Skin care can feel all at once straightforward and confusing. Washing your face isn’t all that convoluted…until you wonder how often you should wash it, and what kind of cleanser you should use. Breakouts are a fact of life, but what about when you start wondering if you could avoid them altogether?

You’re not alone in your skin care questions. For every skin-related concern you have, you have many people out there in the world wondering the same thing.

Here are three of the most common skin care questions along with, more importantly, the answers. Hopefully reading through these Q&As will help you create a better skin care routine for yourself, and help you feel less alone in your wonderments.

How can I figure out my skin type?
We like to talk about skin types like they’re clear-cut: normal, oil, dry, or combination. But the reality is that skin types can change with location, lifestyle, hormones, weather, age, and more.

If you feel like you’re constantly chasing the perfect label for your skin type, sleep on it…and then pay attention to your skin the next morning. Your “first morning skin” is a great indicator of your actual skin type at any given time, even throughout life changes.

Wake up with skin that feels tight and itchy, or looks dull and flaky? That’s some dry skin right there.

Are your pores saying good morning to you, along with excess sebum? Oily skin will show itself as soon as you wake up.

Skin that feels tight on your cheeks and forehead, but glossy over your nose and forehead is combination type skin.

Does your skin just feel…like skin? You’d be classified as having normal skin.

Any skin type can suffer from any skin condition, so be aware that skin type does not equal a condition. Dry skin can be plagued with blemishes, and oily skin can still get flaky. Your skin issues are not always an indicator of your true skin type.

What’s the best way to help heal breakouts?
By now, you should know to leave blemishes alone. Picking at zits can worsen things by introducing more bacteria, and causing secondary wounds that then turn into scabs, making everything look and feel worse.

But aside from keeping your hands off, there’s a lot you can do to support your skin’s healing process without resorting to over-drying skin. Yes, you want your blemish to dry out and heal up, but over-drying the skin will actually slow the overall healing process. Plus, dry skin is harder to cover up with concealer while you’re waiting for your skin to heal.

To best support the skin during breakouts, use a calming formula like Cicarelief Cream, which uses calamine to soothe irritation, inflammation, and redness. Once these three known blemish symptoms have subsided, the formula’s panthenol, madecassoside, and MLE work together to reinforce the skin’s healing process.

The result is blemishes that look better while they heal faster—pretty much what everyone wants when it comes to blemish care.

How can I prevent visible signs of aging?
If you’re concerned about avoiding fine lines and wrinkles, you’re definitely not alone. Keeping skin looking youthful and healthy is one of the main reasons why many people use skin care products in the first place.

While you can absolutely minimize visible signs of aging after they’ve already arrived, your best bet is to protect your skin against the damage that leads to those signs of aging.

The #1 skin care tip for preventing wrinkles is to wear your SPF every day. That doesn’t mean only in the summer. It doesn’t mean that you should skip a day if you wore SPF yesterday. Sun damage is the main cause of visible signs of skin aging.

Secondarily to SPF, you can help maintain your skin’s youthfulness by making sure that it receives the nutrients and moisture it needs to function optimally and repair itself before visible signs of damage appear. You can accomplish this by eating a diet rich in antioxidants and hydration, as well as applying skin care products containing protective and hydrating ingredients.

Lastly, lifestyle choices are a factor when it comes to maintaining the youthfulness of your skin. Inherently harmful lifestyle choices like smoking, excessive drinking, and lack of sleep will all show up on your skin—a lot sooner than you’d expect, too. If keeping your skin healthy and young-looking is important to you, you may need to make some lifestyle changes to accomplish that.

Do you have a skin care question that’s not featured here today? Leave it in the comments and we’ll include it next time!