Tag: oil

The best skincare for oily skin

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You know how you’re never supposed to pour water on an oil fire? When it comes to skincare for oily skin, the same principal holds… almost.

The media, a few dermatologists and your aunt love to tell everyone how oil-free cleansers, moisturizers, everything are the best way to go for people with oily skin. Not true. As someone who has had oily skin from literally day 1 of life, I can attest that this is just not true.

In fact, the renaissance of my skincare routine began the moment I added an oil cleanser, facial oil, oil-based moisturizers, a weekly oil hair mask and oil serum before styling my hair. Here’s how it’s done:

  • Adopt a 2-step face cleansing routine. Start with an oil cleanser and end with a foam cleanser. Your skin will thank you. (Oil cleansers are magic because only oil removes oil… from your face.)
  • Use an oil-based moisturizer during the day. It sounds intimidating and probably not the best idea if you live in a hot/humid climate but this is a total win for the winter/colder climates. I really believe that too little moisturizer makes my skin over-secrete oil thus making it look wayyy oilier than it is. The key to keeping your oily skin at bay is to make sure that your skin is nice & dewy (counter-intuitive, I know).
  • !SKINCARE GAME CHANGER ALERT! A wonderful, aromatherapy inspired, soothing cocktail of face oils for the night. Almond oil + rosehip oil + argan oil = THE BEST your skin will ever look in the morning. Puffiness be gone! Acne be gone! Dark circle be gone! I can’t even begin to tell you just how amazing this blend is — try it and let me know how it works for you! (Any face oil at night is great – lots of options out there!)
  • Weekly oil mask – I usually massage some warm coconut oil into my scalp on Saturday night while I’m binge watching something on Netflix. Coconut oil is my fav and it smeels soooo good that I sleep with it on and wake up to lightly scented, moisturized hair. The coconut hair dreams must end so I wash it off and then let my glossy locks air-dry. If coconut oil isn’t your thang, a cult-favorite (and mine) is the Bringadi hair oil by Kama Ayurveda.
  • Oil on wet hair + before styling. I love love love Ouai Hair Oil. It is seriously da bomb. I can rub it on wet hair, dry hair, semi-dry hair — it just always works.

 

The case for organic body oil

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Lately, I’ve been paying more attention to the labels on my beauty products and less attention to the brand name. Mainly, I’m leaning towards organic and natural products. India has really great natural beauty brands like Khadi, Forest Essentials and Kama Ayurveda, to name a few. I’ve used numerous products from all these brands ranging from face creams to body lotion but none of their body oils have really struck a chord with me. Khadi’s body oils are too thick and don’t really absorb into my skin post shower. Forest Essentials and Kama Ayurveda body oils are less thick but heavily perfumed which can be a tad overwhelming for my olfactory system.

I live in Mumbai so it’s almost always too humid to apply body oil during the day. Which means that I usually give my skin a good scrub-down and a self body oil massage post shower and right before bed. The perfect body oil will be light enough to fully absorb into moist skin and heavy enough to leave my skin moisturised. Also, it can’t be too perfumed because a strong fragrance wakes me instead of helping me relax before hitting the bed.

After trying all the well-known natural beauty brands in India, I found Ayca’s Jasmine & Rose Body Oil and it was love at first application.

The oil absorbs perfectly, my skin feels moisturised the next morning and the scent is light and refreshing.