For Allure, by Devon Ableman.
Even if your skin is as oily as a slice of New York-style pizza, the most grease-combatting cleanser can work too hard on skin. Instead of eliminating excess oil, it rids skin of all moisture in general — leaving skin with dry, flaky patches, as well as redness. No thank you.
A Redditor named _slightly knows this struggle all too well. To help fix their skin care routine, they turned to the Skincare Addiction subreddit and asked their fellow oily-skinned people, “What’s the gentlest cleanser you’ve found that can effectively cleanse oily skin?” _slightly went onto explain that their skin is sensitive to face wash and listed ones they have used in the past. With these in mind, their fellow Redditors gave their recommendations. We rounded up the most popular suggestions for the best cleansers for oily skin of the bunch.
“The Hydrating Cleanser is on point,” a Redditor who goes by Jsaurusrex wrote. “I’ve been using it for several months with no issue, and it has helped clear my skin dramatically.”
User valentinedoux suggested this cleanser because it doesn’t strip skin of moisture, and anomalin agreed. It works really well for my oily sensitive skin and has reduced some redness, too,” they added.
Several people recommended this one from Glossier. Why? As ktlene put it, “My face is really sensitive to all those foaming cleansers. No matter how ‘gentle’ those things claim to be, my face always sting and feel way too tight afterwards. The Glossier cleanser is very gentle, and I used it when I first switched to tretinoin [a topical acne treatment] and it made my skin really sensitive.”
Oil cleansing might sound counterintuitive, but this actually works to help stave off oil production. A redditor called lovelierother has experienced the same issues with cleansers, but this cleansing oil actually works for her. “I don’t wear any foundation or makeup really, so I’m not sure how effective it would be if you wear a lot,” she wrote. “But for me, it’s the gentlest and has actually helped make my skin less oily. I break out really easily, too, and it hasn’t caused any issues.”
“It’s so gentle and soothing on my oily/acne-prone face,” Alien_51 explained. “It doesn’t dry out the face after use so my face doesn’t become even more oily afterwards, and it doesn’t clog pores so sebum production is managed quite nicely.”
Micellar water was another popular best cleansers for oily skin suggestion on the thread. A user named yo_kayla wrote, “It made cleansing so much easier for me which helps me do it more frequently. Plus it’s super gentle.”
As for what _slightly ended up buying, they said...
“It looked like the formulation was among the best recommended here so I bought it and gave it a try,” they told the thread. “It seems very promising!”
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