Following social media tips on skincare might do more harm than good to your skin. Dermatologist Dr Divya Sharma speaks on better skincare practices.
Published Apr 26, 2025 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Apr 26, 2025 | 7:00 AM
Synopsis: Skin is a very dynamic organ. You don’t have a permanent type. It can change according to your internal changes.
This is something that could get under your skin once you realise that your skincare routine has been wrong.
However, let’s face it. Most of us think that we have nailed our skincare routine — cleanser, serum, sunscreen, repeat. But according to Bengaluru-based dermatologist Dr Divya Sharma, there is one common habit that could be doing more harm than good to your skin, something people unknowingly do every single day.
In an exclusive interview for the Health For You podcast, Dr Sharma explains why your morning routine might be sabotaging your skin’s health, and what to do instead.
She also busts myths about homemade face packs, the ‘natural’ scrubs, types of skin, and identifying them, and much more. She also speaks about haircare in the second part of the interview.
Here’s the excerpt from the first part of the podcast.
Q: Are there different skin types, and how does one identify his/her type?
A: Dermatology doesn’t distinguish people as having four or five skin types, the way you hear on social media. But we sometimes refer to patients as having normal, oily, combination, or dry skin.
Skin is a very dynamic organ. You don’t have a permanent type. It can change according to your internal changes. But the way to identify is to ask, ‘How do you feel if you haven’t put on a night cream? How do you feel when you get up in the morning?’
It is the best time to identify your skin type. So if your skin is oily when you wake up in the morning, that is, you feel a lot of oil — it is probably oily. If you feel normal, it is normal. But I feel that there are certain areas of your face which are desert zones, which will never be oily. One of them is your under-eye and around your mouth.
So, from a dermatological point of view, we know every patient is a combination. Even the oiliest of the skin cannot have oil under the eye. So, for the sake of simplicity, just see and identify your zones when you get up in the morning. Make sure you haven’t applied your night cream the previous bedtime.
Most of us would fall in the combination category or normal skin. But to make it simple, get up in the morning and see in the mirror, and that would almost, to a great extent, identify your type.
Q: How do I differentiate between acne and boils?
A: Acne is the inflammation of the oil gland. One must know that oil glands are present only on the face, your head, your back, and a little bit on the upper chest area. So when you see pimple- or boil-like things in these zones, we call them acne.
On arms, legs, buttocks, abdomen, thighs—that is a boil or furuncle or folliculitis. They are infectious, or very rarely due to heat boils or milia, occlusion of sweat glands. But acne is inflammation on the face, head, upper chest and back. On all other areas it is a boil.
Q: Are you seeing an increase in adult acne? Why is it happening?
A: There’s a pandemic of adult acne. When we were studying, we would tell patients, “Treat your acne well so that you don’t scar, and anyway they will it’ll go once you are 23 or24.” But I’m talking of India of the early 2000s. Right now, with the rise in obesity in women and men —there was also a time when women were not as obese as men— there’s a lot of abdominal obesity in female patients.
During the past decade, we saw a gradual increase in patients with pimples for the first time after the age of 25. Since they are no longer teenagers, it is more uncomfortable for the patient. The challenge for the doctor is that your skin is not as oily as a 19 or 20 year old with pimples. The products you use for acne are drying in nature. There has always been a lot of talk about how only oily skin gets acne. I feel it is false information. Acne is an inflammation of the oil gland, and it can happen to patients who really don’t feel too much oil as well, especially adults.
Q: Can it be treated with local medicines or do you advise lifestyle changes too?
A: Topical medications prevent scarring. No matter how many lasers you do, you can never make them 100% better. So one has to treat pimples on time to prevent the scarring.
Without a lifestyle change, it is difficult to bring pimples under control, because the real cause is sometimes not on the skin.
Q: Can you give a daily skincare routine for someone with normal to slightly sensitive skin?
A: One should not use soap on the face whatsoever, even if you have the oiliest skin. You feel soaps give you a temporary feeling that your face looks oil-free, but skin has a very delicate pH balance. So always use a cleanser.
If you are a patient who feels that “my skin is normal to sensitive and I get redness and itching very fast,” avoid using face washes containing salicylic acid and glycolic acid. Go for something very non-soapy—cleansers that contain cetyl or stearyl alcohol.
If you’re a patient who has combination to slightly oily skin, then one can opt for facewashes which have, you know, 2 percent glycolic acid. There are molecules like mandelic acid, which is very good for sensitive skin with acne. And then there are some cleansers which come with little exfoliating beads. I suggest them.
A cleanser must wait for a couple of minutes after washing face, because once you wash your face it dries it up. It is not the right time to apply a moisturiser. Wait for 5–7 minutes and watch. Most of the skin, especially people with oily skin, most of the areas will get oily. So where you feel more dry, you can apply a moisturiser.
Q: What kind of a moisturiser should one use?
A: If you are have dry skin, you can go for moisturisers containing hyaluronic acid or ceramides. But if you have oily skin, you should opt for oil-control moisturisers which give you a little mattified look.
But if you are in a very humid environment—say I’m living in Chennai summers or humid summers—I can even skip a moisturiser. Especially men. My practical advice is that don’t listen to influencers who say, “Yeah, everybody needs a moisturiser.”
