Which Skin Type Do You Have ?

Knowing your skin type is absolutely necessary in order to make a right decision about a proper skin care or treatment, which is suitable for your particular skin needs. The initial quality, or type, of your skin is genetically determined – meaning that you are born with it.

However, the health and beauty of your skin later in life largely depends on what you eat and how you take care of yourself. A popular Russian saying states that, after the age of 30, a woman looks the way she deserves …To always look great, the first step is to determine your skin type so that you can match it with the best recommended methods to improve your look and slow the aging process.

1. Normal Skin

If you skin belongs to a normal type, the tissue will not reveal any traces of oil. Your skin should feel vibrant, elastic, and supple. Normal skin is the least problematic type.
It looks clean and smooth and has a good circulation and healthy complexion. Even with a minimum care, it will look good well into your advanced age.

2. Dry Skin

If your skin is dry, the paper will be clean, too, but your face skin will feel flaky, dry, and tight after you have wiped it.
Dry skin can easily develop a sallow tone, wrinkles, and fine pores, and it is very prone to aging and irritating. It might still look great on a young person, but, to keep it healthy, you should apply thorough care and use regular skin or beauty treatment with natural masks and moisturizers.

3. Oily Skin

If you have oily skin, the paper will have spots of facial oil on it, corresponding to the areas of your cheeks, nose, and forehead. Oily skin is problematic – it usually looks greasy, thick, coarse, and shiny, has enlarged pores, and tends to break into acne.
A good thing, though, is that oily skin is not prone much to aging and wrinkling. Careful cleaning, minimizing of carbohydrate consumption, and avoiding rich creams can be helpful in improving the quality of oily skin.

4. Combination Skin

If you skin is combination, like that of most women, the tissue will have traces of oil coming from your nose and forehead, but will be clean in the areas that touched your cheeks.

Combination skin has patches of both dry and oily skin, and it requires different types of care in relation to particular facial areas.

Dry zones, which are usually located on the cheeks and around the eyes, should be treated with rich creams and moisturizers, while oily areas, usually on the forehead and nose, will benefit from frequent and thorough cleaning

5. Sensitive Skin

Sensitive skin is usually very dry, tends to feel tight, and becomes inflamed and irritated easily. Typically, sensitive skin develops reddish and scaly areas, can be itchy and tingly, and is prone to breaking into spots. It is the most problematic and fragile type of skin, which needs a very special type of care. To get the right body products for this skin type too requires great research.

So, what type of skin do you have? Have you found great skin care products that work beautifully for your skin? Please do share…

Homemade Facial Masks for Normal Skin

Strawberry Mask

Ingredients:

1 spoonful unsalted butter
Juice of one lemon
1 large strawberry
Preparation:
Mash the strawberry in a bowl. Add all the ingredients in it. Mix them. Apply to your face avoiding your eye area. Leave for 15 minutes. Wash with water. Apply every week.


Apple Mask


Ingredients:
1 apple
3 spoonful honey
Preparation:
Put all the ingredients in a blender. Blend them. Apply to entire face avoiding your eye area. Leave for 15 minutes. Wash with water. Apply every week.


Carrot Mask

Ingredients:
2 carrots
5 spoonful honey
Preparation:
Cook two carrots in boiling water. Mash them and add five spoonfuls honey. Apply to face avoiding your eye area. Leave for 10 minutes. Gently wipe off with a damp wash cloth. Apply it every week.

Tomato Mask

Ingredients:
2 tomatoes
Preparation:
Mash two tomatoes. Apply to entire face avoiding your eye area. Leave for 10-15 minutes. Wash with water. Apply every two day

Make Your Own Homemade Face Masks & Scrubs

Why pay for a face mask when you can use basic ingredients found around the house to make your own simple, hydrating masks and scrubs? I
f you have oily or acne-prone skin, mud or clay-based masks are great for balancing out your skin.
Dry skin will benefit from hydrating masks made from glycerin, honey and oils. Ginseng or green tea masks are great for soothing sensitive skin. Scrubs are great for getting rid of the dead skin. Try one prior to applying a face mask.
Masks (homemade or storebought -- see my list of the Best Face Masks) should stay on for 10-15 minutes.

