How to Get Rid of Oily Skin
Keeping your skin shine free throughout the day, starts with finding the right products to help balance out how much sebum your skin produces.
Before trying to cover oily skin with layers of makeup, which can often make the problem worse, we need to tackle the reason why your skin is overproducing oil.
Here are a few of the reasons:
Genetics
For most of us who suffer with the dreaded midday shine, it’s unfortunately most likely down to genetics. Hereditary issues such as this unfortunately cannot be cured, but the good news is they can be kept under control with the right skincare products and makeup techniques, which I will go into more detail about later!
Hormone Levels
Teenage skin is often oilier due to our bodies producing sex hormones in higher quantities, as we gear ourselves up for adulthood. If the dominating hormone is testosterone, this will increase our sebum production and start to cause excessively oily skin, which can then lead to clogged pores and acne. For most people, hormone levels start to level out into our 20’s and 30’s and oily skin subsides. However, our hormones fluctuate through the month due to the menstrual cycle, and this can stimulate our skin to produce more sebum around the time of ovulation. Those pesky hormones can cause so much disruption to our skin!
Diet
Consuming too much food that is high in Omega 6, unsaturated fats, dairy, refined carbs and sugar can affect our bodies in several ways. For example, synthetic hormones are given to cows to increase the rate in which their calves grow. We then ingest these hormones when we consume milk, which could potentially cause an imbalance in our own hormones. This could trigger our bodies to start producing more of the male sex hormone (testosterone) which increases sebum production.
Consuming large quantities of food high in sugar such as refined carbs, chocolate and desserts leads to a sugar crash within a few hours after consumption. This sugar crash spikes insulin levels and causes our skin to produce more sebum. Our diet is the easiest factor we can change to help keep sebum production under control. I use the method of distraction whenever I am craving something sweet (which is often!). Either succumb to your craving but choose something naturally sweet and healthy instead like a handful of berries. Or distract yourself by starting a new task that activates your mind into concentrating on that activity instead.
So now you know what might be causing your oily skin, here are a few ways you can manage it through the right skincare and makeup application:
Skincare
Use skincare products that are not too harsh or drying on the skin. The more you try to dry out your skin to combat the oiliness, the more oil it is likely to produce to overcompensate. Skin needs a certain amount of sebum to stay supple and moisturised. It also provides a protective layer against external environmental aggressors such as air pollution which contribute to our skin ageing faster than it should.
Oil cleansing is a particularly good way to balance out oily skin. It sounds counterproductive, but it really does work! Try simplifying your skincare routine to using as little products as possible, so as not to overload your skin with too many ingredients and products that could potentially confuse and irritate it.
Hemp Seed Oil
Oil cleansing with an oil high in linoleic acid is going to be a surefire way to help your skin start producing healthier sebum. Oily skin is naturally low in linoleic acid. The sebum that oily skin produces is high in oleic acid and produces hard, sticky sebum that clogs pores. When we provide the skin with more linoleic acid, skin starts to produce natural sebum that is healthier and acts like a barrier to protect the skin. Hemp Seed Oil is high in linoleic acid and is also non comedogenic, meaning it wont clog the pores. It would be best to go for cold pressed, organic and unrefined hemp seed oil to ensure you are using one of the highest quality.
You can use this oil as a cleanser and a moisturiser. To cleanse, massage in a couple of pumps onto dry skin, then remove with a warm, damp muslin cloth. Repeat a couple of times, especially if you are using it to remove makeup at the end of the day, then massage in a couple of drops to moisturise skin.
Makeup
Thoroughly prepping the skin before applying makeup is an important step to keeping the midday shine at bay. Give your moisturizer a chance to sink in for at least 10 minutes before applying any makeup. Layering too many products on the skin straight after one another will definitely contribute to your skin producing more oil throughout the day.
Couleur Caramel Smoothing Velvet Primer
A primer containing Silica, such as this one from Couleur Caramel will not only absorb oil that your skin produces, but it will also keep makeup in place for much longer.
When our skin produces oil, it breaks through the makeup applied on top and can make it slide off. Using a primer with absorption properties will stop the oil from reaching the surface of the skin and disrupting your beautifully applied foundation!
Couleur Caramel Compact Foundation
Oily skin benefits from a foundation that doesn’t contain too much moisture. This foundation’s main ingredient is Squalene, is the perfect companion for oily skin due to it naturally mimicking our skins own sebum. It also contains the ingredient Silica, which has a slightly matte appearance and helps to absorb excess moisture in the skin.
ZAO Makeup Mineral Silk Powder
This powder is mainly made up of Organic Rice Powder, a well-known natural oil absorbing ingredient. Dust this over the t zone area to absorb excess shine throughout the day. It also leaves a silky smooth finish on the skin.
Top Tip!
Apply a light dusting of translucent powder such as ZAO Makeup Mineral Silk Loose Powder in 500 Mattifying Invisible after your primer but before foundation to add an extra layer that will absorb oil trying to penetrate through.
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