Q: Is it safe to use a sunscreen lotion?
A: Sunscreen is a MUST for every age group. It too has various types. So if you have oily skin, you would like to go for a mattifying sunscreen. If you have dry skin, you can go for lotion sunscreen. And if you are in between the two or very sensitive, there are certain sunscreens which come as an emulsion, aqua fluid. They are best suited for people who don’t want to feel either too dry or too oily.
Q: What is the SPF (Sun Protection Factor) level that one must use in India?
A: An SPF of 20+ is good for Indians. It is not that you have to wear a 50. Because if a sunscreen claims that you are having a 50+, normally they will have a white cast. So not all Indians—especially men, I must say—they’re not very comfortable wearing the sunscreen where it looks odd. So 50+ sunscreen becomes a limitation to wear. So any sunscreen—I prefer sometimes for slightly wheatish or darker skin tones—they can go for 30 SPF also. And if you are exposed to the sun, like when you go out, or on a vacation, or out for swimming—go for a 50+ SPF.
Sunscreen itself is a very good primer. Most of these sunscreens are sweat-resistant, so they will act as a very good primer for your makeup. There are a lot of makeup that come with sunscreen. They can help you a bit, but they cannot replace your sunscreen.
If you want to put a vitamin C, mornings are a good time because vitamin C has an SPF of 15 by itself. So with vitamin C, or if you feel your skin is oily, you can go for a vitamin C in gel form or a serum form instead of a moisturiser before you put on a sunscreen.
As you remember, we always have talked that sunscreens are boyfriends or girlfriends—one can always change, but we need some partner in life, right?
Q: Is there anything that needs to be done just before sleep? And how many times a day can someone wash their face?
A: Twice a day is more than enough. The more you wash your face on the top, the more your oil glands get a signal: there is dryness above, so let me produce more oil. It is sebaceous hyperstimulation. So one should wash face only twice.
Q: Are facials really good for the skin? If yes, how often can one do it?
A: Facials are a very good way to pamper your skin. Let’s imagine skin as a three-storey house. The ground floor is your fat. The first floor—collagen and dermis—has your collagen, which is like crisscross when we are born. And the top floor—that is your dead skin layer. The base of it—imagine the floor of the top floor—has your melanin, melanocytes, which are producing pigment. There are bricks in the top layer. So the topmost brick is where you put a cream.
There’s a popular notion that if you do facials, you don’t age fast. But the fact is that with age, the ground floor will sink. Ironically, we gain weight, fat everywhere on the body, but it is the face where you do see a sinking of fat. So you’ll see women—our mothers and their friends—you know, now they have bigger eyes, bigger sockets, and these folds come up. So this, a facial at a parlour cannot help.
A parlour facial is an exfoliation treatment, with a little face massage, which boosts your lymphatics. You feel good.
That is why you’ll see a lot of dermatologists—they do medifacials. What we realized—there was a time when patients would come to us for treatment, and they would go to a parlour for a facial. So doctors felt—why not us? And it has started from the West; it came to us late. Along with exfoliation, we use devices like radiofrequency around the eye and around the jaw to stimulate collagen. Or we use electric wands or electroporation devices to penetrate serums well.
So if one feels like, “I have to do something,” right, then they may opt for dermatology, medical-grade facials, where doctors would put things which are more scientific.
Q: Does food have any impact on your skin, especially in preventing aging?
A: We underemphasise the importance of eating good.
There are examples where parents haven’t used anything, but they look far more younger. So a diet which is going from—if you look down at south, the diet is scientific. I mean, there is always a combination of carb and protein. Then there are those chutney powders and those rasam powders, which enhance absorption of vitamin C.
Go for a low-carb diet. It definitely delays aging. The more fiber you take in your diet, there is less oxidative stress to your body. One must understand that just like your other organs—if we are overweight, we get things like PCOD (Polycystic Ovarian Disease), pre-diabetes, eye problems, joint problems—and skin will also not be the same.
Q: Applying lemon directly on your face can permanently remove pigmentation.
A: It can’t—rather, it can cause rashes. And if you have sensitive skin, you may land up at the dermatologist. Eat lemon, drink lemon. But don’t apply lemon directly on the skin.
Q: Homegrown aloe vera is safe for all skin types.
A: False, because we often see reactions to aloe vera. We see small blackheads, and comedones in certain patients who use aloe vera. So you want to go for aloe vera—go for a medical-grade cosmetic which has aloe vera that is pharmacologically derived. Only one part of it is good for the skin, not the entire plant. It can also trigger allergies.
Q: You should scrub your face hard to remove blackheads.
A: False. It can increase pigmentation. So scrubbing is not a good thing. Many people use rava, sugar, coffee powder, etc. They are a strict no. They can go for a chemical exfoliant once a week.
Q: Natural DIY masks like turmeric, curd, and honey are always safe for all skin types.
A: Absolutely false. In a place like Bengaluru, where the weather is dry and skins are more sensitive—it is a big no. People can eat them.
Q: Home remedies like baking soda are safe for skin whitening.
A: Absolutely false. People might end up with sometimes second-degree burns. So one should avoid them altogether. Don’t let claims mislead you.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
