What Type of Skin Do I Have? The Climate You’re in Matters More
By karina / 18 December 2023
I think I was 14 years old, fretting over my newly oily, pimple-ridden skin, when I first read that the most important question in my life should be: What type of skin do I have?It’s a question that’s been drilled into our heads by countless beauty counters, magazines, even doctors. But here’s the worst-kept secret in skincare, because we all already know it: knowing the answer to the question What type of skin do I have? does not lead to a beautiful, healthy complexion!
Why Climate Isn’t Just More Important than Skin Type--It Actually Creates Skin “Type”
When it comes to figuring out what type of skin you have, you’re ignoring a lot of different factors… the biggest one being climate. The basic skin types of oily, dry, combination, and normal are a very, very basic place to start because they completely ignore the fact that our skin is naturally programmed to be climate-smart, complete with internal thermometers and humidity readers that turn on and off processes that kick up oil and water production, turn it down, and much more. Your skin’s already brilliant climate skin IQ is, of course, why your skin “type” changes depending on the time of year and when you travel. So if you keep thinking the answer to your complexion woes can be found in asking What type of skin do I have?, you’ll be sorely disappointed (probably already are!), because they're symptoms of the climates effect on your skin, not the defining reasons for your skin issues.Enter Pour Moi, the skincare brand that’s changing how we think about the formulation of products by considering climate first and nourishing skin with lightweight products that deliver high performance ingredients and benefits by climate. Designed to be a 3-step regimen, Pour's Moi's premium skincare features a Hydrating Balancer, Serums, Day Creams and a Night Cream.
How Your Skin Responds to Climate, Creating “Symptoms” You’re Confusing for Skin Type
Here’s a quick lesson in your complexion’s very own climate smarts (yes, the ones we’ve been ignoring, since, well forever). Skin responds to high/hot temperatures with low humidity by first releasing the heat. To do so, the blood vessels located in the middle of the dermis expand further out to get closer to the outer skin. The release of heat in a hot climate can cause the sebum (waxy substance in the epidermis) to change from waxy to more oily (think of it melting into a slicker, shiny oily substance). If the sebum-production machine kicks into overdrive, you’ll see a shiny complexion and very greasy skin.Next, the skin-cooling process springs into action. The sweat glands transfer water from the dermis to the epidermis. If humidity is low, sweat quickly evaporates and cools the skin. But the problem is that the outer skin cannot pull any water from the air into the skin, which it needs to stay hydrated.
How Climate Smart Skincare Balances Every Aspect of Your Complexion
Climate smart skincare, like that with D-CEBs, is specifically designed to take low humidity and heat into account. The Day Creams hydrate and protect the skin with the highest quality blends of pure water from the French Alps with humectants, emollients, and/or occlusives. These make up a powerful moisture base designed to keep skin optimally moist, soft, and flexible even when the heat and humidity are really working against it.These cutting-edge Climate Energized Beautifiers™ are selected to make sure that hydrating ingredients–such as small, medium, and large Hyaluronic Acid molecules–penetrate deeper into the skin and moisture without clogging pores.
Why Ingredients Alone Aren’t Enough; They Need to be The Right Size and Fit for Your Skin
The HyalurTruf+ complex is a new lightweight skincare ingredient created to help skin find its balance in all climates. Made from a blend of 3 different forms of hyaluronic acids, it takes into account that varying molecule weight helps with absorption because each molecule size has a different job. “Penetration of hyaluronic acid into the skin depends on how stable the ingredient is when applied to the skin and gets exposed to heat, air and light and also what molecule size the ingredient has (as it depends how deep it can skin into the skin),” explains Pour Moi founder Ulli Haslacher. “Hyaluronic acid is an excellent hydrator that not just attracts water from the atmosphere but also holds the water molecule.”Because the large-size molecules are the water grabbing kind, they sit on the surface. If there are no different sizes of Hyaluronic acids, and there is not enough water in the air for the large molecules to grab, they can turn against your skin and pull water from the deeper skin layers. Excellent skincare chemistry can take advantage today of pulling humidity from the air and keeping it (plumping effect) when available. But, when skin faces dry climates the smaller kind will help to offset the larger molecule size acid to turn against the skin. This is the most premium way to help skin restore its natural moisture balance.
