In a beauty blogger’s community, having a combination skin type is like winning a lottery ticket. You can test and review products for both oily and dry skin. But in real life, handling my combination skin type is not as easy as it seems. Today I’m collaborating with Dior and Bloomingdale’s to share with you my top five tips for managing combo skin. With this skincare strategy, no one would guess your skin is not 100% balanced.
What is a Combination Skin?
Before we begin, a few words on how to figure out if you have combo skin. I have two specific indicators for you.
First, your pores are more visible in some regions of your face. And second, when you use a moisturizer for normal skin, your cheeks feel okay, but your T-zone is looking oily.
Some people recommend checking which areas of your skin feel oily half an hour after washing. But I don’t trust this method as you could have oily but dehydrated skin and would not be able to tell the difference.
When we figured that you have combo skin, let’s dive into strategies that will help it to look more balanced.
Skincare Approach for Combination Skin
The number one rule is to follow different skincare routines for specific skin areas. Meaning: it’s okay to use the same cleanser and moisturizer all over your face. When it comes to serums and masks, I’d recommend picking different serums for oily and dry areas.
For instance, I switch between a few of my favorite cleansers for combo skin and use balancing toner. But when it comes to serums, I’m usually using two.
My T-zone is oily, so I use Dior Capture Youth Matte Maximizer to refine pores and mattify my skin. It contains Lactic Acid, the ingredient that made the most dramatic change to the appearance of my skin.
I use Dior Capture Youth Glow Booster to bring glow and brighten up the dull skin on my cheeks. This serum contains Vitamin C and AHA that target uneven skin tone and make your skin so much more radiant.
After applying my serums, I apply my regular moisturizer. It contains hyaluronic acid, an incredible hydrator both oily and dry skin types.
My serum layering routine has been super beneficial for my skin, and I’ve been using this trick for years. From all the skincare tricks for combo skin I tried, strategic serums layering has been the most efficient. That’s why I’d recommend trying this trick for your skin too.
Makeup Routine for Combination Skin
It’s also essential to make changes to your makeup routine that address your combo skin type. I’m talking about primers and foundations.
Let’s start with the primers. The majority of those products don’t play well on both oily and dry skin patches. That’s why I’m using the same strategy with my primers as I do with my serums. Meaning, I apply a pore refining primer onto the T-zone and use a hydrating one on the dry patches.
My current primer layering combo is to apply YSL Touche Eclat Blur Primer on T-zone (mattifying and pore-refining primer). And Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter everywhere else (it’s an illuminating primer).
The same goes for foundations. You can use different foundations on different zones of your skin. If it sounds like too much effort, you can mix your skincare serums into the same foundation and achieve the same result.
My Foundation + Serum Layering Trick
Here’s how this foundation + serum layering trick works.
Time needed: 5 minutes
Here’s how foundation + serum layering trick for combination skin works.
- Mattifying Serum.
In the palm of your hand, mix a few drops with your foundation with a mattifying serum.
- Mattifying Mix.
Using a damp beauty blender, apply this mattifying mix on T-zone.
- Glow-Boosting Serum.
Back to your palm. This time around, mix a few drops of a foundation with a glow-boosting serum.
- Glow-Boosting Mix.
Apply with another side of the beauty blender. Make sure to hit the “edges” of both foundation mixes so they are well blended
- Setting Powder.
Use a setting powder all over to even out the look. My current favorite is Laura Mercier Loose Setting Powder.
When I apply foundation in that way, the entire coverage looks more natural-looking. Also, you provide more coverage to “problematic” areas (aka breakouts on your T-zone). While keeping your dry or normal skin patches less covered and more natural-looking.
These were my favorite tips and tricks on how to deal with combination skin type. I know, it could be challenging to find the right approach to handling your “moody” skin, but I hope that this post provided you with a few new ideas to try.
Please let me know in the comments if you have any recommendations on how to handle combo skin type. You guys always have the best ideas, and I’d love to learn from you!
