Oily Skin Care
The basics of oily skin care
If you have oily skin, you have probably become frustrated in how to care for it. When you wash it too much, it seems to break out; if you wash it too little, it seems to break out – what can you do? The trick with any skin care routine is to work with the kind of skin you have, rather than against it. Oily skin care starts with understanding what your skin is doing.
Why you have oily skin
Just as some people have an appetite for sweets, while others have a taste for chips; your skin is just one of the types of skins that you could have gotten in your genes. Oily skin occurs when your oil glands are producing more oil than is normal, creating a shiny appearance on your nose and forehead, even your chin and cheeks. Sometimes it is caused by hormonal changes during adolescence and sometimes it’s a lifelong problem. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with your skin; it just works differently than normal skin.
What doesn’t cause oily skin
Contrary to popular belief, you can not get oily skin from eating too many oily foods. However, eating junk foods can cause your skin to appear dull as you are not fueling your body properly for skin cell rejuvenation. It’s never a bad idea to drink more water to increase the moisture in your skin, but that extra onion ring isn’t the cause for your oily skin.
How to battle oily skin
There are a few things that you’ll want to do in order to help control your oily skin. First of all, cleansing is going to be an important part of this process. Use a gentle, soap-free cleanser that foams and wash your face with lukewarm water, rinse thoroughly. Now, the trick with washing your face when you have oily skin is NOT to use hot water (that only aggravates your skin and causes it to produce more oil) and to not wash it too often. Try to wash your face only once in the morning and once in the evening, if you can.
The next step in your cleansing routine should be a gentle toner. A bottle of witch hazel is usually a fit for most skin types. You can also find a myriad of products that are geared toward helping oily skin. The toner step is removing any traces of oil as well as cleanser from your skin in order to make sure it’s at its cleanest. Use a cotton ball or pad to sweep it over your skin.
You may skip this next step frequently because you feel that you don’t need it, but it’s essential to start creating balance in your skin so the skin doesn’t feel like it has to continue to produce oil. You will want to choose a water-based, light moisturizer for the last step after you use the toner. It doesn’t have to be anything heavy, just something to add suppleness to your skin.
With these simple steps, you can start getting your oily skin under control.