The five types, each briefly explained.
Skin type is the question you get asked first and trust least. Here is what each type actually feels like at four in the afternoon, the mistake each one makes by default, and the correction that costs nothing.
Oily skin
At four o'clock, oily skin looks polished in the wrong sense. The forehead catches the light; the nose has visible pores; there is a kind of persistent gleam that no amount of powder manages to address for more than an hour. The default mistake with oily skin is aggression — foaming cleansers that strip, alcohol-based toners that degrease, and the reasonable-seeming instinct to keep skin as clean and bare as possible. The result of that aggression is more oil, because the barrier, stripped back to nothing, responds by producing sebum to repair itself. The correction is restraint: a gentle low-pH cleanser, a niacinamide serum, and a light gel moisturiser that the skin accepts without protest.
Dry skin
Dry skin at four in the afternoon feels like a tightening across the cheekbones, a faint sense of pulling at the jaw, and — in winter, in central heating, after a flight — the particular texture of fine lines that are not yet permanent but are announcing their intention. The default mistake with dry skin is reaching immediately for a heavy cream and calling it done. Moisturiser applied over a depleted barrier sits on top rather than penetrating, and the dryness returns within hours. The correction is layering: a humectant serum on damp skin to draw moisture in, then a moisturiser with ceramides and fatty acids to seal it, and a facial oil as an occasional final step on the nights when central heating has done its worst.
Combination skin
Combination skin at four o'clock is oily down the centre and sometimes tight at the edges. The T-zone shines; the cheeks are fine, or occasionally flaking. The default mistake is treating the whole face as one type — either moisturising everywhere because the cheeks need it, and ending up with an oily midzone, or keeping it light everywhere and spending the winter with cheeks that feel stripped. The correction is zoning: applying a gel moisturiser to the T-zone and a slightly richer cream to the cheeks, without treating the whole face as one uniform surface. Most combination skin also benefits from a lower-frequency exfoliation schedule than people think — once a week, not three.
Sensitive skin
Sensitive skin at four o'clock may be fine, or it may be slightly pink after nothing in particular. It is reactive to weather, to wine, to the new cleanser that seemed gentle until it wasn't. The default mistake with sensitive skin is product accumulation: loading the routine with soothing ingredients, anti-redness actives, barrier-repair serums, and SPF innovations until the routine itself is the thing the skin is reacting to. The correction is reduction. A single cleanser, a single moisturiser, a fragrance-free SPF, and nothing else until the barrier is stable. Introduce one new thing at a time, wait two weeks to observe, and add the next only when the previous has been assessed. Sensitive skin rewards patience with dramatic improvement; it punishes impatience reliably.
Normal skin
Normal skin at four o'clock looks essentially the same as it did at eight in the morning — no excess oil, no tightness, no particular flush. It is, as the name suggests, unremarkable in the best sense. The default mistake with normal skin is the assumption that it needs as much intervention as the other types. It does not. Normal skin's enemy is boredom-driven complexity: the accumulation of serums and treatments added because nothing has gone wrong yet and the owner is hoping to preempt every possible future problem. The correction is simplicity: cleanse, moisturise, use SPF daily, and introduce a low-dose retinoid in the late twenties. Pick the type that matches what your skin is doing now, not what someone told you it was at nineteen.
Routines and product choices sorted by what your skin actually feels like — oily, dry, combination, sensitive, normal. The label that came with you in your twenties drifts; the routine has to drift with it. Five skin types, five constitution-specific guides, thirty-eight techniques total.
The five skin type finders
Oily Skin
Routines for managing sebum, keeping midday shine under control, and building a barrier-respecting protocol that doesn't respond to oil by stripping and producing more. Key ingredients: niacinamide, low-pH cleansers, gel moisturisers, salicylic acid used sparingly. Ten techniques. URL: /en/skin/skin-type/oily/
Dry Skin
Barrier-first protocols for skin that pulls, tightens, and flakes. Built around ceramides, fatty acids, squalane, and the layering order that actually retains moisture — humectant on damp skin, barrier seal on top. Nine techniques. URL: /en/skin/skin-type/dry/
Combination Skin
Two different climates on one face. Protocols for zoning the routine — gel on the T-zone, something richer on the cheeks — rather than applying a single formula across a face that has different requirements in different areas. Eight techniques. URL: /en/skin/skin-type/combination/
Sensitive Skin
Barrier repair before everything else. Fragrance-free, low-active, patiently introduced routines for skin that reacts to new products, weather, temperature, and overloaded routines. The correction is reduction, not addition. Seven techniques. URL: /en/skin/skin-type/sensitive/
Normal / Balanced Skin
The rarest constitution. Protocols for keeping balanced skin balanced — a reliable four-step routine done consistently, with SPF every morning, rather than a complex layered routine addressing problems that don't yet exist. Four techniques. URL: /en/skin/skin-type/normal/
How skin type drifts
Skin type is a constitution, not a verdict, and it changes. Hormonal events — pregnancy, perimenopause, stress — shift the constitution sometimes overnight. The routine that worked at twenty-two may be actively unhelpful at thirty-four. If the routine was working and now isn't, update the diagnosis before changing the products.
The five types at four o'clock
Oily skin: shiny forehead, visible pores, a gleam that returns within an hour of powder. Dry skin: tight cheekbones, occasional flaking at the nose and jaw, fine lines that appear with dehydration. Combination skin: oily centre, fine or tight edges, different requirements in the same routine. Sensitive skin: may be calm, may be pink for no specific reason, reacts to weather, new products, and overloaded routines. Normal skin: essentially unchanged from morning to afternoon, no excess oil, no tightness.
Editor's note
The biggest mistake in skin type is treating it as permanent. It is a current state, not a life sentence. If your routine was working two years ago and is working less well now, the routine probably didn't fail — your constitution shifted. Update the diagnosis before you buy another serum. Nelly Whitcombe, Beauty Director, Spring 2026.
Also in the skin chapter
Skin Concern — targeted protocols for texture, tone, redness, dehydration, and post-inflammatory marks. URL: /en/skin/skin-concern/.
Routine — AM and PM sequences, frequency calendars, and the minimum-viable routine for the weeks that quietly fall apart. URL: /en/skin/routine/.
Ingredients — what each active does, what it pairs with, what it cancels. Written for adults. URL: /en/skin/ingredients/.
