What skin type are you?

What is the difference between Skin Type and Skin Condition

Our skin is very complex. With all the information there is to know about skin and how to take care of it, it’s not surprising that so many people confuse their skin type with a skin condition.

Skin type is what we are genetically born with. It can be determined by the amount of oil secreted by your skin, the size of your pores and the texture of your skin. Because your skin type is embedded in your DNA, it cannot be changed. It can only be managed and controlled with the use of the correct skin care products.

A skin condition, on the other hand, refers to what is happening or occurrence to your skin. It can be caused by both internal and external factors, such as the environment, your diet, stress levels, medication, hormones and age.

Unlike skin types, a skin condition can be changed and treated. But, just like your skin type, a skin condition can also determine and affect which products to add to your skin care regimen.

You can have any combination of skin conditions. Skin conditions include dehydration, acne, aging, sun damage, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, pigmentation and many more.

Knowing your skin is the first step to achieving great skin. How sure are you that you are using the best moisturiser to suit your skin needs?

Different Skin Types

1. Dry Skin

Dry skin is a common skin condition characterised by insufficient oil content in the upper layers of the skin called the epidermis. Dehydration of the skin or lack of water is confused with a lack of oil in the skin.

Dry skin can affect all age groups but is more common as we age due to the reduction of oil production. In elderly individuals, the skin loses natural oils and lubricants over time. This increases their risk for dry skin.

Body areas commonly affected are the arms, hands and lower legs. Humidity or the amount of water vapour in the surrounding air greatly affects hydration of the skin. Normally, the epidermis is composed of protein and fat (lipid) portions which helps prevent dryness of the skin.

When the fatty oils are removed, it loses its natural protection and moisture more easily. Over time, the skin becomes dry, more sensitive and prone to the development of rashes and worse, skin breakdown.

Dry skin can sometimes be invisible to the naked eye, or it can be characterised by a fine, dry, powder-like appearance. If left untreated, the skin may become more irritated and can lead to the development of red rashes. Also, secondary bacterial infections such as eczema, cellulitis and skin discoloration can occur.

2. Dehydrated Skin

Dehydrated skin means that your skin is lacking water. It can be dry and itchy and perhaps dull looking, too. Your overall tone and complexion may appear uneven, and fine lines are more noticeable.

While dehydrated skin can be a nuisance, it’s relatively easy to treat with the right lifestyle changes and Annique skincare products. Treatment begins from the inside out to replenish and maintain hydration throughout your body. Dehydrated skin can appear dry, but it’s not the same as having a dry skin type.

Dehydrated skin vs. dry skin:

Dehydrated skin is sometimes discussed synonymously with dry skin. However, these are two different phenomena.

While dehydrated skin lacks water, dry skin lacks natural oils (also called sebum). Also, dry skin is a skin type, while dehydration is considered a condition.

Skin types are classified as normal, dry, combination, and oily. You’re born with one type of skin, but it can change with age and season. When you have dry skin, your sebaceous glands don’t produce enough natural oils.

3. Mature and ageing Skin

Over time, the ability of the sebaceous glands to produce oil slows down, often leading to skin dryness, wrinkles, fine lines, flakiness, and other imperfections. Even if you had perfect skin, no one is immune to the skin changes brought about by aging.

The first thing you may notice as your skin matures is that it is not that firm anymore. This is because your skin loses both collagen, which makes the skin firm and plump, and elastin, which gives skin strength and allows it to stretch.

Exposure to free radicals and UV rays from the sun can damage collagen and elastin, which causes your skin to sag and make you look old. This skin type is referred to as ageing mature skin.

Another characteristic of this skin type is that it is generally associated with thinning of the skin, fine lines around the lips and eyes with deeper lines around the mouth and forehead, eye bags, darker circles and skin dryness.

As you age, the skin may not regenerate new and healthy cells easily, and dead skin cells do not shed quickly. This causes your skin to appear dull and rough. As the epidermis flattens, the skin also becomes more fragile and transparent, and it can bruise more easily.

Other bodily changes brought by aging can also affect the skin appearance. Normally, fat loss can cause facial skin to sag or to appear more sunken – the same effect as maturing skin.

There are several problems that people with ageing and mature skin can encounter. Because the sweat glands deplete with age, the skin loses most of its natural moisture resulting in a dull appearance.

Another problem is hyperpigmentation, especially in those people with a history of prolonged sun exposure. While it is important to meet the daily needs of mature skin, it is necessary to keep in mind that not all elderly experience these skin problems.

What can cause early ageing or maturing of the skin?

Chronological age and biological age are two different things. The process of aging is only remotely connected to your true age. Your physical appearance is sometimes an indicator of your biological age, which sometimes can be deceptive, especially if you have mature skin.

Our genes are mainly responsible for maturation of the skin. The medical term for this type of aging is called “intrinsic aging”.

There are different causes of maturing skin for everyone.

What can cause early ageing or maturing of the skin?

Sun exposure: UV rays from the sun can destroy the elastic-like fibers in the skin, which causes it to sag and lose its elasticity. Over time, the sagging skin gets pulled by gravity resulting in a droopy appearance.
Smoking: The nicotine in cigarettes accelerates aging by decreasing collagen synthesis. If the production of collagen (protein that makes your skin firm and plump) is delayed and its amount decreases, your skin can sag and may look old.
Diet: A diet rich in sugar and other refined carbohydrates accelerates aging through a process called glycation – a process in which blood sugar molecules and fat molecules interact with protein molecules and damage the protein. Wrinkling of the skin is one example of what this process can do. Also, frequent alcohol consumption can accelerate aging as it depletes the body’s nutrients.
Medications: Drugs used to treat cholesterol such as statins can speed up the process of aging.
Chronic illness: An underlying medical condition can cause premature aging of the skin.

