Your day is not even close to an end but you find yourself blotting so much just to get rid of unwanted shine on your face. It is true that having an oily skin type is quite a struggle. There are times when you feel like your full face makeup look doesn’t even last for 2 hours! On top of this, you also experience breakouts more often compared to others who have dry or combination skin types. However, there are still a lot of possibilities that will help you understand your oily skin type much better.
There are several effective treatments that can help you minimize and control your skin’s oil production. Before we discuss the proper treatments, let’s talk about oily skin causes. To be able to come up with an effective treatment, you should first understand and determine the roots of your oily skin type.
What is Oily Skin? What are the Causes of Excessive Oil Production on the Skin?
The oil produced by the sebaceous glands acts as a natural lubricant to the skin. If your skin secretes oil, then that is actually a sign of healthy skin. However, when these glands are disrupted, they tend to produce oil in an irregular manner. Your oily skin is caused by the excessive production of sebum in your skin in a way that a particular cause triggers it to produce more than what your skin really needs. There are many types of oily skin causes that an individual can encounter but here are the most common ones:
- Stress and Exhaustion – when your mind and body feels rattled and stressed out, it all shows physically. Stress truly drags a lot of skin problems along with it and overproducing oil is one of them. The glands feel tension and it therefore shows an irregular response leading to this.
- Hormonal Changes – puberty, pregnancy and menopause are only some of the many conditions that result to extensive hormonal changes. These changes also greatly contribute in making the skin oilier in a way that the hormones are disrupted.
- Dehydration – Deniz Ataman, one of Clarins’ Skincare Specialists mentions how dehydration can cause great stress to the glands that makes it produce more oil. If you think hydrating your oily skin is counterintuitive, it’s totally not true. The more dehydrated you are, the more oil your skin produces.
- Hot and Humid Environment – even people with normal skin types tend to get so much oil on their skin due to the weather and environment. If it’s hot and humid, the sweat glands and sebaceous glands automatically react against the climate.
- Cosmetics – oils are most commonly found on many cosmetic products. If you are not vigilant enough with regards to the kind of synthetic oils you apply onto your skin, it will surely aggravate sebum production.
Easy and Effective Treatments for Oily Skin Type
Whether your oily skin has been something you are struggling with for a long time or it’s a condition that only occurred to you just recently, there are several treatments for you to neutralize this. Once you have determined the real cause of your oily skin, it will be much easier to come up with an effective solution.
- Choose an oil-free cleanser. You should always check if the cleanser you’re using is specifically for oily skin types. It should be gentle and oil-free so that it won’t aggravate your oily skin.
- Be thorough in cleansing your skin. Cleansing your skin involves several steps in order for you to do it thoroughly. Washing your face alone isn’t enough. According to Dr. Farid Mostamand, author of Ageless Skin Obsession, “A very important step in cleaning an oily face is the application of toner. Toners help clear away makeup and dirt that may have been left behind by the cleanser.”
- Never skip hydration. Many people think that one shouldn’t use a moisturizer if he or she already has oily skin. This is not true. In fact, moisture is highly essential to keep your skin properly hydrated and healthy. Go for an oil-free moisturizer and always make sure you drink lots of water to hydrate your skin from within.
- Blot instead of retouching with powder. Always take a pack of oil-blotting sheets with you. When your skin gets oily after a few hours, just take a sheet and blot the oil away. Piling up powder over oil will only make your makeup look cakey and blotchy.
- Always go for a light, natural makeup look. A fresh, natural makeup look for everyday is always ideal whatever your skin type is. For oily skin, you should also look for makeup products such as mineral cosmetics that act as a light veil to your skin. These all-natural makeup products will allow your skin to breathe and therefore minimizes the tendency of excessive oil build-up on your skin.