Grooming Glossary – Skin Care

What’s ‘combination skin’? Let me explain…

Here are all the basics when it comes to grooming so that you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when reading something here.

We’re kicking this off with skin care! From moisturising gels to normal/dry combination skin, this is everything you need to know about your skin and the products you’re using on it.

Cleanser – A product designed to clean all the dirt, oil, debris and skin products that collect on it throughout the day. There are several different types of cleanser:

• Foaming - The most common type of cleanser, this will lather into a nice foam when rubbed onto the skin. Bit like shampoo for your face.
• Cream/Gel - These ones don’t foam up, you just massage them on like a face cream and then rinse off. These are great for sensitive or dry skins.
• Exfoliator – Exfoliators either contain little beads or small amounts of (safe) acid that help to rub away the layer of dead skin your face accumulates. These are usually used once or twice a week since most are too harsh to use daily.

Toner – Toners are primarily used to get any residual cleanser off your face . They’re a watery substance that you swipe onto your skin with a cotton pad. Toners can also contain treatments such as anti-acne ingredients.

Serum – A serum is a very light textured product, most often a gel, that contains a concentrated amount of skincare ingredients. They’re used to give your skin a boost of beneficial treatment without leaving behind any residue. Think of them as ‘shots’ for the face: small amount, huge effect.

Moisturiser - This, as the name suggests, is a product that adds moisture to your skin. It can also contain other ingredients to help with specific issues such as wrinkles or acne. Moisturisers come in a range of different textures too:

• Cream – The thickest texture of moisturiser. Creams are great if you have dry skin.
• Lotion – Lotions have a light texture, they’re a lot runnier than creams and great for normal or combination skin.
• Gel – Again, pretty self explanatory. Gels have the lightest texture out of all moisturisers, almost like you’re not applying anything to your skin. These are best suited to oily skin.

Sensitive – Sensitive skin is skin that reacts negatively to outside stimuli. When faced with the wrong product or aggressive treatments like shaving; it might turn red, it might sting or burn, it might break out in pimples or it might get inflamed.

Dry – This is when your skin is mainly dry. Dry skin can feel tight and uncomfortable, often paired with scaly or flakey looking bits of skin.

Normal – Normal skin doesn’t feel or look particularly dry or oily, lucky you!

Oily - As the day wears on, you find your skin to look very shiny and oily all over.

Combination - This is what most people tend to have and is a combination of any of the above:

• Dry/Normal – Bits of your skin are normal, other bits can get a bit dry.
• Dry/Oily – Parts of your skin are dry and parts get a bit shiny. Oily spots usually show up on your T-zone, that means your forehead, nose, either side of your nose and your chin.
• Normal/Oily – Parts of your skin are normal, other parts are a bit oily. This is one of the most common skin types amongst men, again the oil is usually on the T-zone.

Author Description

Dil

CONTACT THE AUTHOR: