You’re born with it in pristine condition and are taught by your parents how to take care of it as you grow up. You lament over it throughout adolescence; carefully tending to each and every blemish, hell-bent on preventing another breakout. You obsess over your skin, but do you really ‘know’ it? I mean, can you say for sure what ‘type’ skin you have?

Just like every other part of your body, know the condition of your skin is the first step toward keeping it healthy and looking its best. Basically, there are four common skin types, normal, oily, dry and combination. Dermatologists identify other skin types such as acne prone or sensitive as well.

Knowing your skin type puts you in the right direction, and with this knowledge you can make educated buying decisions when it comes time to shop for facial products. However, just because you are able to label your skin type as dry or oily, is not a guarantee that the products you buy will alleviate your skin problems or be the best for your complexion.

Why is it that the expensive beauty cream you purchased at the mall does not do for your skin what the ads say that it should? First of all, the advertisement is a general statement, meant for the general population. Your skin is not general, and is never the same from one season to another, or even from one week the next. Everyone goes through hormonal and environmental changes as they go through life. Women experience problems with their complexion due to menstruation and various other hormonal conditions. Your diet and lifestyle can also affect how your skin responds and its appearance.

Because your complexion is an ever changing, constantly turning over organ, the product that worked great last month may cause irritation or simply no longer work as well as it once did. If your skin suddenly experiences an increase in oils, then using your intensive moisture cream may not be the best idea. Dermatologists suggest checking your skin for type changes every few months and adjusting your products accordingly.

To determine your true skin type, make sure that you do the following a few hours after washing your face, when it’s showing its true nature. Press a piece of tissue on different areas of your face. If oil appears on the tissue then your skin type if oily. A good idea is to do this test when you have not worn makeup or moisturizer on your face. If, after pressing the tissue on your skin, you see no oil, then you have dry skin. Consequently, if you see oil in some areas, and none in others, then naturally you have combination skin.

Now that you have determined your skin type, you can use this information to notice the changes that will ultimately occur in your complexion and make proper adjustments in care, decreasing your number of ‘bad complexion’ days.