Oily Skin Causes and Treatment

Most of us consider oily skin as a problem but all that is required for its treatment is proper care. The production of sebum is important for the skin to protect as well as moisturize it. There are countless home remedies, which can help you take care of your oily skin. If you wish to enjoy smooth skin for long time, it is very important for you to learn the essentials of a healthy skin.

Causes of Oily Skin

It has been seen that due to large amounts of sebum in oily skin, they often get characterised by a greasy shine and a tendency to come out as acne. However, this is just because oily skin often happens to attract dirt towards itself.

Your hormone levels or genes might be responsible for your oily skin but don’t forget that you can still carry on with great and a healthy skin if you take good care of your skin. However, you will see that as you grow old the sebum content decreases and hence your skin too starts getting less oily.

Excessive oiliness can also be due to the humidity levels, cosmetics or birth control pills. Also, women with oily skin will see a lot of blackheads around their nose. Well, this is because there are more sebaceous glands around the nose. In case of the skin being a combination of the two factors, women are likely to notice the oiliness only in some specific parts of the skin.

The epicenter of oiliness of skin and formation of acne is the sebaceous gland. The skin often is made to go through excessive oiliness as a result of hormonal stimulation of sebaceous glands, which often occur in humid and hot weather. It is likely that the pores through which the sebum is secreted can get blocked due to this oiliness. Hence this result in what we know as blackheads and white heads.

What is your skin type? 

While there is no such home method which can tell your skin type, if you place a piece of paper 15 minutes after washing the face with a gentle cleanser, a glance of the oil spots can give you a rough idea about your skin type.

However, there is a very good method of determining it by making use of a sebumeter in the form of a sebutape, which is to be applied on the skin. The transparent area is said to turn opaque when this micro-porous tape absorbs the sebum. This tape is available with cosmetologists.

It can then be analyzed by a naked eye or with the help of computer imaging and you can hence know your skin type.

How to manage the oil?

There are, however, not many prescription products for the treatment of excessive sebum secretion. You have to follow a correct skincare routine in order to manage oily skin. If you go for proper and regular cleansing, select the right sunscreen and use the right makeup so as to keep away from the problems of oily skin.

Cleansing

Use liquid cleansers to cleanse your face as they are far better than bas soaps. Go for a liquid cleanser which has either salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide, as salicylic acid is said to help remove dead cells from the skin and then dry them. Also, the cleaners which have benzoyl peroxide are said to unclog blocked pores.

Sun protection

Since sunscreens tend to increase stickiness, therefore it is very important to choose the right sunscreen. Sunscreens help avert sun-induced pigmentation and ageing and it’s very important for you to choose based sunscreen or a physical sunscreen with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.

Moisturizing

While people with oily skin do not really require any moisturizer but sometimes the skin becomes excessively dry in some areas and stays oily in others. Always go for non-comedogenic or non-acne forming moisturizer-based ‘night cream’, if in case you feel the need.

Make-up

Make sure you choose non-comedogenic or water-based make-up products as they are quite pure. You can also add some powder make-up to them to further reduce oiliness.

Treatment for Oily Skin

• Regular care and appropriate treatment can work wonders for oily skin. Cleansing your skin with upward and outward motions and massaging it at regular intervals can also be really helpful.
• When you are undergoing all these treatments, do not get upset if you don’t see results overnight since it takes time. All that your skin really requires is a holistic treatment, both internal and external.
• Try applying a face mask a couple of times every week. While the pink and white clay masks gently cleanse off excess oil from oily skin, the more effective are the brown ones.
• Treatment of oily skin also includes aromatherapy oils such as lemon, rosemary and cedarwood.
• Dermatologists often recommend topical Vitamin derivatives with ingredients such as tretinoin (acid form of vitamin A) and isotretinoin (medication used for cystic acne) so as to handle sensitive oily skins.

Home Remedies for Oily Skin

• Some very effective astringents for oily skin are Aloe Vera, crushed strawberries and yogurt. Fruit acids too are said remove oil from the skin and yet retain the moisture.
• The diet too plays a major role in keeping your skin good and healthy. Try consuming food that is rich in proteins.

Beauty & Skincare oily skin, skin care