Oily skin can be a difficult thing to deal with when it comes to taking care of yourself. It can feel rough, the pores tend to be more visible, you’ll be more susceptible to acne breakouts and higher shine on your skin.
While it’s tricky and annoying to deal with at times, taking care of oily skin certainly isn’t impossible. It may be a fact of life, but with the right equipment, tips and tricks, you can make the best of your skin situation and look great doing it.
Why is My Skin Oily?
Our skin produces a special oil called sebum, which is designed to keep your skin moisturized, supple and soft. Since your skin is oily, your sebum glands are bigger, and therefore so are your pores. The excess oil eventually makes its way onto the surface of your skin.
Your skin’s oiliness can be caused by a couple of main factors: genetics and hormones. Genetics are fairly self-explanatory, but hormones are a little more complicated. Hormone changes that trigger oily skin can be caused by your period, pregnancy or sometimes in your choices in your diet and other decisions that could affect the health of your skin.
Cleanse
Since your skin isn’t dry, it will need to be cleansed first thing in the morning. Oily skin means your pores are bigger, meaning they can let more in, making your skin more vulnerable to potential problems. Cleaning in the morning with a quality, water-based cleanser gets rid of any dirt, extra oil and other things that may have accumulated throughout the previous day.
Time for Toner
Once your skin is clean again, it’s time to use some toner. Toner is important when it comes to taking care of your skin, and yet it remains one of the more underrated or skipped parts of skin care for beginners.
But what is toning? Toning helps prevent excess oil. Toners help bring balance to your skin’s pH, helps tighten up your pores and helps cleanse any impurities and other bits and pieces that might clog your pores and cause more problems. If you’re dealing with oily skin, you should look for natural ingredients like rose and ginseng to help cut inflammation and tighten your skin.
Toner should be used twice a day. In the morning, you should use a soothing toner that is designed to hydrate your skin (like aloe vera and hyaluronic acid). In the evening, you might want to switch to a more potent toner to help with shrinking your pores and getting rid of any excess oil, dirt, makeup and other things that could cause you to break out (these toners will contain tea tree oil, willow bark extract and hyaluronic acid).
Exfoliate
Oily skin also means your pores have a tendency to retain more dead skin cells than drier skin textures, which can also lend themselves to painful and annoying skin problems. The elements can also make things rough on your skin, changing its texture to something rough and uneven, even intensifying the appearance of fine lines. Exfoliating helps rid your skin of anything that can potentially clog your pores and helps to smooth out the texture of your skin as well.
Using a gentle exfoliant 2 to 3 times a week will do wonders for your skin. Not only will it help keep your pores clean, but it will help make your skin look more radiant and smooth and in some cases even lighten darker blemishes on the skin.
Evening Cleanse
When your day is done, it’s a good idea to run through another cleansing routine. This will get rid of any makeup you haven’t yet removed, any sunscreen, debris or dirt as well as excess sebum oil. To ensure you get a deep clean in your pores, massage the cleanser into your face for at least 60 seconds before rinsing off.
Don’t Forget to Moisturize!
Yes, oily skin needs some moisturizer love, too! While the oil does make your skin - to be blunt - greasier, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your skin is properly hydrated. On the contrary. If you don’t make sure your skin gets moisturized, it could get dehydrated and cause your skin to produce even more oil.
Having that moisturizer in your skin care routine can help balance out your skin’s natural oil production and moisture. As with your cleansers, you’re going to want to look for moisturizers that aren’t particularly thick. You want an almost watery texture for moisturizers for oily skin. Thinner moisturizers are still effective, but they don’t have a very high amount of oils and other ingredients that may clog your pores. In fact, certain moisturizers label themselves as non-comedogenic, which means they will help keep your pores clear.
Moisturizing should be done twice a day - once in the morning and once in the evening. In the morning, you should use a lightweight serum, whereas in the evening, you may want to use something heavier like a cream.
There are a number of moisturizers you should consider experimenting with, but the one thing you really will want to stay away from is face oil. That might seem obvious, but it is still worth mentioning because face oils could clog your pores that are already producing a large amount of oil, making any breakouts worse.
Test Them Out!
When getting into skincare products of any kind, it’s a good idea to ask for samples before you invest in anything too large. Most pharmacy makeup and beauty areas should have some type of samples available. This will help you pick out what products you like in terms of how they feel, how they smell and how they treat your face. Don’t be afraid to mix and match until you find something that’s right for you.
To Wrap It Up...
Oily skin can be a tough condition to live with as breakouts can be frequent, painful and of course annoying. However, you can rest assured that there is a workaround. You will still be more prone to breakouts, but with proper skin care, you can still look and feel fantastic.
Resources: Little Wonderland, Huda Beauty,
