How To Pick the Best Skin Care Products For You

Find the Correct Skin Care Products for Your Age, Skin Type and Skin Concern

One of the questions my patients ask fairly often is:

“How do I choose a skin care product or skin care ingredients for my skin?” “Who do I believe and does price matter?”

And I agree:

“It can be confusing considering the large number of skin care brands available on the market today”

This is a helpful guide in finding how to pick the best skin care products, ingredients and brand for your skin concern, age and skin type

If we do a Google search for ‘skin care products’ or ‘best skin care product’ or best anti-ageing skin care’ or ‘how to choose skincare products’ etc. one will find millions of hits for each category. Furthermore according to Google almost half of us have no idea which ingredient or brand we should choose when looking for skincare products

Very simply the confusion comes from numerous claims by skincare brands so what do we believe and what do we leave behind and it also comes from consumers not fully understanding their specific skin type and skin concerns

How To Pick the Best Skin Care Products

Dr Alek Nikolic’s Step By Step Approach:

Step 1: Determine Your Skin Type

“Skin care is firstly determined by our skin types and this should be the very first thing we get 100% correct as all the rest will follow on this important step.”

Don’t worry it is a lot simpler than you think and you do not need a professional skin care therapist, or a cosmetic doctor, or a dermatologist to find out this bit of vital information

Step 1: Dr Alek Nikolic’s Skin Type Test

There are basically five skin types: normal, dry, oily, combination and sensitive

To determine your type, use a simple test with a clean facial tissue (or paper) to wipe your face in the morning, when you have just woken up:

Normal Skin: If you skin belongs to a normal type, the tissue will not reveal any traces of oil. Your skin should feel vibrant, elastic, and supple. Normal skin is the least problematic type and unfortunately very few of us have this type of skin. It looks clean and smooth and has a good circulation and healthy complexion. Even with a minimum care, it will look good well into your advanced age.

Dry Skin: If your skin is dry, the paper will be clean, too, but your face skin will feel flaky, dry, and tight after you have wiped it. Dry skin can easily develop a sallow tone, wrinkles, and fine pores, and it is very prone to ageing and irritation or sensitivity. It might still look great on a young person, but, to keep it healthy, you should apply thorough care and use regular skin or beauty treatment with natural masks and moisturisers.

Oily Skin: If you have oily skin, the paper will have spots of facial oil on it, corresponding to the areas of your cheeks, nose, and forehead. Oily skin is problematic – it usually looks greasy, thick, coarse, and shiny, has enlarged pores, and tends to break into acne.

A good thing, though, is that oily skin is not prone much to ageing and wrinkling. Careful cleaning, minimising of carbohydrate consumption, and avoiding rich creams can be helpful in improving the quality of oily skin.

Combination Skin: If you skin is combination, like that of most of us, the tissue will have traces of oil coming from your nose and forehead, but will be clean in the areas that touched your cheeks. Combination skin has patches of both dry and oily skin, and it requires different types of care in relation to particular facial areas. Dry zones which are usually located on the cheeks and around the eyes should be treated with rich creams and moisturisers while oily areas usually on the forehead and nose will benefit from a twice daily effective cleanser.

Sensitive Skin: Sensitive skin is usually very dry, tends to feel tight, and becomes inflamed and irritated easily. Typically, sensitive skin develops reddish and scaly areas, can be itchy and tingly, and is prone to breaking into spots. It is the most problematic and fragile type of skin, which needs a very special type of care.

Step 2: Choose Your Skin Concerns

There are a number of skin concerns you may have including pigmentation, acne, fine lines and wrinkles, textured or rough skin, excessive pores, etc. and luckily for us for each of these concerns skin care brands have included specific ingredients to treat them and to suite our specific skin type

“We have tried to make the choice of a skincare product for a specific skin condition as simple and as easy as possible by adding a very effective filter system on SkinMiles.com”

The product filter system allows you to enter your skin type (such as combination skin) and once the page has loaded you can choose a specific skin concern (such as pigmentation). This will display all the SkinCeuticals products that are available for these two categories: combination skin with pigmentation: see here. To make it even easier our filter system also allows you to choose a specific product type for your skin categories such as cleansers, targeted treatments, moisturisers, sunscreens, etc

