Kelly Driscoll has looked at more than 30 products aimed at combination skin, and she approved the vast majority of them. An approval rate of 90% tells you she is not a harsh critic in this category. Even so, the handful she passed on reveal exactly what she is watching for.
What does Kelly Driscoll recommend for combination skin?
What Kelly keeps coming back to is balance. She wants a product that handles oily patches without drying out the rest of the face, and she rewards anything that pulls that off in every season. The La Roche-Posay Lipikar AP+ Gentle Foaming Moisturizing Wash is the clearest example: she told her audience she has used it for about six years because it works when her skin is struggling in winter and still feels right in summer when oil breaks through her T-zone. She also lights up for gentle brightening ingredients. She praised the Beauty of Joseon Glow Deep Serum: Propolis + Niacinamide for its niacinamide and propolis combo, saying it helps strengthen the skin barrier and calms redness around breakouts. Sunscreens that skip the white cast and sit well under makeup get her approval too. The Skin1004 Madagascar Centella Hyalu-Cica Water-Fit Sun Serum SPF 50+ PA++++ showed that, and she named the iUNIK Centella Calming Daily Sun Water SPF50 and the Then I Met You Giving Essence Brightening & Hydrating Treatment as standout winners in the category.
In her words
"I love that this is both a milky nourishing creamy kind of calming sensation but then it foams up and it actually cleans your skin effectively and rinses away without a film."
"I've used so many bottles of this, I've been using it for about six years straight, and it's just so so good. It's a cross between a foaming gel cleanser and a moisturizing milk cleanser, so it's moisturizing and gentle enough for my skin in deep winter when it's really suffering, [...] but it's also not too heavy [...] in the summer months when I've got oil breaking through, especially in my T-zone, and I'm prone to congestion. It meets my needs in every season."
"The Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum is secretly an amazing serum for acne prone skin. This contains 2% of niacinamide which is great for brightening but it's also great for strengthening your skin barrier, one of the first defenses against the acne bacteria. This also contains propolis, which is an amazing very gentle antibacterial and anti-inflammation ingredient that really helps to soothe acne prone skin, take down the swelling and the redness and the look of the pimples."
"It's hydrating and a little bit creamy, but it's not like your traditional overwhelming emollient moisturizing sunscreen. And there is a kiss of glow and a kiss of dew to this one that's going to give you that glass skin appearance everyone's looking for. It's one of my favorites because it doesn't have a white cast on my skin tone. It works really well underneath makeup and it doesn't irritate my sensitive skin."
"I do find it to be a very affordable, a great sunscreen. The word mermaid skin gel is referring to the fact that this is a sunscreen that is going to give you a lot of dewiness to your skin, a wetness if you will to your skin, and it is really sold as like a works great under makeup type of sunscreen. This one being a hybrid sunscreen so they're using chemical and mineral filters. Because there is that hybrid there, there is a bit of a white cast to this."
"This is the Numbuzin No.3 Vitamin Concentrated Serum, and it's very similar to the toner and it is great for some serious brightening and really targeting hyperpigmentation on the skin. The ingredients here are pretty similar. We do have the niacinamide content as well as the glutathione and we have multiple forms of vitamin C. They've added an additional form of vitamin C in this one as well as arbutin. And they round out the serum with tranexamic acid as well as panthenol."
How many products has Kelly Driscoll reviewed for combination skin?
Kelly Driscoll has reviewed 31 products for combination skin, for an approval rate of 90%. 28 approved, 0 mixed, and 3 skipped.
What has Kelly Driscoll skipped for combination skin?
The few products Kelly passed on fell short in one of two ways: they either did not do enough, or they did the wrong thing for combination skin. She said the Mixsoon Bean Essence sat on top of her skin and did not work well as either an exfoliant or a hydrating serum. The Innisfree Green Tea Seed Hyaluronic Acid Serum she described as solid and fairly priced, but it showed her no real benefit, so she had no reason to buy it again. Her most pointed skip was the Beauty of Joseon Glow Replenishing Rice Milk Toner, which she called a misunderstood product. The clay in its formula actually absorbs oil, so anyone buying it hoping for moisture is likely to be disappointed.
