With some parts of the face being oily and others being dry, combination skin brings together two extremes, making it one of the most difficult skin types to care for. Every product and technique that you use needs to be finely balanced so as to not further dry out those dry patches while ensuring that your oiliness doesn’t get worse.

If you’ve been struggling to build a skincare routine that’s appropriate for combination skin, keep reading. Vivo Per Lei is about to share the steps that you should be following to give your combination skin all of the love and care that it needs to thrive.

What Causes Combination Skin?

There isn’t a specific cause of combination skin. Instead, your skin type tends to be determined by genetics. If you have combination skin, then there’s a good chance that others in your family have the same skin type.

With that said, your skin type can slightly change over the years. Everything from hormonal fluctuations to environmental conditions to aging can affect how oily or dry your combination skin feels. Damage to the skin barrier can also cause combination skin to develop later in life. If any changes to your skin type occur, then you’ll need to make the necessary adjustments to your skincare routine. This makes it important to continuously reassess your skin type to ensure that combination skin is what you’re currently dealing with.

How to Determine If You Have Combination Skin

There are a few different ‘tests’ that you can carry out to determine your skin type. However, one of the most common, due to how fail-safe it is, is to wash your face with a gentle, sulfate-free cleanser. Then, leave your skin bare for about 20 minutes. 

Once this time is up, closely examine your skin in the mirror and lightly touch it with your fingers. If some parts of your face feel rough, dry, and tight while others feel oily and look shinier, then this means that you most likely have combination skin. It’s usually the cheeks that end up with dry skin with the t-zone being the oily area, but this varies between individuals.

A Skincare Routine For Combination Skin

Now that you’ve confirmed that your skin type is combination, here’s a skincare routine that you can follow to get your skin glowing:

Begin With a Gentle, Non-Foaming Cleanser

When you have combination skin, it’s often tempting to reach for the most powerful, skin-stripping cleanser that you can find in an attempt to get rid of those oily, acne-prone areas on your face. However, this isn’t going to do your skin any good… 

Using a cleanser that’s too harsh will end up damaging your skin barrier. Not only will this leave your dry areas even drier, but the dehydration that this can cause could stimulate the oily parts of your face into increasing sebum production. This will leave those areas even greasier.

There are so many different cleanser types out there but, for combination skin, you need something simple. Avoid foams, creams, balms, and the like. Opt instead for a lightweight solution that simply focuses on removing impurities from the skin, just like the Vivo Per Lei Hyaluronic Acid Daily Facial Wash. The fact that this formula is brimming with hydrating compounds will help to keep your skin barrier feeling supported while leaving your skin looking plump and vibrant.

How often should you be cleansing your face?

Ideally, twice a day, once in the morning and then again at night. If some parts of your face start to feel overly greasy or sweaty before your second cleanse, give those areas a dab with the IntroLift Vitamin C Facial Wipes. They’ll mattify your complexion while also providing an additional boost of hydration.

Apply a Couple of Targeted Serums

Every skin type tends to have its own set of skin concerns to deal with. For those with dry skin, these are often flakiness, roughness, dullness, and pronounced fine lines and wrinkles. On the other hand, those with oily skin often have to contend with a greasy complexion that’s prone to breakouts, along with the dark spots that often follow on from pimples.

If you have combination skin, then you may very well have to deal with both sets of problems. Some parts of your face may look rough and flaky while others may look overly greasy and be spotted with acne. 

The best way to give each area of your face what it needs is with serums. It’s easy to apply these lightweight formulas to specific parts of the face. This will enable you to really hone in on your visible skin concerns.

For example, the Radiance Gold Facial Serum from Vivo Per Lei would be great for the oily areas of your face. The salicylic acid in this formula will help to prevent your pores from feeling clogged, while the multiple humectants will keep your skin hydrated.

Meanwhile, the drier parts of your face will love the 24K Gold Caviar Serum. It’s loaded with amino acids that will strengthen the feel of your skin’s protective barrier, while the moisturizing ingredients in this formula will keep dry skin feeling soft and supple.

