Oily skin is a common skin type, affecting between 40 and 55 per cent of the adult population aged 20-40. While living with oily skin can be difficult, there are many products available to help manage results of excess oil.
This skin type is prevalent among young to middle-aged adults, but it can affect older people too. Men are more likely to suffer from oily skin as men's skin produces more sebum than women's. This is due to males having more sebaceous glands and more pores.
Search the internet, and you will find millions of products claiming to relieve the symptoms of or eliminate your oily skin.
In this article, we share our knowledge of the ingredients for oily skin found to help relieve this skin condition and help get it under control. We encourage you to try some of these ingredients and create your own DIY skincare treatment.
8 Ingredients to Help Relieve and Take Control of Oily Skin
Salicylic Acid (BHA)
You may have heard of salicylic acid (BHA), it's become a popular ingredient for treating oily skin over the last five years. You can now find BHA in a massive range of daily moisturisers, oils, pads, lotions, gels and toners.
BHA is a liquid exfoliant that helps prevent oil from clogging your pores and causing breakouts. BHA helps to dissolve the oil buildup on your skin's surface and can help ease discomfort by reducing irritation.
BHA has become one of the most popular ingredients for oily skin because of the benefits listed above. Salicylic acid can penetrate oily skin, resulting in a deeper cleaning.
Activated Charcoal
Excess oil is a challenging skin issue to live with. Some products help reduce excess oil production but leave your skin dry, irritated and sensitive. Activated charcoal soaks up excess oil without drying out your skin.
Activated charcoal works by attracting and absorbing dirt and oil in the skin. When you wash it away, the dirt and oil are carried away with it.
You will find activated charcoal in many different beauty products, including clay masks and cleansers, which are highly effective for oily skin. You can also buy activated charcoal as an individual ingredient to be used in DIY skincare recipes.
Benzoyl Peroxide
Benzoyl peroxide is an active ingredient that’s extremely popular for oily skin products. You can buy it both over the counter and get it on prescription. Benzoyl peroxide is highly efficient at destroying bacteria on the skin. If you have sensitive skin, you may want to avoid this particular ingredient, as it's quite powerful and may lead to irritation.
If you choose to buy products with this active ingredient, start with a low-strength option of around 2.5%. See how your skin reacts and then change its strength accordingly. If you use too much, you will get irritated skin.
Benzoyl peroxide is not sold as an individual ingredient due to its potency. You will need to buy a product that contains the active ingredient to realise the benefits.
Retinol
Retinol is a product you may be more familiar with as it can be found in many standard skincare routines. If you've ever seen an advert for "anti-wrinkle cream," then you have probably heard the name retinol a billion times. Why? Retinol is a popular ingredient in serums, gels and moisturisers as it is excellent for reducing oil. It is often used to treat skin prone to large pores as it can help reduce the size thus reducing the amount of oil and other residue that clogs pores.
Be aware, the application of retinol to your skin makes you vulnerable to UV light. This is why most retinol products recommend using them before bed. Exposure to sunlight with retinol applied will damage and irritate your skin.
Some products will include retinyl palmitate (vitamin A), the ester of retinol and the least irritating of the four retinoids. You will find active creams that use this form of the retinol-derived ingredient. These creams are formulated for use with oily skin or just those with extremely dry, sensitive or irritable skin.
Tea Tree Oil
Tea tree oil is one of the most commonly used essential oils. It has been used for hundreds of years to treat anything from acne prone skin and athlete's foot to lice and to clean wounds.
This oil is also a natural blemish-fighter due to its antibacterial and soothing properties, which help to combat oily skin to offer some relief. It's thought that tea tree oil is equally as useful as benzoyl peroxide for treating oily skin
If you have sensitive skin, you will want to avoid tea tree oil, as it's too harsh and will cause irritability.
For those with dry to normal skin, tea tree oil may help reduce symptoms and outbreaks. Try using it in combination with a serum or moisturiser for the best results.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant found naturally within foods like fruits and vegetables. This vitamin is excellent at protecting your skin and shielding it from environmental aggressors such as the sun and pollutants.
