Struggling with oily skin is no fun, and can cause disruptions in your day-to-day life. Oily skin can impact everything from your self-confidence and image to more serious things like inflammation or infections. Understanding the causes of oily skin and what ingredients to look for in your skincare products is essential to winning the battle against oil production.
What Causes Oily Skin?
Oily skin can be caused by any number of factors. You may be predisposed to having excess oil production due to your genes, medication, diet, hormones and improper skin care products can all impact your sebaceous oil glands.
The sebaceous glands sit within the dermis, the middle of the three layers of skin. The oil they produce is beneficial to the skin, when produced at manageable levels it functions as a protective barrier. Excess oil production leads to clogged pores which can result in acne, inflammation or infection in serious cases.
To prevent this, it’s essential to check the ingredients in your skincare products to ensure that your routine is not contributing to the problem.
What Ingredients Should You Look for in a Hand Cream?
When selecting your next hand cream you want to check for ingredients that are beneficial to oily skin. One of the A-list ingredients you should keep your eye out for is Urea. Urea is a naturally occurring compound within the dermis of your skin caused by the breakdown of proteins and plays a vital role in skin hydration.
Urea can penetrate deep within the layers of the skin to hydrate from within, rather than coating the skin in a silicone substance to give the appearance of softness. Due to its hydrating power, urea is critical in forming a protective barrier for your skin. When your skin is hydrated and protected by your routine, your sebaceous glands don’t have to work overtime producing excess oil.
Urea is also a highly effective antifungal and antimicrobial, making it the ideal moisturizer for those who suffer from clogged pores, inflammation and infection due to their oily skin.
Another oily skin all-star ingredient is lactic acid. Lactic acid is an alpha hydroxy acid. AHAs are used to exfoliate the top layer of skin, gently removing the build-up of oil and dead skin cells caused by excess sebaceous oil production. Lactic acid is specifically formulated to break up clogs near the hair follicle, which is where the sebaceous glands are located.
Lactic acid is one of the most gentle AHAs available, making it a wonderful choice for those with sensitive skin as well. This is because, in addition to increasing cell turnover to exfoliate, lactic acid has the unique benefit of stimulating your skin’s natural moisture barrier. Maintaining proper hydration levels and building up your skin’s natural barrier is vital to managing your oil production.
Last but certainly not least, look for glycerine. Glycerine also exfoliates, hydrates and protects the skin; but it is unique in how it hydrates your skin. Glycerine allows for moisture to move between layers of the skin, pulling from the oil reserves in the dermis and allowing the skin to hydrate itself and manage oil levels.
Glycerine is also non-comedogenic, meaning it is a skincare ingredient specifically formulated not to clog pores. Since excess oil production is notorious for causing clogged pores and resulting in acne, you’ll especially want to make sure your ingredients are non-comedogenic.
Figuring out how to build the best routine for your skin is a little bit hit and miss. However, if you take the time to learn how the ingredients affect your skin, you’ll start to see improvements in no time. Your hands work hard every day, they deserve a little TLC.