by Blake Herzog
The human face does not cover a huge area — the average female face is roughly 5.5 inches wide and 7 inches long, with men a bit larger. You would think the skin throughout that surface would have the same qualities and concerns throughout.
But most of us aren’t so lucky. We’re likely to have some variation in our complexion, and those with combination skin can have a hard time keeping up with how our cheeks are acting up versus our chin versus our nose.
This is a particular problem when it comes to face mask treatments, an important component of any skin care routine to address oily or dry skin, acne, inflammation, pigmentation, fine lines and other problems.
But they’re generally designed to tackle one or two issues, which may not help us much. We can’t expect to put everything everywhere all at once on our face and have anything good happen.
This is where multimasking comes in.
It’s when we accept this reality and apply different masks with different active ingredients to relieve itchy dryness in one area, zap those couple of blackheads somewhere else and soak excess oil up in a third.
It’s an easy fix, once you find the right products to use. Plus, if you pick products in vibrant hues it can make for a really cool Instagram or TikTok post.
Buying the right products
This will require a little digging, and sheet masks clearly won’t be your friends in this endeavor.
Broadly speaking, skin on the forehead and down the nose to the chin (the “T-zone”) tends to be the oiliest, while the cheeks and skin surrounding the lips tend to be drier. Almost everyone has sensitive skin under the eyes, requiring extra caution from time to time.
Those who see larger discrepancies within these near-universal tendencies have combination skin and are the most likely to benefit from multimasking, but everyone has points in time when one section of their face needs a little more babying than usual.
Doing this means having more than one face mask on hand, but that extra bit of shopping can be so worth it in the end.
For forehead/nose/chin — A mask with salicylic acid, clay and other actives helps manage sebum production and mattify the skin to dull any shininess.
For cheeks/lips — Rich, hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid, glycerin, honey, aloe and oils are going to make these areas sigh with relief.
For under the eyes — Skin is notoriously delicate and sensitive here, so use targeted products with emollients, humectants and anti-aging ingredients.
When you’re looking for three or four markedly different face masks to use simultaneously it might be difficult to get them all to line up in terms of how long to let them sit on your skin, but in most cases you can leave it on for 15 to 20 minutes before thoroughly rinsing your face and massaging in a little bit of moisturizer.
