When looking to purchase skin care products, first consider your skin type. Is your skin oily? dry? sensitive? aging? This will give you a broad category of products to choose from, and will determine the specific products you should focus on.

For instance, if your skin is oily, you probably want to focus more on cleansing and toning than moisturizing. if your skin is dry, you might focus more on moisturizing than toning (and so on).

Once you’ve determined your skin type, it’s time to think about what you want the product to do. Do you want it to cleanse your skin? Tone your skin? Treat wrinkles or fine lines? This, too, will determine what kinds of products you should spend money on.

After this, you want to take a look at any special skin problems or skin conditions you have. These may impact what kinds of products you can choose. For example, if you have dry skin, and want to cleanse it, but have found most soaps too harsh, you want to find a product that will cleanse gently without using too many preservatives or mineral ingredients.

Finally, once you’ve determined the answers to those questions, you then want to take a look at the ingredients list and aim to get the product with the fewest number of total ingredients, especially if your skin is sensitive.

Sounds challenging, perhaps, but it’s a good method to follow to insure you’re getting the most value from your skin care dollars.