How many skin care products are needed for good skin?

Some skin care ranges get by with a limited number of products – one or two cleansers, an exfoliator, a few creams. Other ranges offer an abundance of choice – often dozens of creams and other specialty products. Is this abundance of choice really necessary? Isn’t all skin fundamentally the same?

To answer this question we need to look at two issues:

1. How many skin types and skin problems do we encounter?
2. Can we force the skin to become ‘normal’, or do we have to work with it?

Students of beauty therapy spend a significant amount of their study time learning to diagnose different skin types and conditions. As if that wasn’t enough, industry experts offer intensive courses on ‘Skin Analysis’, lasting up to three days.

Skin professionals differentiate between four basic skin types: normal, oily, combination and dry. These skin types are then broken down into skin conditions: dehydrated (yes, even oily skin is often dehydrated), blemished, sensitive, congested, acne, sun damaged and couperose.

Skin colour can be marred by pigmentation, sensitivity, redness or excess exposure to the sun. Oily skin can have a thick texture yet feel smooth to the touch. It can also be surface dry. Dry skin can look fine but feel rough. Whiteheads, blackheads, pustules and papules indicate different stages of congestion that can lead to acne. The condition of acne itself is defined in numerous terms, depending on cause, severity and persistence. Redness of the skin indicates sensitivity or irritation, often caused by wrong care of the skin. The cause could also be broken veins or rosacea. Lifestyle, dietary habits and the approach to care of the skin have to be taken into consideration.

Clearly, the skin professional is confronted with a myriad of possible combinations.

The aim of any skin care regime is what we could be called normal, healthy skin. It has a smooth, even surface with small, barely visible pores. It is faintly translucent, with a radiant appearance. The skin produces enough sebum to maintain a healthy level of hydration. Light reflects evenly off it, there are no dull or shiny spots. There is no sign of sun damage, no uneven pigmentation, no excess dead skin cells, no premature lines and wrinkles. The skin is firm, with a healthy bounce.

So how do we go from the skin types and problems analysed by the skin professional to the normal, healthy skin described above?

Firstly, we must acknowledge that there are limitations – skin that is badly scarred from acne will never be like baby skin again, the ravages of time can’t be fully erased either. However, there are solutions available that will help maintain a healthy, youthful appearance into mature age. The earlier we start the better the chances.

For many years the popular approach has been to use powerful anti-ageing ingredients to force the skin in a certain direction. If you believe in this approach you don’t need much: whatever the skin type or condition, you just apply a cleanser, an exfoliator, a skin care cream that will push or force the skin to what the formulator would consider a ‘normal’ state. There is no need for a large selection of products.

Another approach relies on working with the skin. It acknowledges the fact that there are many different skin types, conditions and problems and that each will respond to a different approach and to different active ingredients. It can be confusing and there may even be a certain amount of trial-and-error. Our skin is living tissue that will react to influences, internal as well as external. A medical doctor will be the first person to admit that the human body is never entirely predictable. In the final analysis it is all about balance. And balance can rarely be forced.

Your skin professional requires a wide enough variety of tools to achieve the results you are looking for. A ‘one size fits all’ approach would render all the study on skin analysis and all the differentiation in skin types and problems obsolete.

Find out more about professional skincare that uses these principles.