Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
50 free Skincare trivia questions with answers. Skincare is a hundred-billion-dollar industry built on a few square metres of the body's largest organ. This quiz covers the science first: the three layers of skin, melanin and melanocytes, sebum and acne, and what retinol, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, salicylic acid and collagen actually are. Then sunscreen, from the wartime Red Vet Pet to the SPF scale and why the EU stops at 50+. The brands and history get their turn too: Galen's second-century cold cream, Nivea's snow-white name, the oil-rig residue that became Vaseline, Elizabeth Arden's red door, Helena Rubinstein's Melbourne face cream, Estée Lauder's four products, Clinique's lab coats, Olay's odd aliases and the influencer who sent CeraVe sales soaring. It suits beauty nights, salon quizzes and anyone with a ten-step routine. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia articles on the skin, its conditions, the ingredients and the brands, and each question shows the sentence that supports it once you answer. Free, no signup.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The skin is the largest organ of the human body. Roughly what share of body mass does it make up?
About 16%
An average adult's skin covers 1.5 to 2 square metres.
Q 02What are the three primary layers of the skin, from outside in?
Epidermis, dermis, hypodermis
The hypodermis is more commonly called the subcutaneous layer.
Q 03Which of these does the epidermis lack entirely?
Blood vessels
Its deepest cells are fed almost entirely by oxygen diffusing from the surrounding air.
Q 04Which cells produce the pigment melanin?
Melanocytes
A single square inch of skin holds around 60,000 of them.
Q 05Melanin is made through a process that begins with the oxidation of which amino acid?
Tyrosine
Eumelanin gives brown-black tones and pheomelanin the red-yellow ones.
Q 06Which type of melanin is responsible for the red or yellow tint of some hair and skin?
Pheomelanin
Human epidermis is roughly 74% eumelanin and 26% pheomelanin regardless of skin tone.
Q 07Sebaceous glands secrete an oily substance called what?
Sebum
They open into hair follicles and are absent only from the palms and soles.
Q 08On which two parts of the body are there no sebaceous glands?
Palms and soles
They are most numerous on the face and scalp.
Q 09Which bacterium's overgrowth is a common factor in acne?
Cutibacterium acnes
Formerly called Propionibacterium acnes, it lives on everyone's skin.
Q 10What is the medical term for a clogged hair follicle, seen as a blackhead or whitehead?
A comedone
Neither cleanliness nor sunlight exposure is associated with acne, and the role of diet is unclear.
Q 11Which oral medication is described as the most effective for severe acne?
Isotretinoin
Doctors reserve it for severe cases because of its side effects.
Q 12Salicylic acid, a common acne and exfoliating ingredient, takes its name from which tree?
Willow
It is also the precursor to and metabolite of aspirin.
Q 13Niacinamide, used in serums for redness and dark spots, is a form of which nutrient?
B3
Unlike its cousin niacin, it does not cause skin flushing.
Q 14Retinol, the anti-wrinkle ingredient, is a form of which nutrient?
Q 21Which two minerals are the active ingredients in 'physical' or mineral sunscreens?
Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide
As of 2021 they were the only two UV filters the FDA recognised as generally safe and effective.
Q 22Which company released its first sunscreen in 1936, formulated by chemist Eugène Schueller?
L'Oréal
Schueller had founded the company in 1909 to sell a hair dye called l'Auréale.
Q 23Red Vet Pet, the wartime sun protectant developed in 1944, was commercialised as which brand?
Coppertone
The name stood for Red Veterinary Petrolatum.
A
It was discovered in 1909, isolated in 1931 and first synthesised in 1947.
Q 15Hyaluronic acid, the moisturising star ingredient, is what kind of molecule?
A glycosaminoglycan
It combines with water to form a gel, which is why it is also used as a dermal filler lasting six to twelve months.
Q 16Collagen, the skin's main structural protein, takes its name from the Greek word for what?
Glue
It makes up 25 to 35 percent of the protein in mammals, and vitamin C is essential for making it.
Q 17How many types of human collagen had been identified as of 2011?
28
Over 90 percent of it is Type I and Type III, and every type contains at least one triple helix.
Q 18Lack of which nutrient, vital for collagen synthesis, causes scurvy?
C
Collagen is also the source of gelatin used in food.
Q 19Who introduced the SPF (sun protection factor) rating in 1974?
Franz Greiter
The Austrian chemist's earlier Gletscher Crème of 1946, the basis of Piz Buin, is estimated to have had an SPF of 2.
Q 20An SPF 15 sunscreen, properly applied, lets what fraction of burning radiation reach the skin?
One fifteenth
Proper application means 2 milligrams per square centimetre, far more than most people use.
Q 24How often do sunscreen labels typically say to reapply?
Every two hours
A higher SPF does not last any longer on the skin than a lower one.
Q 25What is the maximum SPF that can appear on a sunscreen label in the European Union?
50+
The cap was initially set at 30 before being quickly revised.
Q 26Water-resistant sunscreens were introduced in which year?
1977
Recent development has focused on broader UVA and UVB coverage.
Q 27The invention of cold cream is credited to which second-century physician?
Galen
His recipe used rose water, beeswax and almond or olive oil.
Q 28Nivea takes its name from a Latin word meaning what?
Snow-white
The signature creme launched in 1911, and the famous blue tin arrived in 1925.
Q 29Nivea is owned by which Hamburg-based company, which also makes Eucerin?
Beiersdorf
The company's Eucerit emulsifier, patented in 1900, made the cream possible.
Q 30Vaseline was created by Robert Chesebrough from a residue scraped off oil-rig pumps known as what?
Rod wax
He found it in the Titusville, Pennsylvania oil fields in 1859 and patented Vaseline in 1872.