From the day you bought your first tub of Noxzema, you’ve been told that your skin is oily or dry or combination or sensitive or, most curious of all, normal. “It constantly frustrates me,” says Mona Gohara, an associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine. “People get thrown into these buckets, and it doesn’t make sense.” Then she adds, wryly, “It’s a soapbox I’m currently on.” And the message is this: We’ve taken for granted that these classifications define us and our epidermis, but almost nobody fits neatly into one. “People like categories, but in reality, everyone has combination skin — no one is just dry or oily, and you have wrinkles on some parts of your face and not others,” says Amy Wechsler, a dermatologist and psychiatrist in New York City.
On top of all that, the old categories don’t account for all of the ways we’re learning how skin works. “Our skin’s biology is more nuanced than we ever thought,” says Gohara. And as we understand it better, a new approach to skin care is taking shape. More brands (such as Clinique, Curology, Younique Youology, and Atolla) are creating customized formulas for your dry cheeks and brown spots — and yours alone. Read more