Homemade Facial Masks for Sensitive or Sunburnt Skin

Yogurt Face Mask

This mask is great for soothing chapped, sunburned or otherwise irritated skin.
Extra tip: This mask works well for other skin types as well. For oily skin, add a couple drops of lemon or lime juice. For dry skin, mix in a couple tablespoons of honey.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup natural yogurt (we like it just-out-of-the-fridge cold and I love the brand Fage's "Total" pictured here, because it's creamy and thick)
• ½ cup oatmeal (any type of basic oatmeal works here)

Preparation:

Mix the ingredients together.
Apply to the skin for 10-15 minutes.
Wash off mask with a washcloth steamed in the microwave (careful that it's not too hot). Two other fun options for oatmeal face masks:
Egg whites. Mix the oatmeal and an egg white. Let the mixture dry on face, then gently wash off with a few splashes of warm water. Follow with a steaming washcloth to the face.
Peptol-Bismol. A friend of mine uses Pepto-Bismol with oatmeal for her masks. She got this tip years ago from a magazine. She suggests the active ingredient (bismuth subsalicylate) in Pepto-Bismol soothes your stomach as well as your face.

Homemade Facial Masks for Combination Skin

Rose Face Mask



Cucumber Mask

Ingredients:
1 cucumber
5 spoonfuls honey
2 spoonfuls rosewater
Preparation:Put all the ingredients in a blender. Blend them. Apply two your face avoiding your eye area. Leave for 15 minutes. Apply every two days.

This mask, based on roses, is perfect for balancing out the oily and dry areas of your skin.

Ingredients:

• Optional: 6 fresh rose petals
• 2 tbsps rosewater
• 1 tbsp natural yogurt, room temperature (not lowfat or non-fat)
• 1 tbsp runny honey (to get honey runny, you can warm it in a microwave for a few seconds).

Preparation:

Soak rose petals, then crush them in a bowl.
Add the rosewater, yogurt and honey.
Mix well and apply to the skin.
Leave on for 10 minutes.
Rinse.

Homemade Facial Masks for Oily Skin

Banana Mask

This is a soothing face mask and great if you have bananas around the house.

Ingredients:

• 1 banana, preferably ripe (you can keep ripe bananas in the freezer. Let it thaw before using)
• 1 tbsp honey
• An orange or a lemon

Preparation:

Mix the banana and honey together.
Add a few drops of juice from an orange or a lemon.
Apply to face for 15 minutes before rinsing with a cool washcloth or a steaming warm washcloth.

Green Clay Mask for Oily Skin

When it comes to face masks, there's no better clay than green clay, also known as "bentonite." This purifying mask is wonderful for oily skin.

You can get all of these ingredients in any natural food store or online. You can get the apricot kernel oil and the palmarosa essential oil online.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp green clay (you can get this in any health store)
• 1 tsp apricot kernel oil
• 3 drops of palmarosa essential oil

Preparation:

Mix the palmarosa and apricot oils together. Add a few drops of warm water. Mix together and add more water if need be to get a good, spreadable paste. Apply mask. Let dry for 10 minutes. Rinse off with a warm washcloth.

Homemade Juice Mask

Strawberry and lemon juice contain natural astringents. Note: Recipe works for two people, so invite a friend, or cut recipe in half for just you.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 egg whites
• 3 tsp honey
• 1 cup strawberries
• Optional: 4 drops of your favorite essential oils

Preparation:

Mash or blend the above ingredients.
Smooth over face.
Let it stay for 10 minutes.
Rinse.

Homemade Facial Masks for All Skin Types

Egg Whites and Yogurt Mask

Model Shalom Harlow calls this homemade face mask (only 2 ingredients required!) "moisturizing and soothing."

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Total Time: 2 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites, separated from the yolk and placed in a bowl
• 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt (I like Greek yogurt)

Preparation:

Separate the egg whites from a couple eggs and place them in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of yogurt (do not use flavored yogurt!). Mix them up and apply to face. Leave on face for a few minutes then rinse face in warm water, followed by a warm washcloth.

Oatmeal and Yogurt Face Mask

This face mask is suitable for all skin types and is super simple to prepare. It will cleanse and rejuvenate your skin.

Prep Time: 3 minutes

Total Time: 3 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp oatmeal, finely ground
• 1 tbsp live, organic yogurt (skip the flavored stuff)
• A few drops of honey

Preparation:

Add the yogurt to the oatmeal in a small bowl and mix together. Warm a few drop of honey. To do this, warm a spoon under hot water for a minute, then add a few drops of honey to the spoon.
Stir the honey into the yogurt and oatmeal mixture.
Apply the mask to the face. Leave it on for 10 minutes, then rinse off with several splashes of warm water. Follow with a warm washcloth.
Apply moisturizer.



