Skin Care Routine for Oily Skin

Skin Care Routine for Oily Skin

If you’ve had oily skin since your youth, you’re no stranger to products like oil-absorbing tissues, mattifying foundations, and some of the most drying cleansers known to man. Chances are, none of these products have ever fixed your oily skin. For skin that seems to put in overtime producing oil, it can be frustrating. Makeup slides right off, cleansing numerous times doesn’t help, and the amount of time you spend trying to get rid of your oil just leaves you spinning your wheels. Oily friends, there’s hope. Delight Supplies has your complete guide to managing your oily skin, including figuring out why it’s so oily and developing a skin care routine that can help you bring your skin back into balance.

Why is My Skin So Oily?

Skin that is oily can happen for a number of reasons. It might be genetics, or it might be a combination of factors that has essentially created the perfect storm scenario and is making your skin oily. Here are some of the most common reasons why skin is oily.

Genetics

Your family tree has a lot to do with your skin. If one or both of your parents suffered from acne, for instance, you might end up with it also. The same goes for oily skin. If your pores are larger in size (a characteristic of oily skin), and your skin tends to always be on the greasier side, it might have something to do with your genetics. Thankfully, having oily skin as a result of your DNA doesn’t have to be a permanent fixture in your life. You can get your skin under control with the right products and skin care routine.

Free Radical Damage

Free radicals and antioxidants have been buzz-words on social media for a while. If you aren’t familiar with what’s going on, we can help. Free radicals are unbalanced molecules emitted from external stressors like:

  • Ultraviolet rays from sunlight
  • Cigarette smoke from cigarettes you smoke or from secondhand smoke
  • Household cleaning solutions
  • Smog from pollution

When free radicals find molecules that are balanced, they attack them and cause damage to the cell where the molecule lives. That damage can result in irritation, redness, rashiness, premature aging, and oiliness. Free radical damage elicits an inflammatory response from your skin. Essentially, your skin constantly reacts as though it is being attacked. This can result in your sebaceous glands overproducing oil, making your skin oily.

Sunburn or Climate

Even though a sunburn will initially cause your skin to feel dry, the end result is oily skin. The sun dries your skin, which can make you feel like it’s a good idea to lay in the sun to take care of your oily skin. However, the sun damages your skin, and sends a message to your sebaceous glands to produce more oil to heal the damage and restore moisture. The result? You guessed it, oilier skin. Your climate and the weather can also keep your skin oily. If you live in a hot, humid climate your skin can grab moisture from the air. If your skin is already oily to begin with, being in these types of climates can exacerbate the situation. You can also suffer from oily skin in the winter. Dry air and indoor heating can dry out your skin, causing your sebaceous glands to go into overdrive.

Improper Skincare Routines

If you’re an oily skin type, chances are you are using a skin care routine that doesn’t help benefit your skin as much as it could. Your go-to products are probably causing your skin to produce even more oil. The traditional approach to oily skin care has always been to use drying products and wash your skin repeatedly. This only makes oily skin worse. It may relieve oiliness for a few hours, but it always returns worse. Even further, areas of your skin that aren’t overly oily (your cheeks) may appear even start feeling drier than normal.

Not the Best Skincare Ingredients

When we hear of individuals dealing with unbalanced skin (dry, oily, or combination) our first step is to find out what kind of ingredients are in their skin care. Sometimes people with oily skin who’ve had it their entire lives are suffering unnecessarily due to harmful product ingredients that keep their skin irritated and unbalanced.

Some of the worst ingredients for oily skin are:

  • Occlusive moisturizers. Occlusive moisturizers create a thick, impenetrable barrier on the skin that can be too heavy for oily skin. Occlusive moisturizers include petroleum, lanolin, mineral oil, and paraffin. These ingredients are also not safe for your skin and body. The EWG gives petroleum based products a rating of between 1-4, which makes it questionable for use. Petroleum is a known carcinogen, suspected to cause toxicity in certain organs, and can create inflammatory skin responses in certain skin types.

 

  • Alcohol. You might think alcohol helps eliminate your shine, but it is actually making your oily skin worse. Alcohol is often added to products to help them create a matte finish. It’s especially common in products marketed to people with oily skin, because it evaporates on the skin taking excess skin oil with it. The problem? Alcohol strips your skin of its natural moisture levels, making it excessively dry. When your skin is excessively dry, your sebaceous glands start putting in those overtime hours, creating an even oilier situation to deal with.

 

  • Parabens. Parabens are added to many products to increase their shelf life and help prevent the growth of bacteria. They are synthetic ingredients and there are clean, natural alternatives that are better and safer for skin. Parabens are known hormone disruptors, which can interfere with your body’s natural hormone balance and cause your skin to be excessively dry or oily.

 

  • Sulfates. Sulfates are the ingredients in liquid products, like cleansers, that make them foam. They’re found in practically every liquid “sudsing” product in the toxic beauty industry, but they’re especially prevalent in oily skin cleansers. Somehow, users have equated suds and foam with cleanliness when in fact a cleanser doesn’t have to create bubbles to get your skin clean. Sulfates can be incredibly irritating to the skin, and because they’re in practically all cleansers, it can be hard to tell if that’s what is making your skin oily or not.

Building a Skin Care Routine for Oily Skin

You may have perfectly balanced skin under that oily facade just waiting to be unveiled. You can help bring your skin back into perfect harmony and health with the help of a proper skin care routine and better skin care products. It all starts with a skin detox.

Skin Detox

If you’re serious about your skin care, a skin detox can help you get your skin into seriously radiant shape. A skin detox takes about two weeks. During this time, you’ll want to make sure you’re drinking plenty of water to help your body properly flush toxins out from the deep layers of your skin. You’ll also want to be sure you swap out for essential skin care items for clean, safe beauty alternatives. Delight Supplies has the safest, cleanest brands to help you make the swap easily. You’ll fall in love with your clean beauty products and wonder how you’ve ever lived without them. During your skin detox, it isn’t uncommon to have breakouts. This is your skin’s natural and normal way of expelling toxins from deep within the skin. Resist the urge to pick or prod and trust that they will dissipate as your skin begins to heal.

Better Skin Care

Ready to deep dive into getting oily skin under control? Here’s everything you need to get started.

  • Cleanser. Trash your old face cleanser; it’s probably filled with harsh chemicals that are making your skin oilier than it should be. You need a cleanser that contains hydrating ingredients that are safe to use on oilier skin types. Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser is a great option for oily skin types. It helps cleanse and lightly moisturize so skin isn’t overly dry or stripped of natural oils. Side note: don’t cleanse your skin more than once or twice a day (or an additional cleanse if you sweat a lot during your gym sesh). Too much cleansing isn’t the way to less oily skin; it can make it worse.
  • Serum. A serum is a great way to nourish your skin with ultra concentrated ingredients. If you’ve thought your oily skin makes serums a no-go, give Clear-N-Smooth Lightening Serum a try. This oil is lightweight and quickly absorbs into skin to leave it radiant and nourished.
  • Moisturizers. Even oily skin needs a moisturizer. Most everyone has skin that is dehydrated, and using a daily moisturizer helps keep your skin nourished and healthy. For oily skin, we love Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion. This moisturizer is lightweight and absorbs quickly, hydrating skin with non-occlusive ingredients and leaving skin mattified. It’s the perfect way to set the tone for your makeup.

The Take Away

Your oily skin could be genetics, or a result of improper skin care and cosmetics. You can help bring your skin back into balance by removing toxic beauty from your shelves and treating your skin to cleaner, safer ingredients from Delight Supplies!