Oily Skin Remedies and What Cosmetic Companies Don’t Share

Does your skin get progressively shinier or greasier as the day wears on?

Or does your sunscreen and makeup seem to ball up or slide off?

Or is your skin type prone to breakouts? And do your pores look way too big?

Then congratulations! You have oily skin, oh joy.

This skin type requires careful consideration to combat oil production and keep your pores clear.

Many cosmetic claims for oily skin are skew whiff; many don’t ring true.

So join us as we investigate these so-called oily skin remedies that many commercial skincare products claim to provide.

Oily Skin Remedies

Understanding oily skin

Oily skin is tricky to treat simply because there are so many conditions going on within your skin.

From pimples, papules, and pustules to inflammation and daily shine.

And let’s not mention the dreaded pores! These are the opening of hair follicles, and when sebaceous glands are overactive, this creates to much oil on the skin’s surface, creating large pores. These pores are often more apparent in the Tzone, where there is a greater concentration of oil glands, which indicates a combination skin type.

If your skin is too oily, don’t get into the bad habit of using just soap and water, this can strip your skin’s barrier of its all-important lipids, drying it out and breaking down the barrier function. When your skin becomes undermined, the delicate protective flora that makes up the acid mantle becomes undermined; this good bacteria is vital for skin health.

Oily skin often doesn’t require a lot of moisturising, but it needs a well-thought-out skincare routine to combat oil production and keep skin pores clear, which we discuss here.

But wait, all is not lost if you have an oily skin type, there is an upside? Oily skin tends to age pretty well, fine lines and wrinkles are in everyone’s future, but yours may be further down that road than most.

The myth behind commercial oily skin remedies

There is a lot of misinformation about skin care products;

One such myth is that many manufacturers would have you believe their formulas for oily skin will permanently shrink pores; sadly, these are clever marketing claims. There are no instant oily skin remedies that permanently shrink them.

Large pores are usually genetic or stretch with age, so no amount of product will change them, no matter what a friendly sales assistant tries to tell you,

Some harsh ingredients help to remove excess oil from your skin’s surface, which does have a temporary tightening and cooling effect on your skin,

In reality, what is happening is that the formula is acting as a skin irritant, causing inflammation and swelling around the pore, making it appear smaller; once this inflammation subsides, the pore will return to its normal size.

Despite the huge amount of information we have studied on skincare over the years, we have yet to find one shred of scientific evidence that backs up the claim that pores on the skin’s surface can be reduced, a subject we discuss in greater detail here.

What’s more, if you treat your skin with harsh astringents, this initiative will give the impression that your skin is oil-free. Still, sadly this is only temporary; in reality, what will happen is that your skin will start to overproduce oil.

Conclusion

So accept from that access face oil giving your skin a glowing sheen, that’s not actually why it can be beneficial in a skincare routine.

Sebum, your skin’s very own face oil, is full of helpful fats to protect your skin from the elements and help it retain moisture. A healthy barrier function means less redness and reactivity.

Well, put together products like ours that have been intelligently formulated with skin-identical ingredients that are missing are a large part of the solution because, like sebum, it fortifies your epidermal barrier.

You could switch out your harsh toner for something more gentle, one that contains natural hydrosols such as witch hazel, that has a temporary tightening and toning effect on your pores, that is gentle to your skin and won’t cause long-term underlying sensitivity.