You can divide the human skin in to several types:

- normal skin - sensitive skin - dry skin - oily skin - combination skin

Before you can buy a skin care product that fits to your skin you need to find out what skin type you have.

Normal skin

People with normal skin have no flaked dry spots, shiny faces, both or irritations spots in their face. This kind of skin type is less strenuous than the following skin types, you just need a good cleanser for normal skin and daily maintenance.

Sensitive skin

You know that you have a sensitive skin when you see allergic reactions in your face and neck after using some skin care product. (and even some times from shampoo or sun screen) When you have a sensitive skin you need hypoallergenic skin and body care products. You should avoid scented or colored products and most people benefit the most from products that are natural, botanical and/or organic. Always try to get a sample before you buy the full product to make sure that it combines well with your skin.

Dry Skin

The one most important thing when you have a dry skin is moisturize, every morning and every night clean your skin with a cleanser for dry skin and moisturize, if you have a very dry skin you can apply a deep moisturizer once a week at night.

Alcohol and smoking can dry out your skin as well as the wind in cold climates. When you have dry skin this will probably be on your whole body and not just your face, If this is the case you should moisturize your arms. legs and other dry parts from your body to, you can use a body cream for dry skin.

Oily Skin

Excessive sebum or grease makes your skin shiny and that is exactly what people with a oily skin experience, because of the excessive sebum they have a greater change of clogged pores, acne and other skin blemishes. The right kind of skin care product are a toner or cleanser for oily skin and wipes to clean the excess sebum.

Combination Skin

More than 50 percent of people have a combination skin. The oily parts are most often the so called T-zone and the best way to treat this zone is with products for oily skin. The dry parts are most often the sides of the face and the cheek bones and should be treated like dry skin. There are skin care products for a combination skin but you will notice that most of the time they will not work as good as the combination of two types of skin care products for the different zones of your face, this makes having a combination skin more expensive.

Knowing your skin type is extremely important for the proper care of your skin because it dictates which skin care product you should use.

Julia Schwartz loves to write about skin care. Some of the subjects she mentions on her website are a natural skin care book and some good skin care companies.