Essential Oils for Oily Skin

You’re heading out on the perfect date, or on that long-awaited girls’ night out, and zap! There is something ugly rearing its head on your face. Not the way to make a first impression or pose for an Instagram-ready “girls having fun” shot. But let’s rewind and address those issues before you hit that night out…

Oily skin is not just something that plagues your teen years. It can happen at various stages of your life, depending on health, environment, stress, hormones, and other factors. But fortunately, there are many essential oils that can help soothe oily skin. Let’s take a look in this blog!

What Causes Oily Skin?

Sebaceous glands within the dermis of your skin secrete sebum (an oily substance) to keep your skin happy, healthy, and lubricated. But sometimes sebaceous glands can secrete too much sebum (for various reasons) and your skin becomes clogged and shiny looking, leading to acne, pimples, open pores, and other manifestations of oily skin. That all sounds a little gross, doesn’t it? So, let’s see how we can solve it!

How Do Essential Oils Help Oily Skin

Essential oils can help oily skin by predominantly balancing out the skin and oil production, to bring it back to a more even level of status quo. Depending on the essential oil, you may also find that the essential oil can help to calm oily skin, and balance hormones (if hormonal issues are causing your oily skin breakout). In addition, many essential oils are mini powerhouses of antibacterial superpowers, with some possessing antimicrobial properties, too.

Which Essential Oils Help Oily Skin

As we first mentioned, there are a lot of essential oils which may help to soothe oily skin. You’ll have no problem finding one (or more) to fit your budget. Here’s a breakdown of our favorites, and which superpowers that they possess:

• Clary sage (Salvia sclarea): Antiseptic, antibacterial, astringent, regulates seborrhea.
• Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens): Balancing (especially to the hormones), calming, antiseptic, antibacterial, astringent.
• Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia): Antibacterial, antiseptic, balancing.
• Lemon (Citrus limon): Antimicrobial, antiseptic, antibacterial, astringent.
• Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus): Antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiseptic, astringent.
• Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus): Antiseptic, antibacterial.
• Tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia): Antibacterial, antiseptic.
• Vetiver (Vetiveria zizaniodes): Antiseptic, calming.

How to Use Essential Oils for Oily Skin

Oily skin tends to affect the face the most. So, here’s a few ideas of how you can use essential oils safely on this particular area of your skin. We recommend using a daily routine to address oily skin problems before they become a major issue (remember date night or that special girls’ night out?). This is a basic skincare routine that you can utilize twice a day, morning, and night:

• Wash your face with warm water.
• Dab face lightly with a towel.
• Use an appropriate hydrosol as a toner. For oily skin, we recommend geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) hydrosol or lemon tea (Leptospermum petersonii) hydrosol.
• Use one or more of the recommended essential oils in our blog diluted in a carrier oil such as jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis). For the face, use a 1% dilution rate, which is 6 drops of essential oil (TOTAL) to 1-oz. of carrier oil. Apply a small amount of the blend to the face, after applying the toner.

Cautions: Check for all cautions for using individual essential oils, as some are contra-indicated for use with certain health issues, in pregnancy, and with babies and children. The recommended dilution rate here is stated for adult use and children and teenagers over the age of twelve years.

Oily Skincare Needs at Your Body Needs

If you would prefer to have a custom facial in-house with us at Your Body Needs, we highly recommend booking our Acne Cleanse facial, which includes an antimicrobial high frequency application. If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out and give us a call!