Your guide to skin care for sensitive combination skin

Do you have combination skin that is also sensitive to beauty products and other environmental factors?

It can be hard to find a great beauty regime because a lot of sensitive skin care products are not designed to balance combination skin, whilst most combination skin care products are not designed to nurture delicate, sensitive skin.

In this guide we help you to find the best of both worlds – a routine built of natural skin care products for sensitive combination skin.

What is sensitive combination skin?

Combination skin has dry areas and oily areas, typically an oily forehead, nose and chin but dry cheeks. You may experience spots or clogged pores in the oily areas.

Your skin is sensitive if you experience sensitivity or allergies to harsh ingredients in skin care products or other triggers in your environment such as cleaning products or washing detergents.  

Your skin may look red or inflamed or feel itchy when after exposure to a trigger.

3 skin care tips for sensitive combination skin

• Go scent-free. Avoid artificial fragrances and essential oils because these can irritate sensitive skin. Instead, choose fragranced skin care. To help you find just what you need we offer a scent-free skin care collection and our Nordic Roots range is also entirely free of fragrance.
• Avoid ethyl alcohol. This ingredient is found in many products for spot-prone or combination skin but can upset the balance of your skin.
• Patch test. To minimise the impact of a reaction, patch test new products on a small area of skin before wider use and only leave them on the skin when it feels comfortable to do so.

During a flare up of sensitivity, your skin may react differently to skin care, even products that you have used safely before.

It is especially important during these times to pare back your routine to the gentlest products and support the repair of the skin barrier.

Best cleanser for sensitive combination skin

If you have sensitive combination skin, use a gentle cleanser rather than a foaming face wash. Cleanse no more than twice a day and avoid damaging skin by using a cleanser that contains drying alcohols or foaming agents that are known to dry and irritate the skin, such as SLS or soap.

It is best to use a pH balanced cleanser and if your skin feels tight and dry after cleansing, this may indicate that the pH of your cleansing routine is not compatible with your skin.

A good, pH-balanced gentle cleanser for sensitive combination skin is Scent Free Cleanser. This is free from drying alcohols and formulated with an ultra-gentle blend of moisturising actives, including Shea Butter, Squalane and Calendula, which calm and hydrate the skin as you cleanse, providing the skin barrier with the comfort and care it needs to repair itself.

Scent Free Cleanser 150ml

This fragrance-free cleanser is a sensitive skin essential

£27.00

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Top tip: Skin sensitivity can be stimulated by extreme temperatures so keep the water temperature tepid when you rinse excess cleanser from your skin.

Best face serum for sensitive combination skin

Follow your cleanse morning and evening with a face serum suitable for sensitive combination skin to provide your skin with long-lasting hydration.

Our best face serum for sensitive combination skin is Nordic Roots Hyaluronic Booster Serum. This contains Sodium hyaluronate, a sodium salt of Hyaluronic acid that is easily absorbed deep into the skin. It attracts and binds with water to leave skin feeling firm and refreshed.

Nordic Roots Hyaluronic Booster Serum 28ml

Quench dry, tight, thirsty skin with drops of instant, intense hydration

£30.00

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Best moisturiser for sensitive combination skin

Once your serum has been absorbed, apply Scent Free Day Moisturiser, a light scent-free daily face cream made to help balance ultra-sensitive and blemish-prone skin.

This moisturiser for sensitive combination skin calms and clarifies with a microbiome-balancing blend of soothing Chamomile, hydrating Seaweed, balancing Jojoba Oil and Willow Bark and Prebiotics to target spots.

Scent Free Day Moisturiser 50ml

Bring natural balance to your skin with this scent-free face cream

£26.00

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Best night cream for sensitive combination skin

The best night moisturiser for sensitive skin will contain ceramides. Ceramides are ideal for sensitive combination skin because they contain lipids known to help seals gaps between the skin cells, preventing skin dehydration.

This is important because when the skin barrier is damaged, it is less effective at filtering out aggressors and more vulnerable to skin sensitivity. Read more about ceramide skin care.

Our favourite night cream for sensitive combination skin is Nordic Roots Truffle Night Cream.

Suitable for all skin types, genders and ages, this luxurious, natural night cream features Northern Truffle.

This remarkable active has been shown to help even sensitive skin find its ‘feel good’ state by enhancing skin barrier defences and tolerance to stresses.

Entirely scent-free, Northern Truffle Night Cream also gives skin a rise-and-shine glow and is enriched with a moisture-binding blend of ceramides, Hemp Seed Oil, Cellular Apple Water and Glycerin which sink in overnight to reset skin hydration levels, leaving skin plump, firm, soft and fresh.

Nordic Roots Truffle Night Cream 50ml

Support cell regeneration and softer skin with soothing Northern Truffle and reparative Ceramides

£32.00

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30-day happiness guarantee

We understand that shopping for your sensitive skin has probably meant a lot of trial and error and that buying online is especially hard because you can’t try it on your skin then and there.

So that you can purchase with confidence and without risk, we offer free UK returns for 30 days after purchase. This means you can try out the products and see what your skin thinks.

If you are not happy, simply return the products (as long as they are over 90% full) to us and we’ll give you a full refund.

Do you have a question about choosing a cleanser or moisturiser for sensitive combination skin? Our friendly UK customer care team can help and can be contacted on 01403 740350 or at [email protected].

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