Oily skin is quite a common occurrence in people of all ages. In most cases a simple and regular cleansing routine will get rid of the shiny effect, and no other skin conditions are caused by it. However, there are a lot of people where it is one of the most significant factors in causing acne.
Natural skin oil is called sebum and in the right quantity it is vital in protecting your skin and keeping it healthy. But if you’re prone to acne, then excessive amounts can cause absolute havoc.
The reason is that the sebum builds up in skin pores and they become clogged up. As a result skin cells cannot regenerate and bacteria can quickly build up. Your skin then reacts with inflammation and the dreaded puss filled pimples and blackheads.
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Why Should You Get Rid of Oily Skin?
First off, you might want to know why is it important to remove excessive oil on your skin, especially when you’re suffering from or expecting acne breakouts.
To get a clear understanding of this, let’s take a quick look at how acne develops:
- Right beneath the hair follicles on your skin, there are sebaceous glands that secrete an oily substance called sebum. This helps lubricating your hair and scalp.
- Hair follicles routinely shed dead skin cells that migrate through your skin pores with sebum.
- And when there’s excessive sebum production and shedding of dead skin cells from your hair follicles, your skin pores become clogged – preparing ground for the development of acne.
Right After Pore Clogging
At the initial stage of a clogged skin pore, you might just see a blackhead or whitehead (detailed post here) – the most basic and mild stage of acne.
Clogged Skin Pore After a While
If they’re left untreated, bacteria will start to gather and flourish beneath your clogged skin pore, leading to inflammation. And this is how the inflammatory forms of acne such as papules, pustules – or even worse – nodules and cysts start appearing on your skin.
Hopefully, you’ve now got a clear picture of how it all starts with excessive oil buildup or excessive sebum production that you suffer from acne breakouts and other skin problems.
This is why it is of tremendous importance that you learn how to get rid of oily skin if you want to keep your skin clear and beautiful.
This is what you will learn in this blog post.
Important Thing to Keep in Mind
Let’s make one thing very clear: We want to control excessive oil production, and not the whole oil production on your skin altogether.
Why? Because if you deprive your skin of its natural oil levels, it will not only make your acne worse, but you’ll also lose the overall glow and smoothness of your skin.
According to Ellen Marmur, MD, the author of Simple Skin Beauty,
This leads to emphasize that you shouldn’t go overboard in your efforts to remove excess oil from your skin. Otherwise, you may end up hurting your skin’s natural anti-ageing mechanism.
How to Get Rid of Oily Skin – 12 Things You Ought to Know
1. First of All, Understand Your Skin’s Needs
It’s highly unlikely that you’ll have an oily skin all the time. The excess oil on your skin is dependent on a lot of factors such as your hormone levels, your mood, stress, and even weather. For most people, like myself, excessive oiliness is a major problem in the summer when they’re sweating all the time.
In the summer, you may need a salicylic or glycolic acid wash every day. But continuing this same pace in the winter may end up drying out your skin. That’s why it is very important that you understand how your skin varies week by week or season by season, and adopt a flexible skin care regimen.
2. Salicylic Acid Cleansers to Get Rid of Oily Skin
Salicylic acid is an over-the-counter anti-acne ingredient that is well known for its pore opening properties. It’s great at shedding dead skin cells from your skin, opening up your clogged skin pores, and making your skin blemish free.
And the best option in this category is Clear Skin Salicylic Cleanser. Why?
This is because of the following reasons:
- Clear Skin Salicylic Cleanser combines Salicylic Acid, Glycolic Acid, and Lactic Acid into one powerful and revitalizing cleanser.
- It not only removes excess oil on your skin, but doesn’t strip your skin of it’s natural oil balance.
- Lactic Acid makes your skin smoother and boosts collagen building, firming the skin and smoothing lines and wrinkles.
- Clear Skin Salicylic Cleanser can also help controlling discoloration on your skin, thanks to the Glycolic Acid present in it.
3. Never Underestimate the Benefits of a Great Toner
Experts seem to be divided on the issue of using skin toners to fight acne and excessive oiliness on your skin. Some believe that they’re an excellent way to reduce oil production, while others believe that it may consequently trigger oil production by drying out your skin.
But a rather safe and effective approach is to stick with safe and natural herbal astringents like Misumi’s Pore Purifying Toner. And apply it only on the oily areas of your skin.
The reason why I don’t recommend applying it all over your face is that very few of us have a completely oily skin. A great majority of people around the world share a combination skin. It means that while some areas of your skin might be oily (like nose, forehead, and cheeks), others can be dry at the same time.