"It just sort of sits on top of your skin. I don't think it's particularly effective peeling or exfoliating gel. I don't think it's a particularly effective hydrating serum. It might be an interesting moisturizing fermented type of product if you can tolerate the texture. I think it's interesting. I don't think it's good."
"There was nothing about the product that really showed benefits on my skin that made me think I need to go out and repurchase this. It really didn't do much for me, but it's a solid product. I do find this to be a very fairly priced product especially when we're talking about something that's available at Sephora. Thirty dollars for 80 milliliters of product, I mean most serums are 30 ml or 50 ml, so I think that this is priced exactly right."
"This is one that I wanted to call out as a misunderstood product. It's actually a combination of rice and clay. There is a clay component to this toner and that is what most folks misunderstand about this product. A lot of folks who are looking at milky toners because they want moisture in their skin, maybe their skin is feeling a little dry or dehydrated, are going to be disappointed by this product because the clay content actually means that it's sucking up oil on the skin."
What should you take from Kelly Driscoll's picks?
Kelly Driscoll's record on combination skin is encouraging. She finds that most products in this space genuinely deliver, so a high approval rate here is not faint praise. Across her takes, she prioritises products that stay balanced across seasons, support the skin barrier, and are honest about what they do. Her few skips are a useful guide: if a product sounds hydrating but contains clay, or simply shows no visible results, she will say so plainly.
Watch Kelly Driscoll say it
Every verdict here comes from a video. These are the moments themselves, each one jumping straight to the bit about that product.
- iUNIK Centella Calming Daily Sun Water SPF50Named a winnerWatch at 10:09
- La Roche-Posay Lipikar AP+ Gentle Foaming Moisturizing WashNamed a winnerWatch at 4:09
- Then I Met You Giving Essence Brightening & Hydrating TreatmentNamed a winnerWatch at 7:22
- Mixsoon Bean EssenceSkipped itWatch at 8:43
- Innisfree Green Tea Seed Hyaluronic Acid SerumSkipped itWatch at 16:38
- Beauty of Joseon Glow Replenishing Rice Milk TonerSkipped itWatch at 14:00
- CeraVe Hydrating Cream-to-Foam CleanserRated itWatch at 1:44
- Beauty of Joseon Glow Deep Serum: Propolis + NiacinamideRated itWatch at 13:43
- Skin1004 Madagascar Centella Hyalu-Cica Water-Fit Sun Serum SPF 50+ PA++++Rated itWatch at 23:12
- Canmake Mermaid Skin Gel UV Sunscreen SPF50 ClearRated itWatch at 16:50
- Numbuzin No.3 Vitamin Concentrated SerumRated itWatch at 7:53
- Geek & Gorgeous Hydration Station MoisturizerRated itWatch at 10:10
- COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment TonerRated itWatch at 22:12
- Torriden Dive-In Low Molecular Hyaluronic Acid Soothing CreamRated itWatch at 10:51
- Thank You Farmer Rice Pure Gel and CreamRated itWatch at 9:52
- SkinFix Barrier Balancing Water Cream Moisturizer with Hyaluronic AcidRated itWatch at 4:41
- Anua Heartleaf 70% Daily LotionRated itWatch at 11:21
- Nivea UV Super Water Gel SPF 50 PA+++Rated itWatch at 19:30
- The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning SolutionRated itWatch at 19:03
- Aestura Atobarrier 365 Hydro EssenceRated itWatch at 5:01
- Dr. Idriss Major Fade Flash MaskRated itWatch at 12:24
- Cetaphil Gentle Exfoliating Salicylic Acid CleanserRated itWatch at 2:27
- The Ordinary Rice Lipids + Ectoin Micro EmulsionRated itWatch at 12:40
- Isntree Chestnut BHA 2% Clear LiquidRated itWatch at 14:43
About this expert
See everything Kelly Driscoll has reviewed
Related guides
This guide reflects what Kelly Driscoll said across her videos about 31 products for combination skin, aggregated by The Guru Index. Sponsored takes are excluded. The approval rate is the share of these products she approved. It is general information, not medical advice.