Source: http://www.lifescript.com/channels/beauty/beauty_details

The funny thing about your skin, especially on your face, is that your "type" can change depending on internal or external factors that many of us don’t even pay attention to. Internally, things like hormonal imbalances, health problems, genetic predisposition, smoking and medications can having you glowing one day, and blotchy the next. Everything from the environment and sun exposure, to the products you use on your face, can be the external influences that make you look like you’ve aged ten years in a day!

So what’s a girl to do? Identify the skin you are in today, and treat it accordingly, and with the utmost care, of course! Let’s identify what the basic skin types are, talk about a few other variables, and give you some information on skin care ingredients to aid you in giving your skin the TLC it needs to flourish and shine.

Types
These are the basic skin types identified by the American Academy of Dermatology, as well as other skin care professionals:

Normal: neither exceedingly oily, nor dry, without discolorations or variations in pigment, generally blemish free.

Oily: shiny or slick appearance, with enlarged pores, and possible patches of flakiness around the nose area where oil collects and dries.

Dry: flaky and lackluster, sometimes ashen in appearance, and tight with a lack of elasticity.

Combination: oily on the chin, forehead and cheeks, dry near the hair and jaw lines with patches of flakiness.

Sensitive: blotchy, irritated, and prone to rashes and redness, with broken capillaries.

Acne-prone: enlarged pores, prone to clogging and showing blackheads as well as whiteheads, frequent cysting and possibility of rosacea.

Here’s a little secret that skin care companies may not want you to know: treating your skin for age instead of condition may do you more harm than good. What’s most important is that you deal with the issues affecting your skin, instead of assuming that because you are a certain age, you should be using products that are “age-appropriate.” For instance, "older" skin may require more moisture, and an anti-aging product may be too drying and harsh, so if you have an issue with rosacea, blackheads or acne you will want to treat those skin issues with more emollient and occlusive products, and "spot-treat" problem areas. Vise-versa, if you are using anti-aging skin care products or formula on younger skin, you may be clogging your pores and actually making matters worse, or, if you’re using "younger" skin care products and sensitivity or dryness is a problem, you may again be compounding your problem. The best thing to do is to look at what’s going on with your particular skin, and treat it accordingly, regardless of your age.

Ethnicity
Skin in general may have a range of problems that are universal, and not necessarily specific to skin color or ethnic background. While certain studies have shown that there are some differences such as predisposition to skin cancer or different presentation of photo aging in fair-skinned to darker-skinned individuals respectively, the treatments for skin issues is relatively the same. Acne is acne – wrinkles are wrinkles!

Treatments
If I wrote on every treatment out there, well, let’s just say, we’d be looking at a very large book. So, instead, I’ve listed some ingredients, per skin type, that are beneficial. So, the next time you go shopping and wonder if that new ginger, berry, anti-aging, sugar-serum, body soufflé is a must-have in your skin care cabinet, you’ll know!

Normal:

• Essential Herbs/Oils: lavender, geranium, chamomiles, cypress, camphor, rose, rosemary, rosewood
• Base Oils: sweet almond, apricot kernel, grape seed, soybean

Oily:

• Essential Herbs/Oils: lemongrass, cedar wood, rose, ylang-ylang, peppermint, thyme, clary, geranium, patchouli, frankincense
• Base Oils: grape seed, hazelnut, jojoba, refined coconut, olive

Dry:

• Essential Herbs/Oils: carrot seed, jasmine, orange, palma rosa, neroli, calendula, roman chamomile
• Base Oils: avocado, rice bran, rose hip seed, rice bran

Combination:

• Essential Herbs/Oils: geranium, rosewood, ylang-ylang, rose geranium, sweet orange
• Base Oils: apricot kernel, refined coconut, rice bran, jojoba

Sensitive:

• Essential Herbs/Oils: rose, angelica, yarrow, neroli, jasmine, carrot
• Base Oils: jojoba, almond, sesame, calendula, camellia

Acne-prone:

• Essential Herbs/Oils: tea tree, manuka, spike lavender, mints, basil, grapefruit, distilled lime, coriander
• Base Oils: grape seed, hazelnut, karanja, olive

Complete Skin
Now that you have some information to work with, here’s a little more. Since the skin is the largest organ of the body, and is instrumental in the elimination of toxins from our bodies, it’s just as important to take have an internal regimen, as it is to have an external routine. Some experts recommend that drinking water equal to half of your body’s weight, but in ounces is a healthy way to promote great skin (i.e. you weigh 140 lbs, you should drink 70 oz of water per day). Making sure your body is in optimal health nutritionally is another secret to beautiful skin.

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