While it is true that no one wants excessive oil, breakouts or acne, everyone needs a balanced amount. Too often people treat acne and breakouts with harsh drying products and forget or refuse to moisturize.
The theory goes: " If my skin is moisturized, then the excess moisture will add to my oil and the two combined will cause a breakout!" This is only true if you are using a heavy oil-based cream. Those products are for dry skin in need of extra oil. Oily skin needs water-based moisture, or humectants that will pull water to the skin and keep it hydrated.
If oily skin becomes too dry from stripping cleansers, (gasp!) soap, astringents, acids, or alcohols, the skin will think "I'm dry! I need more oil!" That's when a condition called topical dryness can occur, and is also why people with acne can have "dry" skin. It is not a pretty cycle.
How do you break free of this trap? Simply apply an oil-free moisturizer or a humectant (like a honey or vegetable glycerine based product) after cleansing and toning (which for oily skin is usually an alcohol-based astringent). Your skin will be hydrated and moist, but not greasy.
There are even some holistic companies that make skin balancing oils. Counter-intuitive as this may seem, these oils are made from non-comedogenic (non-pore-clogging) ingredients and they "trick" the skin into thinking the perfect balance of oil is present. The skin tends to chill out, not over-produce oil, and breakouts are avoided. I love to blend these with apricot oil in the treatment room during massage to give an extra-therapeutic benefit to my oily-skinned clients. That, and these balancing oils smell divine!
Recommended: Dr. Hauschka's Normalizing Day Oil, Jurlique's Skin Balancing Face Oil, Acure's Oil Control Facial Moisturizer, Himalaya's Nourishing Face Moisturizing Lotion, and MyChelle's
Oil Free Grapefruit Cream.
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