Best Products for Oily Skin

I’ve suffered with oily skin for most of my life, and I will admit, it’s a major drag. Actually, I have combination skin, so even though my face is oily in the t-zone, it also gets dry in a few areas. I guess you could say I have the worst of both worlds when it comes to my skin. Everyday I spend around 15 minutes trying to make myself presentable to the world (I know that sounds like a short amount of time to some, but I can do quite a bit quickly) and usually I succeed. However, after a few hours my morning makeover is tarnished by oil. My oily skin starts to erupt, and all I see is a huge glare on my nose, cheeks, forehead and chin. Like I said before, it’s a drag. If there were shots, or pills I could take to change the chemical structure of my skin trust me, I’d be the first to try them. Unfortunately, those don’t exist, but I have tried just about everything on the market.

The most obvious remedy for oily skin would be simply to wipe the oil off. Okay, that’s not a bad idea. I actually carry MAC’s Blotting Powder in my purse everywhere I go. I’ve been using this for about four years, and it works. The blotting powder is a pressed translucent powder that goes on clear, and dries up an oil on your skin, leaving it with a matte look. It works fine, but the problem is it only treats the surface when the real problem comes from a deeper place. The same goes for blotting papers, which you can find in just about every higher end cosmetics line, and is probably the most popular quick fix for oily skin. You press these papers to your face and it sucks up all the oil; most of them have translucent powder on them to leave your skin looking matte as well. I didn’t care for these because the powder turned my face white; a problem most women with darker skin will probably have with blotting papers. So, both of these methods were fine for me for a temporary fix, but I really need something that wasn’t so superficial.

I was lucky to come across Pureness Moisturizer by Shiseido. It’s perfect for those with oily skin because it keeps your skin hydrated and moisturized, but it’s oily free so it won’t clog your pores or make your skin produce even more oil. Beyond that, the formula is so light and feels pure against your skin; so it lives up to it’s name. The product also claims to control oil and give your skin a matte finish. Even better. It did give my oily skin a matte look, and for at least the first few uses it controlled the amount of oil my skin put out, but after that it seemed to go pretty much back to normal. I still had to use my blotting powder throughout the day. After trying this product, I pretty much figured there wouldn’t be anything better on the market. That was until I came across the Shine Control serum from The Body Shop. It’s not a moisturizer, and it’s only purpose is to control oil, and I think that makes all the distance. It’s a clear, Vaseline like serum, that you apply in a thin layer across the surface of your skin. This, by far, is the best product I’ve found for controlling oily skin. A few hours later, my skin was still dry. A little while after that, there was a little bit of sheen to my face, so unfortunately I was back to using the blotting powder again. However, the Shine Control serum made a huge impact. No more shiny nose, shiny cheeks or light reflecting off my forehead! I couldn’t be happier.

In addition to powders, papers and serums to control my oily skin, I believe the type of foundation I’m wearing made a difference as well. I recently changed over from MAC’s Studio Fix, which is a cream powder, to Maybelline’s Dream Mousse, which is still creamy, but much dryer. I would recommend that anyone with oily skin tries to find the driest base that they can. In addition, try a few of the products I mentioned and see what works best for your oily skin. Hopefully in the future, there will be a way to eliminate the oily skin gene, but for the moment we just have to learn how to control it.