By Staff Writer: Caitlin Daugherty
Scrolling on Tiktok, Instagram, or even Pinterest can show you a flood of 16 step skincare routines all done with the most expensive and pretentious products you can think of. Whether it’s imported Korean skincare for that “glass skin” look. Or color-coded Drunk Elephant bottles that are lining the walls behind the influencer trying to shill you unnecessary skincare steps. However, if you ignore all of these influences you can find that it is incredibly easy to achieve healthy clear skin without breaking the bank.
You really only need two things in order to take care of your skin (unless directed by a dermatologist), a cleanser and a lotion. If you want to throw in a third thing like a retinoid cream for stubborn acne, you can as well. The best skincare to get is one that is specifically for your skin type.
What is a skin type? A skin type is simply how your skin is categorized. It can be one of three things, or a combination of two, oil, dry, and normal. Oily refers to skin that secretes extra oil and causes clogged pores which can grow into pimples or worse cystic acne. Dry skin can cause painfully tight and flaky skin that can cause rashes and irritation. Normal skin is as it is described, normal, but skincare still applies to those with normal skin as they can get acne.
For oily skin types, the best kind of cleanser is a foaming cleanser with exfoliation. A good brand for this is Cerave. Using a very light salicylic acid lotion at night can also help to smooth out bumpy and blackhead clogged skin. For dry skin type, thick creams for lotion and oil-based cleansers which don’t strip the base moisture of the skin are vital. For combination skin, testing which areas of your face are drier or oiler can help you to decide which products to get. You can perform a quick test by washing your face with water and not adding any lotion or creams after. After about an hour, you will be able to see if your face is dry or oily. Then you can act accordingly.