Visit any supermarket or pharmacy and you’ll be assaulted with literally millions of skin care products promising to make your skin better. Choosing what to use can be an overwhelming and daunting task. Not all skin care products are made alike, and some are exponentially better for your skin’s health and appearance than others.

Below, we’ve put together a list of what you need to know, in order to find the best products for your skin.

Determine your skin type

Knowing your skin type means you can get the right products and treatment for your skin.

Skin falls into four types–normal, oily, dry and combination.

• Normal skin is neither oily or flaky. It feels smooth and supple.
• Oily skin is identified by an excess of oil (sebum) on the face. Some people with oily skin begin to feel greasy only a few hours after washing. Those with oily skin to have large pores and a shine.
• Dry skin may feel taut and show flakes of dead skin. It is associated with small pores. Moisturising is very important for this dry skin.
• Combination is the most common skin type. It exhibits traits of all three of the above skin types. Usually, the skin is oily in the T-zone and normal to dry elsewhere.

Using the right products for your skin type will ensure that you don’t suffer from irritation and breakouts.

Research and understand ingredients

All skincare manufacturers make claims on the results that their products are capable of producing, however, if their product contains no active ingredients, it’s very likely that the improvements that you see from that product are going to be short term.

If you have sensitive skin, it’s important to know whether there are any ingredients in a product that are likely to cause your skin to react.

Be wary of fear mongering

If a product claims to be “free of nasty chemicals”, “chemical free” or “free of toxins” be cautious.

Often the scary stories you find posted on social media portraying synthetic ingredients as dangerous to your health and natural ingredients as safer or healthier and almost without exception, the fear-mongering information spread about the “nasty chemicals” have been thoroughly debunked as hoaxes or misinterpretations of research findings.

 Don’t mistake cost for quality

Ignore the price while comparing the product, as more expensive products don’t necessarily equate to quality. Many of the products in your supermarket’s personal care aisle are just as effective as the ones you find at high-end department stores. The trick is knowing what ingredients to look for.