Oily skin is not something that just occurs to you when you are hitting puberty. For many of us an overly oily skin complexion can go and last well into our adult lives. However that oil that your body produces to cover your face actually serves a very important function. Firstly, it keeps your skin hydrated and prevents it from drying out. Skin that is dry is more prone to irritation and other inconveniences such as flaking skin. The oil on your skin also acts as a small protective barrier to protect your skin from bacteria and fungal infections.

Although the natural reaction is to go to the shops and find the most powerful facial cleanser on the market heed my advice. If you are going through anything like I have been through then you know how annoying it is to have oily skin. All day your skin is covered in this glossy film, acne breakouts tend to be common no matter what products you seem to use. Also because I use make up, I also have to make doubly sure that whatever I put on my face doesn’t clog my pores and make my oily skin condition even worse.

I found that controlling my oily skin was a real challenge, every time I did research on the Internet I just got more confused. Apparently there was no one single cause for my oily skin, there was actually a multitude of factors such as genetics, diet and even hormone levels. All this information just made my head spin.

Things I Discovered on How To Stop Oily Skin

After little bit more research and a lot of trial and error, I learned from personal experience a couple of things that seem to actually make a real difference in stopping my skin from getting oily and out of control.

Stop Oily Skin Tip #1

Although my natural inclination was to wash my face as much is possible, I found that this was not practical and seemed to encourage my skin to produce even more skin oil. So I found a good happy medium, now I only wash my face once in the morning and once before I go to bed. Although now I only wash my face twice a day, I am able to keep my skin clean and clear. What I discovered was even if I only wash my face twice a day, as long as I ran the water warm and not too boiling hot my skin would be kept clean without suffering from overly dry skin that would encourage my body to produce even more skin oil.

Stop Oily Skin Tip #2

In the old days we used to recommend that to control the oil on your face you would use an astringent. Now personally I have tried astringents; products that commonly contain acetone. You know what I found? Astringents were way too harsh on my skin. The only way I was going to have acetone on my body was if I was trying to clean of my nail polish. In fact nowadays I just use a toner. Nothing fancy, whether it has witch hazel or not doesn’t really matter. The only thing I want in my toner is that it contains a little bit of salicylic acid to help keep my skin acne free. A really interesting side effect of using a toner is that my skin feels really smooth and super hydrated for longer after a little bit of toner on it without even a moisturizer.

Stop Oily Skin Tip #3

Avoid facial scrubs that contain strong perfumes or harsh scrubbing elements. One of the first facial scrubs I ever used caused me to break out like no tomorrow. I don’t know whether this was because of the apricot fruit additives or the unnecessary Microdermabrasion beads, all I know was the combination of these two things made my skin much worse than it had ever been before. If you have oily skin like me, all you need is a simple pH balanced cleaner. If you need to exfoliate then stick to a separate chemical exfoliants containing hydroxy acid or salicylic acids. Don’t irritate your skin with unnecessary mechanical scrubbing, it’s the 22nd century after all.

Stop Oily Skin Tip #4

Taking care of my face was all well and good. However at the same time when I was struggling to keep my oily skin under control I also stepped on the weight scales and realised that it was time for me to shed a few kilos. It was then that I embarked on a journey of healthy eating and adding a little bit more exercise to my daily routine. I can’t claim that exercising or eating right will cure your skin off excessive oil and acne. However I do know that staying in front of the computer or TV for six hours a day eating chips while I was on my butt was normally followed up by spontaneous breakouts all over my face within 24 hours. Try it, wipe your finger across your forehead and be shocked by that lovely film of skin oil that just accumulates while you sit in front immobile for six hours doing nothing.

Finally,

Oily skin is not the enemy. You can have oily skin that doesn’t lead to break outs. The key is to keep it clean, keep your clogs unclogged and to stop touching your face during the day.