Should i use two different remedies to take care of combination skin?

[Anonymous]

I recently bought one for combination skin, but i still don't know if i should apply it only on T-zone or on whole face? or maybe i should wash my dry part of face with different remedy afterwards? (Btw it is based on white clay, maybe it's important)

[WinglessOne]

@Anonymous  I also have combo skin. I saw below that the product you're talking about is Garnier Skin Active Pure Active 3 in 1, which apparently isn't available in the US: I tried to find the ingredients list online (I hate it when brands don't list the full ingredients list on their product pages) and couldn't pull this product up on Garnier's US site. Anyway, if it's specifically formulated for oily skin and it's a clay product, you might want to use it only on your oily zone. Without knowing what's in this product, I don't know if it might beat up your dry zones. 

At night, I use a Paula's Choice cleanser (Hydralight) on my entire face. (If I wore makeup during the day, I use a makeup remover first and then follow with the Hydralight Cleanser.) It's formulated for normal, combo, and oily skin. It cleans my oily zone without stripping my dry zones. I use a different Paula's Choice cleanser in the morning (Optimal Results Hydrating Cleanser) on my whole face because I don't need as strong a cleanser in the morning but do still need something gentle, and water alone won't do the job for me.

You might not need separate cleansers for morning and night—totally depends on your particular skin (some folks can get away with not cleansing at all in the morning)—but you'll probably need something other than that Garnier product to wash all the non-oily parts of your face. You could apply the Garnier product to just your oily zone, then apply a different cleanser to the rest of your face (while the Garnier stuff's still there), and then rinse everything off at once. 

If you're using the Garnier product as a clay mask: I do occasionally use a clay and/or charcoal rinse-off mask on just my oily zone. My favorites are Origins Clear Improvement™ Active Charcoal Face Mask to Clear Pores 2.5 oz/ 75 mL  and Paula's Choice Pore Clarifying Charcoal Gel Mask. I use them after washing, toning (I use a hydrating toner), and exfoliating (I use an AHA and/or BHA leave-on exfoliant). After applying one of those to my oily zone, I often apply a different rinse-off mask—something hydrating and/or soothing, and full of antioxidants—to the rest of my face. I leave everything on my face for a good masking session and then rinse everything off at the same time. 

[tjffc]

@WinglessOne Great info.  I too have combo skin. 

[Anonymous]

@WinglessOne Thanks for advice! From now on i will use both garnier product and nivea (foam for dry skin) at once. And i might need to buy some mask for my dry zones. However, i'm quite confused about where to put my mask for oily skin, because i have enlarged pores and dark dots on skin beneath eye skin (practically it is still cheeks ). Does T-zone include this area? (Number 5, i believe, or even lower)

[WinglessOne]

@Anonymous  The fun thing about combo skin is variety. Okay maybe it's not fun 😄 but honestly, some of us combo skin folks don't have an oily T-zone. I don't, for instance. The T-zone is just the most common oily zone for combo skin. Some people have an oily chin in addition to oily T-zone. 

Your oily zone is wherever your skin overproduces oil: it'll feel oily/greasy and probably look shiny throughout the day); if you swipe that skin with your finger or blot it with tissue, you'll get oil transfer. This skin is typically where your big visible pores are. If you frequently want to blot oil/shine off parts of your face, those are your oily zones. If your undereye skin has enlarged pores but doesn't feel oily, then it might not really be oily; it might just have enlarged pores that need degunking. Salicylic acid (what you'll find in most BHA exfoliants) is fantastic at getting down into your pores and clearing out the gunk that stretches them larger than they really are. Niacinamide can also help reduce the appearance of pores. Note that if your pores are naturally large, nothing can actually "shrink" them; they'll always be visible, and that's okay! But you can certainly clear out the stuff that makes them look bigger than they really are. 

Dry zones don't feel or look oily unless you've moisturized them very well. The pores in your dry zones tend to be invisible, and running a finger or tissue over dry skin results in no oil transfer. Your dry zones might occasionally look and feel parched. There's also "normal" skin that doesn't look/feel oily or dry and has minimally visible pores. 

My nose and the area directly around it is my oily zone: that's where all my big visible pores are, and that skin always feels oilier than the rest of my face. If I slack on my skincare routine, I end up with a grease pit in the middle of my face. My forehead is in a weird almost-normal state: I can kinda see pores there if I look in a 10x mirror; in the winter, my forehead tends to look and feel quite dry; in the summer, it leans oily, but nowhere near as oily as my nose. When I use a clay mask, I usually put it just on and around my nose. If my forehead's leaning oily, I'll also put the clay mask there. And if I have some acne forming along my jawline, I might apply clay there to help draw that crud to the surface—even though my jawline's not oily. 

I hope this helps! 

[Anonymous]

It really does! The truth is, i didn't really have any skincare routine before, and now, i'm being kinda paranoid about this 😚. I want to catch up in every possible way and i can't say my attempts are successful, but at least i'm trying🤔

[meou]

@Anonymous I think it depends on the product your using.

It's pretty common in K-Beauty to do multi-masking (using a mask to target the different areas of your face) - Glow Recipe has a couple videos/articles on how to use their products depending on issues as an example. I tend to use a clay mask on my t-zone and chin to deal with some oiliness and then a calming/cooling mask on my cheeks for hydration/redness. 

Using serums/moisturizers to target different parts of your face is also quite normal - spot treating acne or dry patches as an example.

I wouldn't bother using targeted a cleanser/toner/essence though but I'm sure you could if you wanted too. 

[Anonymous]

I also would like to know if there's any need to cleanse skin with something lighter (washing foam for dry skin, for example) in morning?

[meou]

@Anonymous I think @WinglessOne gave you tons of great tips and advice and I don't know if I could really add too much on 😂

I think my only other peice of advice was don't change your routine drastically at once - it can sometimes make your skin freak out and if you have bad reaction to something you'll have a tougher time figuring out which product it is. 

Skincare should be fun and not a chore so don't feel like you HAVE to do 10 steps of buy all the masks and cleansers for each problem area. Also skincare products expires so remember to keep an eye on the dates and how long you can use something after opening.

[Anonymous]

Hi @meou ! The product i'm using is Garnier Skin Active Pure Active 3 in 1 (cleanser, scrub and mask ( Here's the link:  ))