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The Best Natural Skincare Routine for Oily Skin

If you’ve had oily skin since your youth, you’re no stranger to products like oil-absorbing blotters, mattifying foundations, and some of the most drying cleansers known to man. Chances are, none of these products have ever been a fix for your greasy skin.

For those with skin that seems to put in overtime producing oil, it can be frustrating. Makeup slides right off, double cleansing doesn’t seem to help, and the amount of time you spend trying to reduce excess oil just leaves you spinning your wheels.

Oily friends, there’s hope! The Detox Market has your complete guide to managing oily skin, including figuring out why it’s so oily and developing a natural skin care routine that can help you bring your skin back into balance. Here's how to build the best natural skincare routine for oily skin.

Building an Excellent Natural Skin Care Routine for Oily Skin

You may have perfectly balanced skin under that shiny facade just waiting to be unveiled. You can help bring your skin back into perfect harmony and health with the help of a proper skin care routine and a few of our clean beauty faves. It all starts with a skin detox.

Skin Detox

If you’re serious about skin care, a skin detox can help you get your skin into seriously radiant shape. Your skin is the largest organ in the body, and unlike other organs, toxins can’t exit the body through your skin. A skin detox requires focus on the skin’s outermost surfaces to protect from environmental damage.

During your skin detox, it isn’t uncommon to have breakouts. This is your skin’s natural and normal way of adjusting to new products and regimens as your skin finds it’s new equilibrium. Resist the urge to pick or prod and trust that they will dissipate as your skin begins to heal.

A healthy diet and drinking plenty of water is also essential to help your body properly flush toxins out. You’ll also want to be sure you swap out your skincare products for safe clean beauty alternatives.

The Detox Market has an array of clean beauty products specifically suited to combat oily skin and rebalance your complexion. In a few short weeks, you’ll wonder how you’ve ever lived without them.

Building your oily skin care routine

Creating a skincare routine for oily skin doesn't have to be a tedious twelve-step process. A few simple clean beauty ingredients will go a long way to get your skin healthy and glowing without the high-shine. Ready to deep dive into the best skin care practices to control oil? Here are the skincare products you need to get started.

Cleanser. Trash your old face cleanser; it’s probably filled with harsh chemicals that are making your skin oilier than it should be. You need a cleanser that contains hydrating ingredients that are safe to use on oilier skin types. Tata Harper Clarifying Cleanser is a mild cleanser and great option for oily skin types. It helps cleanse and lightly moisturize so skin isn’t overly dry or stripped of natural oils, and works great before a facial toner. Be careful to not overdo it! Use warm water and don’t cleanse your skin more than twice a day. Over-cleansing won't help you control excess oil.

Serum. A serum is a great way to nourish your skin with ultra concentrated natural ingredients. If you’ve thought your oily skin makes serums a no-go, give Pai's All Becomes Clear Serum a try. Perfect for acne-prone skin, this purifying serum contains powerful zinc and copaiba seeds to treat oily skin and control excess sebum.
Moisturizer. Even oily skin needs a moisturizer. Upgrade your oily sheen to a dewy finish with Osea Atmosphere Protection Cream. This luxurious lightweight moisturizer contains active ingredients to defend against environmental damage, and contains soothing lavender and grapefruit essential oils to manage and remove excess oils to reduce the appearance of pores.

Important Tip: Learn Why Your Skin is Oily

Oily skin can happen for a number of reasons. It might be genetics, your products, or a combination of factors that has created the perfect storm for a high-shine appearance. Here are some of the most common reasons your skin has excess oil.

Genetics

Your family tree has a lot to do with your skin. If one or both of your parents suffered from acne, there’s a good chance that due to your genetic makeup, you’ll experience the same.

This also goes for oily skin. If your pores are larger in size (a characteristic of oily skin), and your skin tends to always be on the shiny side, it might have something to do with your genetics.

Thankfully, having oily skin as a result of your DNA doesn’t have to be a permanent fixture in your life. You can get your skin under control with the right products and skin care routine.

Free Radical Damage

Free radicals and antioxidants have been beauty buzz-words on social media for a while now. If you aren’t familiar, let’s get you up to speed.

Free radicals are unbalanced molecules emitted from external stressors like:

Ultraviolet rays from sunlight
Cigarette smoke
Household cleaning solutions
Smog from pollution

When free radicals find molecules that are balanced, they attack them and cause damage to the cell where the molecule lives. That damage can be seen in your skin, resulting in irritation, redness, rashes, premature aging, and oiliness.

Free radical damage elicits an inflammatory response from your skin. Essentially, your skin constantly reacts as though it is being attacked. This can result in your sebaceous glands overproducing oil, making your skin oily.

Sun Damage

Even though a sunburn will initially cause your skin to feel dry, in a short amount of time it will encourage your skin to produce excess oil. The sun dries your skin, which can make it feel like it’s a good solution to dry oily skin- but it does more harm than good.

Sunburns damage your skin, and send a message to your sebaceous glands to produce more oil to heal the damage and restore the skin’s moisture. The result? You guessed it, oilier skin.

It's critical to wear an SPF daily to eliminate the risk of skin cancer and keep sunburns at bay. There are many great oil free SPF options that protect your skin against harmful UV rays and and won't leave you with greasy skin .

Climate Changes

The climate you live in and the weather can also keep your skin oily. If you live in a hot, humid climate your skin can retain moisture from the air. If your skin is already oily to begin with, living in these types of climates can exacerbate the situation.