White Sugar Scrub

Sugar is a preferred exfoliant to salt because it tends not to tear at the skin. When dead skin collects on the surface of skin, it's important to slough it away. This helps clear up clogged pores. When skin isn't exfoliated, it can appear ashy.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp warm water

Preparation:

Stir sugar into warm water so that it melts.
Make sure granules are dissolved, otherwise they could tear your skin.
Apply to the face.
Gently massage around the skin.
Rinse with warm water OR I like to take a warm washcloth that's steamed in the microwave. Make sure the washcloth is not too hot

How To Wash Your Face

When it comes to skin care routines, most of the experts focus on anti aging items and not the simple items like how to wash your face. This is a shame because this one step is where most people end up not accomplishing their goal of getting great looking skin. Getting yourself clean and ready for the rest of your beauty routine is so important that we are going to focus on this completely today.

 

Before you start to learn how to wash your face, you are going to need to know what type of skin that you have. While many people can easily answer this question, there are some that can not. If you need to decide on which one that you are, it is quite simple. Look in the mirror, do you notice shiny areas of your face especially in what is called the T zone. This is a sign of oily skin. If you have shine but also have patches of dry skin that is peeling then you have combination skin. If you feel your skin is tight feeling and looks like it is a dry piece of fabric then you my friend have dry skin.

 

Step One

 

The first and most important thing to learning how to wash your face is picking the right cleanser. You want one that is formulated for your skin type. Doing this will ensure that your cleanser does not take too much oil from your skin as you get it clean. The most popular types of cleansers for the face are going to be the foaming type. They are easy to use and do a great job.

 

Step Two

 

Dampen your face to begin to get it clean. This will help to make your facial cleanser foam up better and do its job. You can gently toss a bit of water on your face. A luke warm temperature is best for this step.

 

Step Three

 

Dispense a dime size of your cleanser into the palm of your hand. This is usually all that you will need to successfully be able to wash your face. Rub your hands together a bit of water to start the formula to foam.

 

Step Four

 

Rub the foaming mixture in your hands all over your face. Make sure to pay particular attention to areas that tend to get dirtier then others and also areas where you are concerned about it being oily.

Step Five

 

Thoroughly rinse your face with luke warm water. You do not want to use anything that is too hot or cold on your face. Splashing the water onto your face a few times until all of the cleanser is gone is the way to do this when you want to know how to wash your face.

 

Step Six

 

This step is optionally. Many like to finish off washing their face by splashing cold water onto themselves to close their pores. This should not be done if you plan on applying other skin care products after you have finished washing.

A Great Skin Care Routine is the Best Makeup Tip

You look at all the makeup tips that are out there and wonder to yourself why they do not work as well for you. You have the best products that are recommend by hundreds of other women. The application techniques that you use are the same as top makeup artists. However, you still do not look like you are ready to grace the cover of any magazine. When this is the case, you need to go back to the one essential makeup tip that everyone follows but few talk about, your skin care routine.

When it comes to cosmetics, starting out with great looking skin is a must. The products that you put on top of the skin will only look as great as the skin that is underneath. This means that if you are not properly taking care of your face, it does not matter how much you are spending on your makeup. You will not achieve the look that you want. However if you change your skin care routine to focus on your skin's needs, you will be able to get the results that you want.

Step One

Cleaning your face twice a day is a must. The question is what products are you using in your skin care routine to do this. You want products that are formulated specifically for the face. The skin on your face is much more delicate then that else where on your body. You also want to make sure that it is formulated for your skin type. If you have oily skin and you are using a cleanser that is designed for normal to dry skin, you are going to have problems. The product will be adding moisture and causing you to be even more oily. 

Step Two

Find complimentary skin care products that take of the problems that you see when you look in the mirror. If you are worried about zits and blackheads, you can find serums and products to put on your face in your skin care routine that will help with this. This is also true of the problem of fine lines and wrinkles. Do not feel that you need to use every new product that comes out on the market. Find the one or ones that focus on your needs and use them daily.

Step Three

Everyone needs to moisturize their skin. It does not matter if you have oily skin or dry skin, you need to hydrate your skin on a daily basis. Choosing a formula that will work with your skin type is key in this part of your skin care routine. It is also a good idea to get something that has a good SPF in it. You can then hydrate your skin and protect it from the sun all at the same time.

This is a very basic skin care routine that you can begin to follow to get better looking results with your beauty products. For many, these changes are enough to make a drastic difference in the appearance that they see in the mirror every day. So what are you waiting for? Get started on making these skin care routine changes to make sure that you are following the best makeup tip out there.