry or normal, usually the cheeks? Meanwhile, the sebaceous glands in your T-zone are more active than the rest of your face, making it appear more oily and shiny. Then, welcome to combination skin.

Most of your sebaceous (oil) glands are located in your T-zone. This is the area on your face that produces more sebum.

When skin is dry, the sebaceous glands overproduce oil to keep it plump and hydrated. This results in an overly oily forehead and nose, but the cheeks may remain dry.

How to treat combination Skin

Approaching your skincare routine strategically is key.

Select products that lean towards your predominant skin type:

• If you treat the whole area of your skin as oily, it will leave areas dry, tight, and flaky
• Likewise, if you only treat the dry areas, this will cause too much oiliness

It is challenging to unravel the complexities of treating combination skin. Unique concerns require special products, and combination skin is no exception.

However, we’re not suggesting you rush out and buy a battalion of products to get your hypersensitive skin under control.

Quite the contrary, once you understand the common cause of combination skin, you can gently and quickly bring it back into balance with products that mimic the function and structure of healthy skin, using ingredients such as ceramides, emollients, cholesterol, antioxidants, and intelligent cellular-communicating ingredients like peptides.

Combination skincare routine

Knowing how to treat your combination skin is crucial because it is easy to sabotage this skin type.

Fortunately, with over 25 years of experience treating skin types, combination skin is the one that most often presents in our skincare clinic, so you’re in safe hands, and we’d love to professionally guide you through the complexities of the best skincare routine for combination skin:

1. Use an oil-based, soluble cleanser

For the perfect solution, use a gentle, alcohol-free cleanser that won’t dry out your skin and will help maintain your pH balance.

Our skin is weakly acidic, and most cleansers are alkaline-based; this can affect your skin’s pH levels. Avoid soap or astringent products that strip the skin, as they can cause sensitivity.

Instead, opt for an oil-based cleanser. Miracle Cleanse is an excellent example of an intelligent formula that protects as it cleanses, ensuring it won’t strip your skin of its valuable oils.

2. Use a toner after cleansing

A toner is essential to your routine if you’re keen to know how to treat combination skin.

A good toner should balance your skin’s pH—an essential factor in maintaining healthy skin and preserving the acid mantle. It prevents nasty microbes from penetrating and causing breakouts and sensitivity.

Look for toners with a healthy dose of skin-repairing ingredients, such as peptides and antioxidants, and ensure they are alcohol-free. Alcohol-based toners can dry out your face, stimulating your sebaceous glands to produce excessive sebum.

3. Moisturising is a must

Your combination skin requires balance, and maintaining that balance means applying moisturiser to your skin appropriately, not just in the dry areas.

In an ideal world, your best bet is a two-pronged approach: a lightweight, oil-free moisturiser for the T-zone and a rich emollient for the drier areas.

However, most people want a fuss-free approach to skincare, so we created Quench gel and Fortify cream specifically designed for combination skin types.

It can be used all over your skin without worrying about clogging pores or impairing your barrier. It delivers intelligent ingredients to the source, keeping your skin happy, healthy, and balanced.

3. Exfoliate correctly

The first rule when treating combination skin is to avoid scrubbing bubbles. In my experience as an aesthetician, many people with combination skin also suffer from sensitive skin, so focus on exfoliants with the appropriate texture for your combination concern.

Beta-hydroxy acids (BHAs) are effective in breaking down the buildup of oil in the skin. They exfoliate deep within the pores to remove cellular buildup and kill acne-causing bacteria, making them ideal for individuals struggling with blackheads and pimples.

Salicylic acid, commonly used as BHA, is among the safest yet most effective ingredients for oily/combination skin types.

Alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) are water-based and gently help smooth rough, scaly skin, leaving it luminous and fresh. They are perfect for dry skin. A typical example is lactic acid, which is lovely and hydrating.

4. Skinshots are a combination of the skin’s BF

Cocktailing is especially effective when used in combination with a skin care product. Targeted treatments can be applied to various areas of the face.

A combination of dehydrated and water-deficient skin produces more oil. To do this, use a water-based oil, such as H2O hydrating skin shot.

While it may seem a little contradictory, especially to those with oily or combination skin, oil-based serums containing jojoba, squalane, and ceramides can help restore depleted skin. Xcell Skin Shot is one such serum, perfect for restoring skin in a state of flux.

To Conclude. The naked truth

As you can see, a lot is involved in understanding how to treat combination skin, so it is essential to listen to your skin’s needs and treat it with intelligent ingredients.

Understanding your combination skin code is essential. Are you combination-oily or combination-dry?

This article does an excellent job of explaining this in more detail.

Once you understand your skin’s behaviour, you can treat it effectively with many of the abovementioned products.

Avoid harsh astringents, surfactants, and acids that strip your pH, leading to inflammation and breakouts.

Instead, use gentle natural formulas to help bring your skin back into harmony and balance.