Skincare - Oily Skin Type

Routine for Oily Skin:
(the other types: Normal/Combination, Dry, Sensitive Skin)


- A gentle cleanser for oily skin to use every morning, after school, and/or before bed. I don’t recommend washing your face three times a day, because it could make your glands overactive and produce even more oil. Definitely wash in the morning and sometime in the evening though! See at which times produce the best results. Maybe you want to wash your face with a cleanser after school and then with just clear water while showering before bed.

- Use alcohol-free toner after each time you cleanse and twice daily at least. Apply toner to a cotton pad and gently wipe entire face. By using the cotton pad, you wipe away some of the dead skin and debris that remains on the surface of your skin after cleansing.

- Always use a basic moisturizer after every wash even if you didn’t use a cleanser/toner beforehand. The moisturizer should be targeted to oily skin types. If you chose a moisturizer that’s intended for day and night usage, make sure it doesn’t have SPF protection (they usually don’t). Products that are SPF-ified are more oily which for someone with oily skin, you don’t want that.
- Use a day moisturizer with SPF protection OR use an oil-free makeup base that has SPF protection on top of your day/night moisturizer.



Products:

- Cleanser/Toner – Drugstore brands are good to start with if you’re just getting into skin care. They are priced affordably and can work just as well for you as over the counter brands. If a certain brand doesn’t work, it’s less money wasted to switch to another. You might come across 2-in-1 cleanser/toner combinations which you can try too. For one, they are unlikely to be too rich for oily skin.

- Moisturizer – I recommend trying drugstore brands to start. If there are testers, take some and put it on your hand then spread it over a slightly larger area. Wait 15-20 minutes and see if the moisturized surface is smooth and hydrated, but not sticky then you can try to use this one.

- Day Moisturizer with SPF – Drugstore! Lol Seriously, it’s a money-saving way to start with those brands. SPF products are more oily, but not by toooo much! If there are testers, do the same as you did with the moisturizer. You also don’t need moisturizers with 30+ SPF protection unless you burn or darken very easily. The reason is the higher the SPF, the more oily the product. Save the high protection stuff for when you’re outdoors lots.

- There is only one oil-free makeup base with SPF protection that comes to mind and it’s the award-winning makeup base by Smashbox. Get it. If you wear makeup too, you’re using one product for two purposes. Coooool beans! Just beware that the one with SPF expires so check that date before you buy! It’ll probably take you a good 3 months before you use it up.

- Eye Cream - If the area around your eye feels dry (sure sign is when it feels tight),  use an eye cream twice daily that provides basic hydration and nutrients or fights signs of aging. There are eye creams that claim to do both so treat this eye cream as you would when trying your moisturizer. The cream need not be rich, because if it's too rich for you, you could develop bumpy white spots around the eyes.

- Cotton Pads – a dozen different brands of cotton pads and the best ones are those that hardly absorb any product!!! The less it absorbs, the less you need to put on the pad the more product you save. The extra dollars for cotton pads pay off well.

Here’s the type I use. I ripped this one up, because first, the original size is too big for it's purpose so rather than throwing all that unused pad, I ripped them up into four pieces to use and second, I wanted to show you guys the texture. It's a bit different from regular cotton pads.

Oil Blotting Paper – You’re at school/work and cleansing your face, apply toner then moisturizer in the middle of your day is not exactly convenient. A quick fix to get rid of some of that excess oil is using oil absorbing paper to blot over trouble regions on your face. There a ton of brands out there and most of them work regardless of price. The thing you should be careful of when blotting oil is, if you have acne problems blot sparingly, use even 2-3 sheets pick a fresh spot on the sheet for different parts of the face, or don’t do it, because you risk transferring the bacteria from one part of your face to another and that’s BAD. This is supposed to help you, not give you more problems!