This isn’t to say you can’t suffer from oily skin in the winter. Dry air and indoor heating can dry out your skin, causing your sebaceous glands to go into overdrive. You will need to adjust your skin care routine based on seasonal weather changes.

Improper Skin Care Routines

If oily is your skin type, chances are your current skin care routine doesn't benefit your skin as much as it could. Your go-to products can unknowingly cause your skin to produce even more oil.

The traditional approach to oily skin care has always been to use drying products and wash your skin repeatedly. This only makes oily skin worse. It may relieve oiliness and shine for a few hours, but it always returns for the worse.

Less Than Best Skin Care Ingredients

When we hear of individuals dealing with unbalanced skin (dry, oily, or combination) our first step is to find out what kind of ingredients are in their everyday skin care. Sometimes people who have struggled with oily skin their entire lives are suffering unnecessarily due to harmful product ingredients that keep their skin irritated and unbalanced.

Some of the worst ingredients for oily skin are:

Occlusive moisturizers. Occlusive moisturizers create a thick, impenetrable barrier on the skin that can be too heavy for oily skin. Occlusive moisturizers include petroleum, lanolin, mineral oil, and paraffin.

These ingredients are also not safe for your skin and body. The EWG gives petroleum based products a rating of between 1-4, which makes it questionable for use. Petroleum is a known carcinogen, suspected to cause toxicity in certain organs, and can create inflammatory skin responses in certain skin types.

Moisturizing is key to rebalance oily skin. Toss your occlusive moisturizers and grab a clean-formulated lightweight day cream or gel moisturizer, and don't be afraid of face oils! Keeping skin hydrated is essential to keep oily skin regulated.
Alcohol. You might think alcohol helps eliminate your shine, but it’s actually making your oily skin worse. Alcohol is often added to products to help them create a matte finish. It’s especially common in products marketed to people with oily skin, because it evaporates on the skin taking excess skin oil with it.

The problem? Alcohol strips your skin of its natural moisture levels, causing excessively dry skin. When your skin is excessively dry, your oil production glands put in those overtime hours, creating an even oilier visage.

Toners often contain alcohol. Swap your old toner for an alcohol free toner or natural toner with ingredients like witch hazel and aloe vera, to soothe inflamed skin and unclog pores. Tighter pores means not as much oil.
Parabens. Parabens are added to many products to increase their shelf life and help prevent the growth of bacteria. They are synthetic ingredients and there are clean, natural alternatives that are better and safer for skin.

Parabens are known hormone disruptors, which can interfere with your body’s natural hormone balance and can cause excess oil production.

Seek out clean preservatives like essential oils and Potassium Sorbate (a natural vegan preservative) that is anti-fungal and naturally preserves the shelf-life of your fave clean beauty products.
Sulfates. Sulfates are the ingredients in liquid products, like cleansers, that make them foam. They’re found in practically every liquid “sudsing” product in the toxic beauty industry, but they’re especially prevalent in oil targeted skin cleansers.

Somehow, users have equated suds and foam with cleanliness when in fact a cleanser doesn’t have to create bubbles to get your skin clean.

Sulfates can be incredibly irritating to the skin, and because they’re in practically all cleansers, it can be hard to tell if that’s what is making your skin oily or not. Instead of cleansing with sulfates, swap your foaming cleanser for a natural oil based cleanser to deep clean and wash away excess oil. A good cleanse is the first step to hydrated, healthy skin.

Ingredients to Look For

We've come a long way from old oily skincare hacks. You don't need to douse yourself in lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to see results. Now that we know which synthetic ingredients to avoid, here are the best ingredients to create the ultimate oily skin care routine.

Salicylic Acid

Salicylic acid is a beta hydroxy acid and key ingredient for deep exfoliation for those wanting to remove dead skin cells and target clogged pores. Salicylic acid can help dissolve dead skins that clog pores, in turn diminishing the appearance of blemishes and blackheads. For a full skin glow, look for products with salicylic acid (usually toners and cleansers) and use once or twice weekly to exfoliate, eliminate acne, and ultimately balance your oily skin.

Retinol

This holy-grail anti-aging ingredient works by firming the skin and increasing collagen production- which also means tightening the pores that produce pesky excess oil. Usually found in serums and moisturizers, look for a 1% retinol and be sure to only apply at night. Retinol can be irritating for sensitive skin if you're integrating it into your skincare routine it’s advised to start slowly. Use retinol once a week, and increase use once your skin has adjusted. In a matter of weeks you'll see a full skin glow.

Tea Tree Oil

It may seem counterintuitive to apply oil to already oily skin, but this natural antiseptic has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties to soothe skin and unclog pores. Tea tree essential oil penetrates and tightens pores which reduces oil production and can ultimately help balance oily and acne prone skin. Look for facial oils, serums, and moisturizers that contain tea tree oil as a top ingredient, or apply purely as a spot treatment.

Niacinamide

This antioxidant also goes by Vitamin B3, and is a known combatant of skin barrier damage, and a proponent of strengthening the skin's surface for tighter pores and diminished fine lines and wrinkles. Niacinamide is clinically proven to reduce sebum making it ideal for skin with too much oil, or balancing combination skin, and is gentle enough to use daily.

The Takeaway

Your oily skin could be genetics, or a result of improper skin care and cosmetics. Lucky for you, we've got the ingredients to create the ultimate oily skin care routine so you can help bring your skin back into balance. Remove toxic beauty from your shelves and treat your skin to cleaner, safer ingredients from The Detox Market!

Sources:

https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredients/704786-petrolatum/

https://davidsuzuki.org/queen-of-green/dirty-dozen-parabens/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4885180/

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