Value Facial Skincare Range for Combination Skin?

ShaShaBear

I've had terrible combination skin for as long as I can remember. My nose and forehead are terribly dry but also feel super greasy. If I want to wear foundation to try and blend out all the redness on my face, I have to scrub the life out of it to take off all the dry skin, blitz it with face masks and put on about 4-5 layers of moisturiser and then primer. And the foundation (I have even tried some super, super expensive brands) still doesn't cover the flaky skin that appears almost instantly in my danger areas.

I'm getting married next year (obviously a professional will fix my sorry excuse of a face on the day) so I'd really like to try something new that might combat this daily - I'd like to be able to wear a bit of eye makeup heading out dress shopping without looking like death with red splodges all over my face!

I'm not too concerned with the price, so long as I can get a good use out of it. I used some Eucerin testers a while back and it seemed really great, but I didn't have enough to make a proper judgement!

jadie

I would first change your skincare regime. Take a look at Caroline Hiron's website. Double cleansing with oils and balms, acid toning, using a good serum and so on. Don't scrub your skin will make it worse.

Go to a good salon for a course of facials in prep for your wedding

Look into using various pure oils to balance out the dryness and oiliness, I know that sounds counter intuitive for the oily parts, but it does work. Pure, organic oils are very unlikely to irritate you. There's lots of resources on the web with recommendations, and it's worth a try before investing in a very complicated, expensive regime.

bscm

Hydraluron is quite good for combination skin. It helps combat the dehydrated patches, and makes your moisturiser absorb better (the science behind it also helps you skin retain much more of the moisture). Boots sometimes do the serum at 33% off, so it works out at just over 20 euro. A tube normally lasts me about 3 months, and I do notice the difference if I stop using it.

I love Una Brennan's Superfacialist Rose Cleanser. It's a cream cleanser and brilliant for combination skin because it's gentle enough to not irritate or strip the skin, but the thick consistency means you work it in when you use it (so it doesn't feel like a partial cleanse like a micellar water). I always rub it onto dry skin (with or without makeup), rinse it off, and then use cotton pads. I repeat unless there is no makeup left on the cotton pads. Again, available from Boots at about 11 euro (recently it was 6.60 euro, on offer).

I'd definitely look into a good night moisturiser. You can combat dryness and dehydration at night, because you don't have to worry about oiliness as much. I like the Vichy Aqualia cream, but I'm looking into other ones

Serums may also be of use. Kiehls Midnight Recovery is popular amongst combination/oily skin types. Sunday Riley's Luna is more expensive, but meant to be amazing.