Vitamin C will also give your skin a healthy glow by stimulating collagen synthesis and the renewal of fibroblasts. It has become an increasingly popular ingredient for oily skin products. In addition to finding Vitamin C in healthy foods you will also find it present in moisturisers and serums.
Vitamin C can help treat irritation associated with oily skin, treat damaged skin and brighten skin while improving skin texture and health. It's believed that this powerful vitamin is also helpful to fight off signs of ageing and keep you looking youthful.
Hyaluronic Acid
Not as scary as it sounds, hyaluronic acid (HA) is fantastic at attracting water out to the surface of your skin, allowing for deep hydration. This has made it a popular ingredient for oily skin products, as it can hold a thousand times its weight in water!
HA is successful at keeping the surface layer of your skin healthy by helping it to remove bacteria, dirt and pollution. Keeping your skin healthy is the number-one priority in fighting against excess oil production.
HA can help train your skin to produce just the right amount of oil for hydration. It may help your oil glands to stop working overtime and give you the right amount of oil you need to keep your skin radiant and glowing.
Jojoba Oil
You're probably thinking, "why on earth would I put more oil on my oily skin?". And you would be right to think that. But jojoba oil is no ordinary oil because it doesn't increase oil production, it actually balances it out. This is thanks to the high levels of Eicosenoic Acid.
People with oily skin should avoid products that are thick and sit on the skin’s surface, so jojoba oil is ideal as it is non greasy and non comedogenic. This means it won’t block the skin's pores which is what normally results in blackheads.
Jojoba oil is suitable for all skin types and will leave the skin with a natural, silicone like feel.
How to Take Advantage of These Ingredients
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
Buy Beauty Products
There are millions of beauty products containing the ingredients above for you to take advantage of. Here's a list of each ingredient and the most common products it is used in.
- Salicylic acid (BHA) — exfoliants, rescue oils, cleansers, pads and solutions.
- Activated charcoal — masks, scrubs, moisturisers and soaps.
- Benzoyl peroxide — exfoliators, cleansers, pads and gels.
- Retinol — serums and moisturisers.
- Tea tree oil — moisturisers, cleansers, toners and pads.
- Vitamin C — moisturisers and serums.
- Hyaluronic acid — moisturisers and serums.
- Argan oil — moisturisers and serums.
Buy the Pure Ingredients
If you prefer to create your own skincare products, you can buy most of these ingredients individually. With the exception of benzoyl peroxide, all of the popular ingredients for oily skin listed above can be bought as a standalone product. While they shouldn’t be used on the skin in their pure form, they can be combined with other ingredients to create homemade skincare.
You can create the perfect homemade skin care for oily skin by combining carrier oils or base creams/lotions with your chosen ingredients listed in this article.
Lotion for Oily Skin
This lightweight lotion is non greasy lotion so ideal for rebalancing oily skin. This recipe features our Prickly Pear Seed Oil and Organic Anti Acne Active Formula.
Ingredients
- Stage 1 - Fat stage
- 5% Hazelnut Oil
- 5% Prickly Pear Seed Oil
- 3% Thistle Oil
- 4% Emulsifier L
- 1% Cetearyl Alcohol
- Stage 2 - Water stage
- 72% Boiling Orange Blossom (Neroli) Water
- 4% Comfrey Glycerol Extract
Stage 3
- 2% Vitamin E
- 1.5% Anti Acne Active Formula
- 1% Preservative 12
- 0.75% Palmarosa Essential Oil
- 0.25% Geranium Essential Oil
- 0.5% Vitamin A Palmitate
- 100% Total
How to Make It
- Heat the fat stage to above 75°C in a double boiler.
- Add your stage 1 (fat stage) ingredients to stage 2 (water stage).
- Blend with a stick blender for a few seconds until you see emulsification has happened.
- Immerse the container into a pan of cold water and stir with a spatula whilst cooling down to below 40°C.
- Add the remaining stage 3 ingredients and combine thoroughly.
- Jar and label your lotion!
