A Skin Routine for Oily Skin
Are you concerned about your oily skin and get frustrated on how to maintain it? You may be even struggling with a T-zone. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. So, what is the ultimate routine for oily skin?
The ultimate skin routine for oily skin is persistence and understanding oily skin. The following are essential steps to maintain your oily skin
Whether you have a genetically gifted oily skin or are suffering hormone fluctuations, there are ways to help your skin accommodate the excessive oil production. In general, it’s helpful to understand the oil secretion and what are the essential skin care routines to maintain your oily skin.
Oily skin
What is oily skin and why do you have it? Do you even have oily skin? If so, how do you know? These are probably some questions you might want answered before we dive into the skin care routine.
Understanding your oily skin will help in approaching the skin care routine and also tweaking your daily habits to best suit your skin condition.
What is Oily Skin
Oily skin is a result of your face producing oil. For most oily skin types, there is an excess oil produced from the face and results in a shiny or greasy appearance.
Oil comes from sebaceous glands. These glands are under the skin surface and secrete “elements” such as their neighboring sweat glands that protect us from being overheated by producing sweat. Oil from sebaceous glands are lubricants, called sebum, that protects our skin from drying out and losing water.
These oily lubricants are made of fats and on top of helping with protecting our skin from drying out, they provide shine and act as an essential moisturizer to both skin and hair.
Generally oily skin is genetically related, and your skin type can vary due to hormones, climates, diet, and stress levels. For example, when your hormone levels are higher than usual during puberty or pregnancy, you may experience oil(ier) skin due to hormone fluctuations.
Do You Have Oily Skin?
Unsure if you have oily skin? How Can You Tell That You Have Oily Skin? Here are some characteristics and symptoms:
- Your face is more often shiny
- Your skin tends to be “greasy” as the day goes by
- Blackheads and pimples have been a general concern, especially in oily areas
- Pores are enlarged (Especially in t-zone areas such as the forehead, nose, and chin)
- Patchy skin from oily skin
On a side note, if you have an oily t-zone, but a normal or even dry skin throughout the rest of your face, you most likely have a combination skin rather than oily skin.
Although the last item, “patchy skin” may seem like a symptom of dry skin, patchy skins can also result from excessive oil. This is sometimes found in the t-zones or even in the temple areas.
Source: Mysa
Best Skincare Routine for Oily Skin
For most oily skin concerns, if they are left untreated, the pores of the skin can start to clog with oil, dirt, and even dead skin cells. With clogged pores, you might start seeing enlarged pores.
Unfortunately, the combination of oily skin and enlarged pores may result to blackheads, pimples, and acne.
Again, oil is not necessarily your enemy. The sole purpose of oil, or sebum, is to protect your skin and when properly balanced, they remove dead skin cells from the surface of the skin and generally protect you from irritants.
This means that you don’t want to deal with harsh chemicals that will eliminate the good moisture from your skin. A healthy routine will help balance out the oil production and also prevent any harm to your skin.
Clean Face Regularly
Start with the right cleanser. Whether you have dry, combination, oily, or even “normal” skin, you want to make sure your skin is always cleaned. This is the first, yet critical step of your new skin routine.
Think about how many things your hands touch throughout the day, and then think about how many times you unintentionally touch your face. Your face is out in the open throughout the whole day and exposed to irritants, dirt, and pollen throughout the day.
On top of that, for most women that use make-up every day, it’s essential to take care of your skin by cleaning out the pores and giving the skin time to breathe in the evening.
If you have oily face, you want to at least wash your face 1 to 2 times a day, once in the morning and once before sleeping.
In the morning, you want to clean off any oil accumulated during the night. In the evening times, you want to wash off anything that could’ve gotten on your skin throughout the day.
Your skin best absorbs nutrients in the evening time and during sleep, so you want to make sure you clean your face of anything you do not want to absorb into your skin (such as your foundation!).
Picking a Good Cleanser
Now, make sure to pick a good cleanser. Especially if you have an extremely oily or even a perfectly balanced skin, you want to make sure you use a gentle formula. Try to avoid cleansers that include silicones and phthalates.
What You Want in a Good Cleanser
If you want to pick a gentle and safe cleanser, such as the Piper Berry Kale cleanser, you want to pick something that is gentle, nutritious, and contains no toxic chemicals.
Piper Berry Kale Cleanser is a uniquely blended cleanser that provides nutrients to the skin while improving discoloration, scarring, and inflammation. Additionally, if you want to use this cleanser twice a day, it is gentle enough, but also efficient to be used in the evening time to remove make up.
