Common questions

A skin archetype is a recurring internal pattern — a consistent relationship between a biological driver (like androgen activity, cortisol load, or sleep disruption) and how your skin behaves as a result. It is not a skin type in the conventional sense. Skin types describe surface characteristics. A skin archetype describes the internal mechanism producing those characteristics.

Skin types — oily, dry, combination, sensitive — describe what the skin looks or feels like at the surface. They tell you what to put on your skin. A skin archetype describes why your skin behaves the way it does at a biological level. Two people with "oily skin" can have completely different archetypes and benefit from completely different approaches. The archetype is the explanation; the skin type is just the symptom.

The six archetypes are: A-Type (The Alchemist of Energy — Androgenic Active), B-Type (The Empathic Radiant — Oestrogen Dominant), C-Type (The Resilient Force — Cortisol Reactive), D-Type (The Grounded Rejuvenator — Detox/Estro-Metabolic), P-Type (The Restorative Muse — Progesterone Depleted), and S-Type (The Dream Weaver — Sleep-Deprived Circadian). Each describes a distinct biological driver and the skin expression patterns associated with it.

The quiz scores your responses across all six patterns simultaneously and identifies which pattern best fits your reported experience. It is not a clinical test — it is a pattern-recognition tool based on self-reported behaviour, not blood markers or medical assessment. Most people who recognise their result describe a strong sense of identification. If the result feels off, the secondary influence (if present) or a retake after 90 days often clarifies the picture.

Most people score primarily in one archetype but with a notable thread of another. When your secondary score reaches 80% or more of your primary score, it is surfaced as a secondary influence. This is not a flaw in the result — dual patterns are common and expected. It means both patterns are genuinely present, with one dominant. The primary archetype is the one to orient around; the secondary explains the aspects of your skin behaviour that don't fully fit the primary description alone.

Yes. Archetypes are not fixed. They reflect your current biological and lifestyle context — and that context shifts. Perimenopause, post-natal recovery, a period of chronic stress, a major life change, or a significant shift in sleep patterns can all move the dominant pattern. This is why the quiz is designed for periodic retaking rather than being a one-time assessment. A 90-day window is suggested as the minimum before a retake is meaningful.

You have one primary archetype and sometimes a secondary influence. You do not have two co-equal archetypes — one pattern is always more dominant than the others. What people experience as "I relate to several of these" usually reflects a strong primary with a clear secondary, or a result that is sitting at a transition point between life phases.

No. The Skin Code and everything on this site is educational only. It describes patterns and provides context — it does not diagnose conditions, prescribe treatments, or replace clinical assessment. If you have significant skin concerns, persistent symptoms, or are considering medical treatment, consult a qualified healthcare professional.

When skincare doesn't produce lasting results, the most common reason is that the product is addressing the surface symptom while the internal driver continues unchanged. Each archetype has an internal mechanism — androgen activity, cortisol load, clearance efficiency, progesterone depletion, or disrupted sleep — that topical products cannot reach. Understanding your archetype reorients the approach: instead of asking which product to use, the question becomes what's driving the behaviour in the first place.

Each question has four response options, and each option contributes different weighted scores to different archetypes. Your responses are tallied across all 30 questions to produce a score for each of the six patterns. The highest score determines your primary archetype. If a second score reaches 80% or more of the primary, it is flagged as a secondary influence. No single question determines your result — the pattern emerges from the full set of responses.

Several archetypes share overlapping vocabulary — "stressed skin", "hormonal", "tired", "nothing works" can describe more than one pattern. The overlap is real: the biological mechanisms interact with each other, and life circumstances that affect one axis often affect others. The framework accounts for this through the primary/secondary scoring and through the comparison pages, which explain the key distinctions between commonly confused pairs.

Two of the 30 quiz questions are sex-specific to account for hormonal differences in how certain patterns express. The six archetypes themselves apply across sexes — androgenic, cortisol, and circadian patterns are not sex-specific. The B-Type (Oestrogen Dominant) and P-Type (Progesterone Depleted) patterns are more commonly expressed in female biology, but the framework acknowledges that hormonal patterns exist across all bodies.