4. Normal Skin

Normal skin type is characterised by a radiant complexion. There are very few imperfections, barely visible pores, and no severe sensitivity. It glows with an inner health which indicates good blood circulation.

Normal skin is not too dry or too oily. It displays a rosy, smooth texture, and the skin’s elasticity is good. There are no visible blemishes, flaky areas or greasy patches on the skin.

In addition, the production of sebum or oils and moisture content are well-balanced. All these characteristics of normal skin are often found in younger individuals.

However, it is quite rare to find all these characteristics. Normal skin, in essence, describes a near perfect skin with no to only a few visible skin imperfections. But even if you have normal skin that doesn’t mean you are immune to various skin concerns.

It is important to take precautionary measures such as a good skin care routine to avoid potential skin related problems. When someone has normal skin, they can become quite complacent with its care. Over time skin will naturally become drier with age.

Skin can develop wrinkles, sunspots, and other lesions likely to occur due to a lack of sun protection or failure to implement a daily skin care routine. In women, there may be occasional pimples just before menstruation due to a surge in body hormones.

This makes the sebaceous glands produce more oils and clog the pores of the skin. Also, incorrect use of skincare products can develop breakouts and other skin problems. Over time, a normal skin type can change due to the aging process as well as additional internal and external factors.

5. Combination Skin

As the name implies, a combination skin type can be part dry, part oily or part normal in some areas. Like the T-zone (chin, forehead, and nose). The most common combination skins are dry with a normal T-zone, or normal with an oily T-zone. Usually the T-zone suffers from large pores, shininess, and blackheads.

Typically, a combination skin has a different T-zone to the rest of the face. It is a tricky skin type to treat as both areas need a different routine. They may need different products, although this is easy to overcome with the Annique Hydrafine range with its unique combination of active ingredients including Green Rooibos.

Several factors contribute to the development of combination skin, but sometimes its genetics. When it comes to this skin type, the causes and combinations vary from person to person. The areas around the face contain the most active sebaceous or oil glands. So these areas are prone to developing combination skin types.

6. Oily Skin

Oily skin is characterised by a thick, shiny appearance with visible large pores. The skin becomes too oily because the sebaceous glands produce an increased amount of lipids on the skin surface.

This makes the skin prone to blackheads, blemishes, acne, and other skin imperfections. Oily skin occurs in men more than women and can significantly affect younger persons, specifically adolescents. Since more active oil glands are in the T-zone, the nose, forehead, cheeks, chin, neck and even the chest tend to be affected the most.

During puberty, there is a surge in androgen levels, which are male hormones, present in both sexes. This signals the sebaceous glands of the skin to mature. During this time, the body starts producing more skin oil. To get from the glands to your skin, the secreted oil flows into nearby pores and eventually works its way out to the skin surface.

For some people, the sebaceous glands go into overdrive resulting in an oily and greasy look. This oily appearance usually resolves on its own after puberty but can persist into adulthood. The good news is that according to experts, oily skin can delay the effects of aging as the oil absorbs some of the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays, and the sebum also helps the skin to moisturise.

7. Sensitive Skin

Although not a “skin type” but rather a symptom caused by different factors, Sensitive Skin is characterised by frequent redness, burning, itching or dryness as a reaction of the topical application of skin care products or other stimuli.

A healthy skin functions to maintain balance by protecting the body against external influences, while regulating the levels of moisture. Much of these processes take place in stratum corneum (found in the epidermis), which is composed of lipids and cells, forming the uppermost layer of the skin.

These lipids provide stability and permeability, regulates fluid, maintains elasticity and firmness. In healthy skin, the barrier function of the stratum corneum retains moisture to prevent dryness and sensitivity.

However, their effectiveness greatly depends on enzyme activity which is often weaker in sensitive skin. As a result, the barrier function of the skin becomes compromised, resulting in water loss and enabling the penetration of irritants or other foreign bodies.

The body’s immune system now will respond by activating the inflammatory response, because it sees the irritants or commonly known as antigens, as a threat. Symptoms of sensitive skin now arise as the body’s response to maintain balance.

What causes sensitive skin:

Our skin is a living organ, and it is designed to react to something that isn’t right in our body. Our nerve endings underneath the skin barrier detect everything that comes in contact with our skin – harsh chemicals, pollutants and irritants.

In sensitive skin, the barrier that protects the skin from its external environment is compromised, leading to various symptoms such as redness, stinging sensations, bumps, dryness, breakouts and tightness.

Sensitive skin may be triggered by the following:

Weather changes: During the winter season, cooler air combined with central heating can cause the skin to become dehydrated and more sensitive. In contrast, the sun’s UV rays during summer can damage the skin barrier and cause sensitivity as well.
Dirt and Pollution: Smoke, dust, exhaust, and other pollutants that mix with the air are absorbed by the skin’s natural barrier. Over time, it can weaken and irritate the barrier, affecting its function to leave the skin feeling more sensitive.
Lifestyle: Lack of sleep and exercise, smoking, and poor diet are associated with skin sensitivity. They have a negative impact on the skin and may alter its natural function.
Hormones: This particularly affects women more than men. Hormonal fluctuations during pregnancy, menstruation and menopause can cause skin sensitivity. Lack of hormones called estrogen may significantly affect the function of the skin’s barrier, resulting in dehydration, wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, and skin sensitivity.
Stress: When the body suffers prolonged stress, it produces more cortisol which may trigger an increase in oil production, and in severe cases, limits the blood flow to the skin. All of these may affect the function of the skin’s barrier which can lead to skin sensitivity.