How Can I Determine My Skin Type – Part One

In this two-part blog post series we will cover the primary foundation of your skin as well as show you how to determine which skin type you have and how best to to make your complexion look and feel fantastic!

The Skin is the Largest Organ of Your Body

Your body works hard (though largely unnoticed) every day, shedding and replacing cells as they wear out and die.

This is because your skin is the first line of defense against dehydration, infection, injury and extremes of temperature … and simply MUST be kept in top condition.

This constant process of regeneration begins first in the dermis – the lowermost, or inner, layer of the skin.

Each new cell travels up toward the Epidermis (outer layer) over a two-week period. It then continues moving upward through the epidermis until it reaches the surface, where it spends another two weeks, until it eventually dies and is shed.

This process of cellular migration from the Dermis to the Epidermis just keeps repeating throughout your entire life.

As incredible as it may sound, we shed two to three billion skin cells every day!

Each layer of skin performs an important role in how you look.

The Epidermis: this is your armor – the first line of defense between you and the external world.

Dead cells from this outermost layer are constantly sloughing off and being replaced with new ones.

In fact, your skin completely renews itself every 3 to 5 weeks.

That’s good news because it means, if you start today, you can present a whole new “you” to the world in about one month!

Of course, how you treat your epidermis determines – to a great extent – how young you look as a result.

Although wrinkles develop on the lower skin levels, it’s the epidermis that most strongly influences how fresh you look and feel. It’s this layer, which helps hold and absorb moisture to keep you looking young.

The Dermis: this middle layer – located between the epidermis and subcutaneous tissue – is the thickest layer of the skin.

It’s made of tightly meshed collagen and elastin fibers – these two elements are absolutely critical to skin health and a youthful appearance.

Collagen is the protein responsible for structural support, and elastin gives skin its resilience and suppleness.

The sebaceous and sweat glands, hair follicles, and a small number of nerve and muscle cells are found here in the dermis.

The sebaceous glands lubricate the skin with an oily substance called sebum.

As we age, our skin becomes more susceptible to drying and wrinkling factors, which is due primarily to decreased production of sebum.

On the other hand, excessive sebum production – especially when combined with excessive sugar in the diet, and insufficient skin cleansing (both of which are so common among teenagers) – can lead to acne.

The dermis is responsible for the structural integrity, elasticity, and resilience of the skin.

This is also the layer that wrinkles come from … so the only way any “wrinkle cream” can work effectively is by penetrating deep into this layer of the skin.

Subcutaneous: this is the innermost layer of skin and is made up mostly of fatty tissue.

You can think of it as both “shock absorber” and “insulation layer”, thanks to the way this fat tissue protects the underlying tissues from cold and trauma.

Aging tends to reduce subcutaneous tissue and the result is often increased facial sagging and additional, deeper wrinkles.

In Part Two of ” How Can I Determine My Skin Type” we will cover the various sky types plus you can take our quick quiz to help determine your unique complexion type.

Image: By Don Bliss (artist) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons