Skin care for people who have oily skin can be a tricky prospect. Many commercial moisturizers, even ones that marketed as non-comedogenic, can clog pores and cause acne. Many others have oils that can make the skin excessively oily and shiny. What occurs in most people’s skin care regimen is that the products people use are not strong enough to treat oiliness very well. Or the products are too strong and strip away needed oils. It makes the skin compensate by producing even more oils than normal. Therefore, people with oily skin usually end up trying to walk a fine line between not strong enough and too strong.

One thing that is often enough to rein in an oily complexion is to eliminate certain kinds of products from your skin care regimen. Most commercial products have ingredients like sodium laurel sulfate or other sulfates in them. These ingredients cause foaming action. However, they also have a detrimental effect on your skin. Sulfates can end up drying your skin, which often leads to overproduction of oil. Many people use products with sulfates for much of their lives and have “oily” skin the whole time. This can cause several more problems as well. People with oily skin often resort to harsh exfoliation to try to keep their “oily” skin under control. This usually just makes the problem even worse and sends people into a vicious cycle of ever-harsher treatments.  All that is really needed is to just cut sulfates out of their skin care regimens.

Glycerin cleansers and soaps are often better for oily skin than other cleansers and soaps. Many commercial cleansers have detergents in them that are too harsh for the skin, causing irritation that the skin responds to by increasing oil production. Glycerin is a natural moisturizer that help keep the skin’s natural oils in place. However, when used in a soap it dissolves surface oils and gets rid of them. The effect is that the oils your skin needs to keep it healthy and moisturized remain in place. And excess surface oils are washed away. Washing your face at least twice a day with a glycerin soap may help keep excess surface oils from building up, reducing a shiny appearance on the skin and keeping the surface relatively dry.

If you use makeup, look for water-based formulas of foundations. An oil-based product is likely just to make your oily skin even worse. Many people opt not to use foundation at all. They instead use spot concealers covered with powder to even out the skin tone. Because the makeup with complete coverage often just slides off the face anyway. The less you cover your face with makeup, the more the skin will be able to “breathe” and slough oil and dead skin cells off. You can use astringent wipes or oil-blotting paper to get rid of excess oil during the day. Salicylic acid wipes can reduce oiliness, but make sure not to rely too much on these products. They can often dry the skin. If you are having a problem with this, you may want to switch to witch hazel. It will keep your skin from overproducing oil and will prevent a shiny appearance.