This is why you need to make sure exactly where you’re skin is excessively oily, and then apply your toner only there.
- Witch Hazel helps to remove excess oil without dehydrating the skin
- Tightens pores and nourishes the skin
- Contains soothing ingredients like Witch Hazel, Chamomile, Lemon Peel, Sage and more
- Dramatically improves and protects the skin
- Essential for preventing clogged pores, pimples, and blackheads
4. Medicated Pads and Blotting Papers
These are one of the most simple and effective treatments to get rid of oily skin.
Most medicated pads contain pore-opening ingredients such as salicylic acid and AHAs like glycolic acid, which make them incredibly effective against excess oil on your skin.
They’re easy to carry, whether in your purse or hand. You can use them to freshen your skin on the go.
Blotting papers, on the other hand, are equally effective and convenient for oil control on skin.
They have an edge over medicated pads because they don’t dry out your skin – but only when you use them the right way.
Never scrub your face with them, only press blotting paper sheet against the oily area on your skin (for at least 20 seconds), and then remove it gently. It will absorb unnecessary oil from your skin, leaving it smooth and clear.
5. Use the Right Cleansers and Soaps
Dermatologists have put a lot of emphasize on utilizing the right cleansers on your oily skin. This is because ordinary washes and soaps can sometimes make your skin excessively dry which triggers your skin to produce more oil.
You may want to take a look at this blog post reviewing top 20 cleansers that are specially designed for acne prone skins.
6. The Role of Washcloths and Buff Puffs
Unless you’re using a highly specialized washcloth for acne prone skins, you should be very careful when using them.
According to a post reviewed by Debra Jaliman, MD – a well-known dermatologist practicing in Manhattan – ordinary wash clothes and buff puffs can actually trigger your skin to produce more oil.
So, either or use washcloths that are designed to fight acne, or just avoid them.
7. Never Say Good Bye to Moisturizers
If moisturizers have been an integral part of your healthy skin care regimen, and you’re only leaving them because you have excess oil on your skin, you’re thinking wrong.
Rebecca Kazin, a Dermatologist from Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, says that even an oily skin needs to be moisturized to keep looking at its best. It’s true that some moisturizers leave oily sheen on your skin. But to prevent it, you just need to make sure to use a non comedogenic moisturizer for acne prone skin.
8. Importance of Sunscreen For Oily Skin
You can never let UV rays to damage your skin. Wearing a sunscreen is essential when you spend most of your time in the sunshine. But because conventional sunscreen leave a thick residue on your skin, which can end up clogging your skin pores, they can pose a genuine threat to your oily skin.
To prevent this, buy an oil free sunscreen gel (as opposed to creams and lotions) because they’re much less likely to cause pore clogging.
9. Laser Therapies & Chemical Peels to Get Rid of Oily Skin
In the worst case scenario, when oil on your skin is seriously getting out of hand, and when no over-the-counter treatment or home remedies are working out, you may want to go for laser therapy or chemical peels.
They’re excellent at reducing excess oil and improving overall skin outlook. However, you must consult your Dermatologist to be able to go through these treatments. Even your Derm will go for these treatments as a last resort.
Everyday Tips to Get Rid of Excess Oil on Your Skin
10. Don’t Leave Your Skin Bare
Don’t leave your skin bare longer than 1 minute after cleansing. Follow it up with a good quality oil-free moisturizer and an alcohol-free toner. By doing this, you’ll prevent water from evaporating from your skin, which makes it dry and dehydrated.
11. Don’t Wash Your Skin All the Time
Another way you can prevent excessive oiliness on your skin is to wash your skin moderately – gently cleansing it twice a day is all what you need.
I know it’s tempting sometimes to get obsessed with your face. But if you wash your face more than you should, your skin will lose its natural oil – making it dry and sensitive. To balance it, your skin will produce even more oil – making the situation even worse than previous.
12. Use Lukewarm Water
There are endless benefits of drinking warm water for your overall health, especially skin. It detoxifies your body by easing bowel movement and digestion. And because it boosts your metabolism, it can also help losing some extra pounds of weight.
Treatments that we use to get rid of oily skin usually end up making our skin extremely dry and dehydrated. Drinking warm water is extremely beneficial at this stage. It helps keep your body and skin properly hydrated and turns your skin healthy and beautiful.
Wrapping it up
That brings us to the end of this comprehensive blog post on how to get rid of oily skin to prevent acne and a host of other skin problems.
Want to share your experience with oily skin, or have any type of question regarding this post or topic? I’ll be delighted if you could share that in the comments below!
