Controlling oily skin and regulating sebum production doesn’t need to be difficult! We break it down for you in four easy steps here.
If you want more details for dealing with breakouts specifically, check out our post here.
Step 1. Cleanse properly
Even if you have oily skin, cleansing shouldn’t strip your skin completely of oil, as drying out your skin actually stimulates it to produce more oil to compensate.
It’s better to use two gentle facial cleansers (the first oil-based and the second water-based) rather than one harsh cleanser.
The Heimish All Clean Balm and the Farmacy Green Clean Balm, are some of the best gentle oil-based cleansers that work for us to cut down on oil, while still leaving our skin hydrated.
The COSRX Low pH Good Morning Gel Cleanser (Olive Young)(Style Korean)(Althea)(Jolse) works for us who have oily skin, but can be too drying for others, especially if you lather up a foam with it. We recommend washing off this cleanser before it forms a foam. In general, be careful with foaming cleansers because they may be too drying for combination skin.
By the way.. some the skincare we recommend are available on iHerb, which we use to buy a lot of our organic skincare. You can use our code AEJ0519 at checkout to get 5% off.
Step 2. Keep your skin hydrated!
It seems counterintuitive to moisturize oily or acne prone skin, but believe it or not, breakouts are often the result of dry, dehydrated skin, which oversecretes sebum to compensate…which in turn clogs pores and causes breakouts. If your skin is too oily, try moisturizing just once a day, before bed. The COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream (Style Korean)(Beautynet Korean)(Jolse) is great for this, as it’s super lightweight but still very nourishing for our skin. Since it tends to slip and slide a bit under makeup, incorporating it into your PM skincare routine works perfectly.
See our breakdown of the best organic moisturizers for more recommendations to try.
Apart from using a cleanser, we use the Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Clay Mask (Style Korean)(Beautynet Korean)(Jolse) to help remove sebum from the skin. We apply this only to the problem areas, leave it on for six minutes, then rinse it off straight away. Our skin feels like “normal skin” straight after this - neither too oily nor too dry.
Step 3. Use a sebum regulator like niacinamide
Niacinamide has a lot of awesome benefits for the skin. You can find more about it here.
We love using the COSRX Galactomyces 95 Tone Balancing Essence (Style Korean)(Althea)(Beautynet Korean)(Jolse), which contains galactomyces as well as niacinamide. The 2% niacinamide that it contains has done wonders in brightening our skin and sebum control. Galactomyces is obtained from fermented sake, and is a great antioxidant.
An alternative to this is the Neogen Dermalogy Real Ferment Micro Essence (Style Korean)(Althea)(Jolse), which also contain saccharomyces ferment filtrate, as well as rice ferment filtrate. Because these essences are so watery in texture, they help in moisturizing our skin but don’t contribute to any pore-clogging processes.
Step 4. Make sure you’re not deficient in vitamin D.
This one isn’t directly related to skincare, but it’s oh-so-important - did you know that greasy skin is associated with vitamin D deficiency. Make sure to see your doctor about the appropriate prescription of vitamin D you need, if you are deficient.
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P.S…this is probably obvious, but the information presented doesn’t constitute medical advice - always check with your own doctor!
