How to combat Oily Skin
Moisturiser for Oily Skin or T-zone
If you have oily or combination skin, with an oily T-zone (forehead, nose, chin) the challenge is finding skincare that adds moisture without the shine. You still need to protect and nourish your skin, but you just don’t need to add more layers of greasy glow. You need a lotion that actually reduces the sheen, especially across your nose and forehead.
What does Oily & Combination Skin Look Like?
Use these simple guidelines to pinpoint your skin type. Our skin changes with seasons and over the decades, so don’t presume your skin is still simply ‘teenage oily’ – you may have graduated to combination and sensitive skin. Also, some of us may have oily skin only part of the year, others year-round. It’s important to know how your skin responds to seasons – like summer heat and humidity – and to adapt your skincare routines.
You have Oily Skin if:
Your skin looks shiny and greasy all over, especially later in the day
Skin feels greasy even after washing
Your pores tend to look large, clogged (whiteheads or blackheads) and are greasy
Most products make your skin even more shiny & greasy
You have Combination Skin if:
Your forehead, nose or chin (T-zone) might be oily, but cheeks and neck are dry
You have large pores on your T-zone, but small pores elsewhere. Your neck and cheek area may feel tight and look dull.
Why an Oily T-zone?
The T-zone, which includes your forehead, nose, and chin becomes oily because it has more sebaceous glands. These glands produce sebum, the natural protective coating that moisturises and protects your skin. There are also more sebaceous glands on our upper back and chest.
Glands become overactive because of genetics, stress, or hormones. High production of sebum in the T-zone gives you that shiny look all year round, even in dry winter months.
Oily Skin Depending on Weather
Your skin could tend towards oily or combination (oily-T-zone) only in hot, humid weather. During cold dry weather your skin could actually be dry, with flaking and dullness. You’ll need to adapt your skincare according to the season for skin that looks perfectly balanced, plump and calm year-round. Here’s how to balance your skin.
Combination Skin – Strike a Balance
Oily and combination skin need gentle cleansing and the right moisturiser. It also needs the same SPF sunscreen protection, anti-oxidants and exfoliation as other skin types, it just need products specifically designed to calm sebum production, not make it worse.
How to Stop Oily Skin
This may seem counterintuitive, but the harsher the cleansing, the more chemicals and soaps used to strip moisture from your skin, the more your sebaceous glands go into overdrive to replace the lost sebum or oil.
Break the Greasy Skin Cycle
You then fall into a cycle of harshly stripping oil from your skin that then triggers the production of even more oil. The focus needs to be on calming and balancing the oil production cycle.
Best Moisturisers for Oily and Combination Skin
Add moisture, just make it the right kind. To achieve skin that is calm, non-greasy and to prevent breakouts skincare ingredients need to be:
Non-comedogenic, this means it won’t clog pores.
-Designed for sensitive skin. Especially if you are using strong ingredients like benzyl peroxide, sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) or synthetic salicylic acid, common in many acne treatments.
Your moisturiser needs to soothe skin that may be aggravated by harsh acne treatments.
How to Stop the Oily Skin Shine
One all-natural active skincare ingredient that does a great job at moisturising and reducing the oily skin shine at the same time, especially across the T-zone is 5 Alpha-Avocuta. It’s derived from avocado oil and is popular in skincare targeting over productive sebaceous glands (you see it in natural acne creams and oily scalp shampoos).
All-Natural Avocado Skincare Ingredient
It’s listed in ingredients as 5άAvocuta or 5 Alpha-Avocuta and has unique active properties that naturally inhibits the production of excessive sebum, and it’s preservative free. That means much less shine, less oil and less of that greasy feeling on your skin. Good for your skin and also kind to the planet as it’s sustainably sourced from Mexico, Peru and South Africa.
How to Cleanse Oily/Combination Skin
For more than any other skin type cleansing oily or combination skin is crucial for preventing blackheads, pimples and acne. We know that stripping your skin of all oil using harsh products triggers even more oil production, so how do you remove oil so your skin looks smooth and calm, and not red and tight?
Oil Attracts Oil
Again, this may seem counter intuitive but cleansers that contain a non-comedogenic (won’t bloke pores) oil – like jojoba are perfect for oily skin. The oil in the cleanser attracts your skin’s own sebum (oil clings to oil) and gentle carries away excessive oil, dirt, make-up and pollutants. Your skin feels soft, clean and soothed.
Antibacterial Jojoba Oil
Jojoba oil wont block pores, and is also naturally antibacterial and anti-inflammatory. So, while you cleanse and moisturise you are also naturally inhibiting the bacteria that causes pimples and acne. Skin is calm, clean and protected.
How to Exfoliate Oily/Combination Skin
Again, the key is gentle exfoliation. If your oily skin includes acne it’s even more important to use a super gentle exfoliant. Drying out your skin through harsh scrubbing (brushes), or using micro beads with jagged edges causes microscopic cracks and splits in your skin, bacteria gets in, multiplies and can cause or aggravate acne.
Best Exfoliator for Acne Prone Skin
Look out for microbeads that are round and smooth. They should glide across your skin, and never feel hard or scratchy. Beads made from oils are spherical in shape (no jagged edges) and dissolve as you massage then into your skin, softening dirt and attracting oil so they are gently rinsed away.
Best Skincare for Oily / Combination Skin
Try this simple routine. Switching to a light moisturising cream may be perfect during a hot and humid summer, or it may be exactly what you need to combat the T-zone shine year-round. See what works best with skin through the seasons.
Morning:
- Jojoba Water Gel Cream/SPF Protection
Evening:
- Gentle cleanser (foaming). Focus on T-zone for combination skin.
- Night Treatment (light moisturiser over jojoba oil base)
- Eye Serum
Extra Weekly Boost:
- Bean Exfoliant (Super gentle. No scratchy plastics/harsh beads)
- Acne/pimple spot treatment as needed
Break the too much oil cycle. Reduce sebum production in your T-zone with gentle cleansing and the right moisturisers. Say goodbye to the greasy shine and afternoon sheen for skin that looks matt and calm all day.
