Life is a delicate balancing act. We seek harmony within our bodies, in our lives, and in our skin to feel our best. For those with combination skin, the journey of caring for your skin can be a long and winding one, with unique discoveries along the way of which products are ideal to incorporate into your skincare ritual. To that end, we have put together advice and tips on the symptoms and causes of combination skin, and the ideal way to care for it.
What is Combination Skin?
In its simplest terms, combination skin means simply that—your skin is a combination of different skin types. You will experience oily skin in some areas of your face and dry skin in others. Most often, you will find dry patches on your cheeks, while your T-zone (your forehead, nose, and chin) will be the more oily areas of your face.
What Causes Combination Skin?
Combination skin can be attributed to a variety of different factors. In many cases, it is genetic, meaning you have inherited this skin type from the generations that came before you—and at Tatcha, we believe that all skin is beautiful skin, especially when it comes from treasured members of your family. Those with combination skin can, however, find that it is exacerbated if you are unknowingly using the incorrect skincare products in your skincare routine.
Additionally, your skin works overtime to balance itself when faced with various situations it is attempting to correct. As your skin becomes dehydrated, it creates more oil and sebum in an attempt to create balance, which can lead to breakouts and irritation.
Products with harsher ingredients or ones that aggravate the skin can cause dry patches in some parts of your face and excess oil in others, especially an oily T-zone—which can lead to flakiness, redness, dryness, and irritation. Incorporating the correct products into your skincare ritual may still result in some oiliness, but there will not be additional dry skin or rough patches underneath the oil that can create clogging of the pores, excess sebum, and blemishes. Learning the correct skincare products for your skin type will also lead to softer, smoother, more hydrated skin with less buildup and fewer breakouts.
How Do You Care for Combination Skin?
The most important thing to remember in caring for your combination skin is that you will need to determine which products work for different parts of your face, which means you may need to use different moisturizers, cleansers, and masks for each of those dry areas and oily areas. Products that are oil-absorbing or mattifying are ideal for the oily areas of your face, while more emollient and hydrating products are meant for the dry areas. For oilier skin, we recommend using products with lighter weight and oil-free formulas, balancing those with more potent and concentrated amounts of beneficial skincare ingredients for the drier areas. Blotting papers—like our Aburatorigami Japanese Blotting Papers, made of 100 percent natural abaca leaf and gold flakes—also help to address unwanted oil production and absorb excess oil without disturbing makeup while on the go.
What is the Ideal Skincare Ritual for Combination Skin?
Step 1: Purify.
Cleansing the skin and leaving it with a fresh palate is important both day and night. Whether your cleanser is lotion-based or gel-textured, its goal is to remove impurities, debris, and makeup without leaving skin feeling tight, dry, or greasy. We recommend using a gentle but effective water-soluble cleanser.
Removing your makeup is an important step that helps minimize pores from becoming clogged overnight, ensuring that you truly do get your beauty sleep. Incorporating a cleansing oil into your skincare routine may seem counterproductive when you have oily skin—however, they actually greatly benefit all skin types. Cleansing oils easily dissolve makeup, sunscreen, and other oils while leaving skin feeling supple and smooth. They are also ideal for using as the first step in double cleansing. Our Pure One Step Camellia Cleansing Oil gently melts away impurities—even waterproof makeup—leaving behind pure, silky-soft skin.
After using our cleansing oil, we recommend following with The Deep Cleanse. This gel cleanser is formulated with natural fruit exfoliant to deeply but gently lift impurities and unclog pores while leaving your skin feeling soft and hydrated. It cleanses with amino acids derived from silk, and harnesses the power of the Japanese Luffa fruit to turn over dead skin cells, deeply purify and decongest pores, and condition the skin.
Step 2: Plump.
Essences help to purify, balance, and prep your skin for the remainder of your routine. At night, they also work to help balance your skin's pH, deliver antioxidants and restore moisture. We recommend using The Essence both day and night. This resurfacing softener of 98.7% pure Japanese superfoods works to reveal soft, youthful-looking skin, replenish moisture, and increase radiance. It is also formulated with Hadasei-3™, our proprietary complex of double-fermented Uji green tea, Akita rice, and Mozuku algae. This trinity of time-tested ingredients work in harmony to deliver radiant, healthy-looking skin. Uji green tea is known to help reduce the signs of aging and to detoxify the skin. Protein-rich Akita rice nourishes the skin, leaving skin feeling plump and supple. Okinawa mozuku algae is packed with hydrating polysaccharides essential for skin water retention and renewal, helping your skin retain moisture and maintain a smooth, hydrated appearance. Rich in a symphony of essential amino acids, this trio supports the skin’s natural moisture-keeping factors while promoting natural skin surface turnover for brighter, beautiful skin at every age.
Step 3: Polish.
Scrubs and exfoliators are optimal for gently but effectively removing dead skin cells and impurities from the outermost layer of your skin’s surface to unveil smoother skin and create a luminous, healthy glow. Our exfoliator, The Rice Polish, is a water-activated exfoliant of nourishing Japanese rice bran that transforms to a creamy foam, promoting natural skin surface turnover and leaving skin baby soft and supple. While exfoliating your skin on a daily basis could lead to irritation if done too often, The Rice Polish is gentle enough for everyday use.
Step 4: Mask.
—Using a face mask one to two times per week will allow you to restore moisture, balance, and hydration to your skin. Our Violet-C Radiance Mask is a creamy rinse-off mask that is not only formulated with two types of Vitamin C and Japanese beautyberry, but includes 10% AHAs (alpha hydroxy acids) from seven fruit extracts to improve skin texture, brighten skin tone, and unveil a soft, dewy glow. It also contains Hadasei-3™, our proprietary complex of double-fermented Uji green tea, Akita rice, and Mozuku algae.
Step 5: Nourish.
Replenishing your skin with moisture and quenching it with hydration is imperative, especially in the drier areas. However, you must keep in mind that the oilier parts of your face may require a different type of moisturizer than the dry patches. It is up to you to determine if it’s better to use one moisturizer for your entire face, or two different formulas to achieve the desired results.
The Water Cream is ideal for use all over your face, as it is an oil-free moisturizer that releases a burst of skin-improving Japanese nutrients, botanicals, and optimal hydration and results in pure, poreless skin. It also contains Japanese wild rose to tighten the look of pores, and Japanese leopard lily, to help minimize excess oil, both of which help to calm and soothe the skin. This formula would traditionally be referred to as an anti-aging moisturizer, and does indeed help improve the signs of accelerated aging that occur from environmental elements, lifestyle choices, and other factors. However, it is our long-espoused belief that beauty knows no age. We believe that time is a gift, and to better align our language with our values, we have pledged to phase out the term "anti-aging" in our marketing.
If you prefer to use different moisturizers for your combination skin, we recommend The Water Cream for oily skin and The Dewy Skin Cream for dry skin. The Dewy Skin Cream is a rich, moisturizing cream that feeds skin with plumping hydration and antioxidant-packed Japanese purple rice for dewy skin and a healthy glow and is ideal for dry skin. It contains a special blend of Okinawa algae and hyaluronic acid, capturing water to help restore skin’s natural moisture reservoir and immediately leaving skin feeling soft, comforted, and nourished.
Step 6: Protect.
A broad spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 or greater is undeniably imperative for protecting your skin from sun damage and harmful UV rays. Applying sunscreen every morning also helps to reduce the signs of aging. Our Silken Pore Perfecting Sunscreen is a weightless sunscreen with broad spectrum SPF 35 that blends effortlessly and invisibly for a matte finish and poreless appearance.
Victoria Tsai
Chief Treasure Hunter
