Within the skin care industry, products are often marketed for skin types that fall within very specific categories – oily or dry. As a result, when people seek to learn more about what type of care their skin really needs, it is easy to overlook many parameters of how skin behaves and changes in response to other factors like hormones, diet, and age. Not only this but a person’s skin type is prone to change over time due to different internal and external factors. For example, dry skin may become more common in older people due to physiological changes or chronic health conditions. Changes to location, season, and lifestyle can also adjust skin type across all ages. 

The most popular skin type system was created by American dermatologist, Dr. Leslie Baumann, and maps out four characteristics, including dry versus oily, sensitive versus resistant, low versus high risk of pigmentation, and wrinkle-prone versus tight. With this information in mind, evaluating how skin reacts when using new products or its ability to heal after a cut or breakout can say a lot about skin type.