Additionally, the kale cleanser has an ingredient known to be smoothing and moisturizing for oily skin, aloe vera!
Look for a cleanser that not only prevents “depletion” of nutrients from the skin, but provides antioxidants, moisture, and even collagen. A good cleanser can do more than just clean!
What to Avoid in Cleansers
Avoid parabens, phthalates, sulfates, and formaldehydes. Parabens have been marked as potential carcinogens, while the other elements, such as phthalates have been marked to be harmful, and potentially dangerous ingredients for the skin
Silicones were not initially marked in this category and often give effects of a soft skin product which makes consumers think the product is good for them. Unfortunately, for this reason, silicones disguise as a superficial benefit while it does not provide actual benefits as it may be perceived.
For oily skins, silicones are exceptionally unhelpful. Silicones have occlusive properties due to their natural “dislike” of interacting with water. This further harms skins that are suffering clogged pores (often found with oily skin).
The silicone will further prevent any trapped dirt, or even dead skin cells from getting out of the pores as they would during a cleansing routine.
Since silicones do not like to interact with water, you will need to use an oil cleanse or a double cleanse to remove the silicones from your pores.
Addition to watching out for chemicals, you want to avoid cleansers with fragrances.
What to look for:
- Gentle but efficient for both night and morning cleanses
- Moisturizing
- Nutrients
- Non-toxic
What to avoid:
- Silicone
- Phthalates
- Artificial colors
- Parabens
- Strong fragrances
Source: HealthLine
How to Wash an Oily Face
First clean your face briefly with warm water. When you use a cleanser that’s gentle, lather the soap in your hands and apply to your face in a circular motion. Spend more time massaging the lather in the areas that need more attention then rinse with warm water.
When drying your face, do not use rough towels or surfaces. Be gentle with your skin and do not try to remove any oil by abrasive surfaces.
Pat the skin dry instead of using a “pulling down” motion. Try to let the moisture stay on the face rather than being completely dry before proceeding with the next step.
Apply Toner
A toner is an essential element to your skin routine. When the pH on your face is imbalanced, this could be toxic to your skin. A good toner should keep the moisture on the skin while balancing any pH and controlling enlarged pores.
Toners are a great addition for people that struggle with enlarged pores. Always try out toners before committing to buying a large bottle. Try a sample to see how your face reacts to it. Make sure to avoid contact with eyes when applying toners.
Moisturizing the Skin
After you apply toner, follow up with a moisturizer. It’s a misconception to think that oily skin does not need a moisturizer. In fact, an oily skin can become oilier without a moisturizer. Sometimes the skin produces oil in response to excess dry skin.
With the right selection of moisturizer, that is oil-free yet moisturizing, this will help with the oily skin and protect it. As mentioned in the cleanser section, aloe vera and soothing moisturizers are a great way to keep oily skin moisturized.
The PiperBerry Adaptogens Superfruits moisturizer is a cleanser that keeps this in mind. It is highly effective by combining anti-aging ingredients while promoting the skin’s natural collagen production.
Face Masks
Masks are great treats for your skin, and for your personal “spa” day. As oily skin can be a result of stress or hormone fluctuation, a peaceful evening with a nice facemask will be beneficial in many ways. Besides, who can say no to a nice “treat yourself spa day”?
The PiperBerry Adaptogens Superfruits Mask is a powerful mask to control oily skin. The mask helps to hydrate, rejuvenate, soothe, and increase collagen production.
The adaptogen superfruits mask is made with clay, sea buckthorn, licorice root, and bayberry which promotes clearer skin, increases elasticity, reduces inflammation, and provides softer skin. All while, it is an exfoliating mask!
An exfoliant is excellent for an oily skin type because it can help push out any dead skins, debris, or dirt that are trapped in the pores from the excess oil.
More Mask Options
Although exfoliant masks are great and have bountiful benefits, avoid exfoliating daily. Too frequent use of exfoliant masks can irritate the skin and even result in oily skin with misuse.
Alternatively, you can use natural products to help your skin in between exfoliating masks. The following are various masks that will benefit pores and oily skin. After you apply your masks, you can proceed with your toner and moisturizer routine.
Clay Mask
Clay is an essential ingredient to many masks that are beneficial to cleaning out pores and shrinking pores, such as the Kaolin Clay in the piperberry superfruits mask. Cosmetic clays, which are also known as healing clays, absorb skin oil and treat other skin concerns.
