Hello! Skincare Nerd here, today we are going to talk about how a basic skincare routine for oily skin should be.

We have divided the routine into day and night routine:

Day routine:

1. First step:

   Cleansing- Use a gentle foaming cleanser to avoid stripping the skin of required amount of oils to keep the skin healthy. I know using a cleanser which strips all the oil from the skin gives an really good feeling but trust me it is doing more harm than good. If all the oil is stripped away from the skin the skin produces much more oil to protect itself. Thus look for an gentle yet effective foaming cleanser with gentle surfactants.

2. Second step:

   Toner- Some would say, "nah! you don't really need the toner step in your skincare routine", "it is just a waste of time and money" but that's not really true, It is necessary to prepare your skin for upcoming ingredients to perform better on the skin, what a toner does is, it prepares the skin by adjusting the pH of the skin to required level. So look for a toner which specifies it's pH, the pH can be in between 5-7 but ideally look for a pH around 5.5 value. If there are actives such as niacinamide present in the toner it can also help reduce the excess sebum production of the skin.

   Usually toners are supposed to be gentle on the skin, most of the time they contain calming ingredients such as cica (Centella asiatica), allantoin, and other soothing botanical extracts. But there are toners present in the skincare market with actives such as AHA, BHA, retinol, vitamin c. If you are looking for such ingredients to incorporate into your routine, then i will advice you to look for ingredients such as retinol (other forms as well), vitamin c in serum or cream based formulation rather than in toner based. For ingredients such as AHA and BHA you can use toner as well as other formulations.

   I would recommend to use toner which helps balance the pH of the skin and has Gentle soothing Ingredients than the one with actives for daily use. When starting out with actives for the first time, it can get overwhelming as someone new to skincare wants to try all the actives after reading out their benefits from the internet but trust me you do not want to use actives every single day as it can make your skin condition worsen.

3. Third step:

   Hydration- You have to understand that hydration and moisturization are two different steps in skincare. Although there are moisturizers in the market which provide hydration as well as moisturization to the skin. But in case of oily skin it would do your skin better if you add a hydration step as well because your skin would produce more oil throughout the day if it is not well hydrated and moisturized. So look for serums with ingredients such as hyaluronic acid and its other derivatives to keep skin hydrated.

4. Fourth step:

   Moisturization- Look for a moisturizer with oil free formulation or which has a water based formulation to keep your skin from feeling sticky.

5. Fifth step:

   Sunscreen - It is the most important step in your skincare. To keep the sun damage to minimum, you have to wear sunscreen. All the oxidative stress caused by the UV rays can make your skin look dull and they can make your skin much worse if you are wearing any actives such as AHA, BHA during day time.

   Look for a sunscreen with at least 30 SPF value for it to actually provide good protection.

   Night Time Routine:

   1. First step should be cleansing but this time use an oil based cleanser and then use an water based cleanser to thoroughly remove the sunscreen and make up.

   2. Second step should be toner to prepare skin for next step.

   3. For a basic skincare routine you should use a hydrating product such as hyaluronic serum and then use an moisturizer

      But if you are incorporating an active ingredient you can use it after the toner step and then proceed with hydration and moisturization steps.

      Additional tips:

      1. Oily skin is always dealing with excess sebum production so incorporating a niacinamide based product would be really good for your skin. You can try to add it to your routine in the form of serum, toner or a moisturizer. There are cleansers also present with niacinamide but it wouldn't be that helpful for your skin as it won't be interacting with your skin for much longer.

      2. Using BHA (Salicylic acid) would be really good for your skin as it helps decongest pores. It can help remove blackheads and help achieve much more smoother skin. You can use it at least twice or thrice a week. Using it every day can make your skin more sensitive. But you can use it in cleanser form everyday as it doesn't sit on your skin for longer time but is also effective in this formulation.

      3. Use an AHA product at least once a week can help you achieve even skin tone and smoother skin. Once a week is more than enough.

      4. Try to incorporate tretinoin to improve cell turnover of your skin. Always start with smaller percentage of this ingredient. Try to use once a week for sometime and when your skin have gotten used to it then you can start using twice or thrice a week.

      5. All these additional tips written above are good for oily acne prone skin as well.

      6. There are other skincare ingredients such as benzoyl peroxide and others to help with acne prone skin but we will talk about them in other blog post as all of them require deeper review.

      7. For hyperpigmentation you can include vitamin c serums or creams. We will be sharing more on information on hyperpigmentation treatments in other blog posts in much detail.

         We hope this blog post made you understand you skin better.