How To Choose The Best Moisturizer For Your Skin

Moisturizer is one of the skin care staples that everyone needs in their routine. It keeps your skin comfortable so you don’t get that awful un-satisfiable itching feeling, and it makes your skin look younger and brighter to boot. The challenge, though, is finding a moisturizer that’s the perfect fit for your skin.

Chances are that every person you ask will swear by a different bottle that’s become their go-to, but everyone’s skin has its own quirks and features so what’s good for the goose isn’t necessarily good for the gander. To find your one true love in a sea of moisturizer matches, try these top tips.

Know Your Skin Type

Most moisturizers (and most other types of skin care products) will specify on the bottle or online that they’re ideal for certain skin types – maybe oily skin, dry skin, combination skin, you name it. Learning your skin type can help you dramatically narrow down the pool of potential moisturizers.

The easiest way to do this is to use blotting papers. Use a cleanser but don’t apply any products afterward. Half an hour later, blot different areas of your face with blotting papers to see how much oil shows up.

If you’re seeing a significant amount of oil throughout most of your face, you have oily skin. If you see little or no oil throughout most of your face, you have dry skin. If you see a moderate amount of oil throughout most of your face, you have balanced or normal skin. If you have significant oil in some areas but little or no oil in other areas, you have combination skin.

It’s also a good idea to determine if you have sensitive skin. Does your skin tend to get pink, red, or inflamed easily? If so, you probably have sensitive skin, so you should look for moisturizers that are safe for sensitive skin.

Looking for the easiest path that reduces your options the most? Find moisturizers that are safe for all skin types.

Start with Your Favorite Brands

Each skin care brand has different focuses and may formulate its products with a different type of skin in mind. There’s no way to truly know which brands are the right fit for you until you try them.

If you’ve found a particular product, whether it’s a cleanser, serum, sunscreen, or what have you, that feels like it was genuinely made for your skin, there’s a good chance that the brand’s moisturizers will be a good fit for you too.

Keep Notes as a Trial-and-Error Strategy

Finding the right skin care products always has a trial-and-error component, because you can never fully know how a product will treat your skin until you try it. But you can build a body of knowledge along the way.

Each time you try a new moisturizer, take a picture of its ingredients list and make a note of its pros and cons. As you try a variety of moisturizers, look for patterns. You might find that the products that hydrate your skin well have certain ingredients in common that the other products don’t, or you might discover a common ingredient among the products that irritate your skin or clog your pores. The more patterns you can spot, the better you can know which ingredients to look for and which to avoid the next time.

Consider Adding Sun Protection to Your Hydration

Sun protection is one of the best things you can do for your skin, and it should be a part of your routine every morning. You can make things easier on yourself, though, if you choose a moisturizer with SPF included.

In some cases, the SPF may be strong enough that you can skip your morning sunscreen application. In other cases, it can be supplementary so you get better protection overall. Either way, it’s worth adding to your wish list.

Think About Your Acne Risk

Some moisturizers, especially those that are heavier and are designed for particularly dry skin, have a tendency to clog pores. This might be fine for most people but if you’re prone to acne, it could be a recipe for breakouts.

Think about how often you get acne or blemishes or talk to your dermatologist about whether they would classify you as having acne-prone skin. If so, look for a moisturizer that is labeled as non-comedogenic or non-acnegenic, or a moisturizer designed for acne-prone skin.

Look for Added Perks

A great moisturizer contributes to both the health and beauty of your skin, but it can do even more. What would you love to see from your skin? Maybe you want your skin to look younger or perhaps you want a more even complexion. Lucky you, because there are moisturizers that combine hydration with other skin-boosting needs. For example, if you want to reduce signs of aging, an anti-aging moisturizer could be the perfect addition to your medicine cabinet.

Finding Your Ideal Moisturizer

The quest for the perfect moisturizer isn’t one to take lightly. Sure, a mediocre or ill-fitted moisturizer won’t actively hurt your skin in most cases, but it can leave amazing skin improvements on the table and it could spark inflammation and irritation along the way. Use the tips above to find your moisturizer soul mate.