Since clay masks can draw out moisture, only use them moderately.
How to Apply Clay Masks
Although there are plenty of different types of clay masks out there, the general guidelines are similar.
- Cleanse face and pat dry
- Apply a layer of clay throughout the face avoiding the eye area
- Let the mask dry – usually you will see the color of the mask change and you will be able to tell by a slight touch on whether it is dry or not.
- While drying, try not to laugh or talk too much because clay masks will lift in the creases that will form.
- Once dry, thoroughly cleanse the clay off with warm water. Some masks can be removed with a warm wet towel.
- Pat dry and proceed with a toner.
Bonus: French Green Clay Mask
French Green Clay masks are known to be very beneficial masks for oily skin. If you want to try a French green clay mask, you might find them in powder forms.
- In a bowl, add a teaspoon of clay (or the amount recommended by the manufacturer)
- Add filtered water or rose water, a few drops at a time, until it becomes a pudding-like consistency.
- Cleanse face and pat dry
- Apply the pudding-like mixture on the face while avoiding the eyes
- Let the mask dry
- Remove the clay mask by rinsing with warm water
- Pat dry and proceed with toner
Honey Mask
Honey is a natural and long-beloved skin care remedy by many. It is naturally antibacterial and antiseptic which helps with the pores and breakouts.
Honey also helps to keep the skin moist and not oily by drawing out moisture from the skin. This is due to its natural humectant properties. This will help to retain the moisture and softness of the skin.
How to apply a 10-minute Honey Mask
You will want to prepare for the stickiness and wear clothes that can easily be washed. The honey will tend to drip and often end up on countertops, shirts, and hair! Have a wet-towel handy and pull your hair back to make the process easier.
- Prepare a bowl of raw honey
- After cleansing your face, apply a thin layer of the raw honey on your face avoiding the eye area. (Side note, honey is also great for your lips!)
- Let the honey dry, which will be roughly 10 minutes
- Rinse thoroughly with warm water
- Pat dry and proceed with the toner step.
Be sure to clean surfaces after the mask so you don’ t get ants marching up in your bathroom.
Oatmeal Mask
Oatmeal masks are also another great option for oily skin. Oatmeal helps with inflamed skins and absorbs oil. The granularity of oatmeal also helps to remove dead skin.
How to Make and Use and Oatmeal Mask
Like the honey mask, you will want to make sure your hair is tied back and that you have clothes that can be easily washed in the washer.
- Grind the oatmeal to have about ½ cup of oatmeal after it is ground
- In a bowl, combine ½ cup of ground oatmeal with warm water, yogurt, honey, or mashed fruits.
- If you didn’t use honey, add 1 tablespoon of honey
- Stir the mask to a smooth consistency (doesn’t have to be perfect)
- Apply the mask while avoiding the eyes.
- Massage the oatmeal mixture in circular motion for about three minutes.
- Leave the mask on for 10 minutes
- Rinse with warm water
- Pat dry and proceed with the toner step
Aloe Vera
Last but not least, aloe vera masks are highly beneficial for oily skin. As mentioned in piperberry ingredients, aloe vera is great for soothing inflamed skins, and moisturizing. Additionally, aloe vera masks are great for treating flaky skin from excessive oily patches.
How to Apply Aloe Vera as a Mask
- Cleanse face and pat dry, some moisture can remain
- Apply a thin layer on your face, while avoiding the eye area
- Leave on skin overnight or for 15+ minutes
- Rinse with warm water, or if removing in the morning, proceed with regular face-cleansing routines.
Note, if you have never used aloe vera on the skin before, be sure to test a small area on your forearm. Leave it on to see if you have any reactions within 24 to 48 hours before proceeding.
Use Blotting Papers
Make blotting papers your best friend and one of your staples. Blotting papers are a helpful tool to maintain your excess oil throughout the day. This will prevent your pores from being clogged from the oil and its engulfed dirt and debris.
In addition to blotting papers, you can also find medicated cloth pads that include salicylic acid and/or glycolic acid which are known to be helpful in shrinking enlarged pores and cleansing the pores.
Final Thoughts
Oily skin means you have a generally well-moisturizing skin! Your body is putting its best effort to protect you, so don’t be upset with your skin type.
On a brighter note, a moisturized skin is great news as it means you’re less prone to wrinkles! Regardless, with the right skin care routines, you will be able to have your best skin.
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