Of course, some serums, such as the Vivo Per Lei Aloe Soothing Facial Serum, can be used on both dry and oily skin, meaning that you can apply it all over your face.

Whichever serums you end up using, make sure that you start with the thinnest and lightest formula before working your way up to the thickest.

Pamper Your Eye Area

There’s a good chance that even with combination skin, the skin around your eyes veers on the dry side. This is down to how the skin here contains fewer sebaceous glands. These glands are what release oil onto the surface of your skin. Without as many of them, not only does the skin around the eyes struggle to keep itself lubricated, but it’s also more prone to the appearance of creases.

This is why it’s important to give your eye area some special attention when carrying out your skincare routine. How? This is up to you and it all depends on what your eye area needs. Some choose to use an eye serum whereas others prefer eye creams. Using both is an option as well.

However, if you’re trying to keep your skincare routine simple and want to opt for just one eye care product, the Vivo Per Lei Age Control Eye Cream would be a great choice. This is an incredibly hydrating formula that’s full of natural ingredients. Not only will it plump and lift the look of your eye area, but it will also smooth away the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles while lightening the visibility of dark circles and shadows. It’s an amazing multi-tasker that’s suitable for all skin types!

Moisturize Your Skin

Moisturizing is one of the most essential steps of any skincare routine, making it important to get this right. While you can go ahead and treat the dry and oily parts of your face separately in the way that you did when applying your serums, this tends to be much harder to do with a moisturizer. Face creams are usually richer in consistency. This makes it trickier to concentrate a cream onto a specific part of your face.

To get around this, find a moisturizer that’s suitable for combination skin. This means looking for a formula that hydrates the skin with lightweight humectants. These moisture-binding ingredients will soften and plump up your complexion without clogging up your pores. You would also benefit from a cream with plenty of antioxidants, as this will help both your oily and dry areas. 

At Vivo Per Lei, we have a few moisturizers that are suitable for combination skin. One of our most popular is the Marine Ultimate All Skin Cream. Between sodium hyaluronate, polyglutamic acid, glycerin, and squalane, there’s no shortage of hydrating humectants in this formula. At the same time, with extracts from peony root and mushroom, it offers a wide range of antioxidants. Shea butter, which is great for all skin types, locks all of these ingredients in while providing essential fatty acids that your skin barrier will love.

Apply Sun Protection During the Day

While you can round things off with your moisturizer in the evenings, the final step of your skincare routine in the daytime needs to be sun protection. This is absolutely crucial since UV rays will make both your dry and oily areas worse. The dehydration that they cause will lead to your dry areas feeling rough and flaky, while your oily areas will turn even greasier.

Let’s not forget that UV rays are also primarily responsible for skin aging. If you want to keep your combination skin looking smooth and youthful, sun protection is a must.

So, where do you begin when trying to choose a sunscreen? First and foremost, only consider broad-spectrum formulas. These will protect your skin from both UVA and UVB rays. Some sunscreens only shield against either UVA or UVB, but you need one that protects against both.

Pay attention to the SPF rating too. SPF 30 is the minimum that you should go for. However, if you’re currently experiencing an acne breakout or your skin is red and sensitive for any other reason, you may want to opt for a slightly higher SPF to give your skin some extra protection.

With that said, whichever SPF you choose, you’ll need to reapply your sunscreen every two hours. This can quickly lead to product buildup, which could clog your pores and trigger a breakout. To prevent this, make sure that the sunscreen that you use is lightweight and non-comedogenic. 

Caring For Combination Skin With Vivo Per Lei

Just about everyone who has combination skin would agree that this skin type poses some unique challenges. Understanding how to moisturize your dry areas without sending sebum production in the oily parts of your face into overdrive can be difficult. 

However, building a good skincare routine is the first step in getting things right. Follow the routine that we’ve shared above and you’ll be able to give each part of your face exactly what it needs. The result will be skin that looks and feels balanced, bright, and beautifully healthy.

Click here to treat your combination skin to more bestselling skincare products from Vivo Per Lei.