Here is an example of what the filter system displays NeoStrata cleansers for combination skin with pigmentation: Recommended Products

If however you would like to do your own research and not rely on technology I have compiled informative skin concern references that will help you in deciding which product is best for you. So choose from the list below your main skin concerns and check the helpful guide to steer you in the right direction:

Step 3: Choose Your Skin Care Regime

This simple, step-by-step routine covers the basic types of products everyone should use and the order in which to use them every day. These steps apply regardless of your skin type. I have divided the skin care regime into two types: Primary or Basic skincare regime and what I call the Next Step or Advanced skincare regime. The Primary regime is for those that are younger or do not want to spend too much time or effort with their skincare plan and the Next Step regime are for those who would like to maximise the benefits that topical skincare products can achieve

Primary Routine: MORNING

FOR ALL SKIN TYPES

Primary Routine: EVENING

Learn why exfoliation is so important and which exfoliant to use

‘Next Step’ Routine

The Next Step Routine is for those people concerned with specifically with signs of aging, sensitivity, pigmentation or breakouts. It includes targeted treatments that build on the footing of the Primary Routine to treat specific skincare concerns such as acne, red marks, wrinkles, sun damage, brown spots, or rosacea

If your skin is dry, or oily, or a combination type then following the primary skin care regime is adequate. If however you have dry skin with wrinkles or oily skin with pigmentation and/or wrinkles then one will achieve better results by adding additional ingredients as recommended in the Next Step Routine

The Next Step Routine includes a gentle toner and a targeted treatment to specifically tackle extra skin concerns to achieve best results from your skin care regime

Next Step Routine: MORNING

Cleanser
Toner
Exfoliant
Treatment (serum)
Moisturiser w/ sunscreen
Optional: Targeted treatment (applied as needed before sunscreen)

Next Step Routine: EVENING

Cleanser
Toner
Exfoliant
Treatment (serum)
Moisturiser
Optional: Targeted treatment, as needed, applied before or after your treatment product

Price:

“So in a nutshell a product does not have to be expensive to be effective and vice versa”

Yes it is true that premium ingredients in a skin care product do not come cheap but we pride ourselves in providing the very best ingredients backed by intensive scientific research and evidence based treatment results in all of our skin care products and to suit every budget.

Final Words:

“Ultimately the best approach to choosing the correct skin care products with ingredients specific for your skin type and skin concern will be through a face to face skin consultation either with a professional skin therapist, a cosmetic medical practitioner or a dermatologist. We have created something almost as good with a free online skin consultation called Face2Face that allows you to answer some basic questions and upload a photo of your skin that comes directly to Dr Alek Nikolic’s personal email. From this he can give you skincare product recommendations to suite your skin needs so give it a try”

The three simple steps I have listed above if followed and with the help of our skin care product filter system or with the Face2Face Online Skin Consultation will allow anyone to get the best skin care advice and skincare products on SkinMiles.com

I hope the above has been helpful and will limit the confusion that exists when choosing the right product for you and your skin.

Kind regards

Sam Nikolic

Need More Info?

Further Reading & Recommended In Depth Articles:

For More Skincare Advice:

Take Our Skin Assessment: see immediate recommendations for your skin type and/or skin concern
Take Dr Alek Nikolic’s Face2Face Skin Consultation: get personal recommendations for your skin from Dr Alek
Read Skin Care According To Your Age

Product Recommendations:

Treating Normal Skin: Follow Link
Treating Dry Skin: Follow Link
Treating Oily Skin:Follow Link
Treating Combination Skin:Follow Link
Treating Sensitive Skin:Follow Link

The aesthetic industry has developed at an increased pace over the past twenty years including the increased use of botulinum toxins and dermal fillers; but this also includes the techniques used to attain youthful and healthy skin and as a result treatment outcomes for skin concerns have also improved. We are now able to access a wide range of treatments that perhaps were not once readily available.

An area of industry that has progressed substantially over this period is that of cosmeceuticals or dermatologist or doctor prescribed skin care products. One might say that with the rise of botulinum toxin, men and women have become better educated when it comes to skin care, and indeed, the cosmeceutical market plays a big role in this need for skin protection from both environmental damage and ageing processes.

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