About 35 minutes · at home
Find my skin type
Oily, dry, combination or normal? Instead of guessing, check what your skin actually does, zone by zone, and see how sure the answer is.
You will need
- A gentle, soap-free face wash and a clean towel
- Blotting paper or a clean tissue (optional, but it helps)
- A mirror, good daylight and about 35 minutes
How sure can a home test be?
No home test has been proven against lab measurements. The wash-and-wait method is advice from skin specialists, and oil changes by face zone and by season. So you get an estimate with an honest label: clear when the test and your answers agree, mixed when they differ, and repeat needed when something today could have changed the result.
How this works, and the evidence
An estimate, not a diagnosis. The wash-and-wait and blotting tests are specialist advice; no home test has been proven against lab measurements. Oil varies by face zone and season, and self-assessment agrees only partly with measured oil, so we combine two methods and say how sure the result is. Sensitive skin is judged from symptoms. Doctor review pending.
- Cleveland Clinic: Understanding skin types (wash-and-wait and blotting tests)
- Youn et al. 2005: regional and seasonal variations in facial sebum
- Rou & Park 2004: self-assessed skin type compared with measured sebum
- Misery et al. 2017: international consensus definition of sensitive skin
- Engebretsen et al. 2016: humidity, temperature and the skin barrier
- AAD: Seborrheic dermatitis signs and symptoms
- AAD: Rosacea in skin of color
- AAD: Isotretinoin side effects