Be Gone, Grease! What You Need To Know About Oil-Free Skin Care

November is here in full force, folks! That means sweater weather and Thanksgiving prep, of course, but at Skin Elite, it also means that it’s Oil-Free Skin Care Month. Chances are that you’ve seen the “oil-free” label tossed around often, and it was probably #1 on your priority list when you were a teen because, well, acne. But should you still be using oil-free products today?

In most cases, yes, probably. Oil-free products actually offer a variety of benefits, and not all of them center around acne.

Benefits of Oil-Free Skin Care Products

In skin care, the term “oil-free” means exactly what it sounds like it means: the product is made without oil. While various oils are common in skin care products for several reasons like reaching the right consistency, those oils come with unintended side effects. Let’s look at the top benefits of using oil-free skin care products.

Reducing Your Risk for Clogged Pores

This is the one that surprises no one. We all know that oil can clog our pores, whether it’s the natural oil our skin produces or extra oil coming from skin care products or other sources. If you’re prone to acne and clogged pores, oil-free products should definitely be a top priority for you. Even if you’re not prone to acne, though, anyone can get clogged pores and no one wants them, so oil-free products can benefit nearly everyone.

Faster Absorption

When you apply a skin care product, it doesn’t just hang out on the surface of your skin. It absorbs into your skin to reach the layers inside your skin, and that’s where it works its magic. The issue is, though, that products with oil tend to absorb slowly. They end up sitting on your skin’s surface for longer, which often means they get smudge off and you don’t get the results you were hoping for.

That’s another advantage to oil-free products. Without the oil, these products absorb into your skin more quickly, so more of the product is absorbed before it’s smudged off.

Improved Hydration

People tend to associate oil with hydration, and it’s true that if your skin has too little oil, it has a harder time maintaining its moisture barrier to hold in hydration. But that doesn’t mean that using oily skin care products will hydrate your skin better.

In fact, the opposite is often true. Because of the way they absorb into your skin, moisturizing products without oil often hydrate and plump your skin up better. In fact, many oil-free moisturizers use hyaluronic acid in place of oil, and hyaluronic acid is spectacular at plumping and hydrating your skin.

View & Shop: Avene Tolerance Control Soothing Skin Recovery

Cleaner Application

You’re probably using your skin care products at two points in the day: first, when you wake up and you’re getting ready for the day, and second, when you’re tired and getting ready for bed. In neither of those situations do you have extra time to deal with the hassle of messy products or getting oil stains on your clothes.

Oil-free products make your life a bit easier because there’s no oil to ruin your clothes (or at least make you change when you’re already late for work). We all know how annoying it is to wash oil off our hands, too, and that’s not an issue either if you use oil-free products.

Skipping Unwanted Shininess

Generally, a shiny face isn’t a look most of us are going for. Yes, you might use highlighter makeup to create a certain shimmer, but if you’re using this in your makeup routine, you know that the entire point of highlighters is to apply them in very specific areas to create contours and light bounces in attractive ways. It’s not the same as a shiny, oily face.

Skin care products with oil often leave your skin shiny long after you’ve applied them. That’s particularly problematic for products you’re using in the morning because no one wants that shininess following them around all day. Luckily, oil-free products are less likely to have this effect, so you can stop struggling to cover the shine with makeup each morning.

How to Include Oil-Free Skin Care Products in Your Routine

Want to start enjoying the advantages of oil-free skin care? It’s a simple matter of buying the right products and swapping them out in your routine, but make sure you follow these pointers.

Look Beyond the Label

Your goal might be to make the switch to oil-free products, but that isn’t the only term you should look for on the label. Remember that there are a lot of qualities that can make a product right (or not right) for your skin.

Take your time to see what type of skin the product is made for. Look for other preferences if you’d like, like alcohol-free, fragrance-free, and so on. Make sure this new product fits your skin in every way, not just in its lack of oils.

Change One Item at a Time

Switching up your skin care routine can be jarring on your skin, and you never know what product could irritate it until you try it. If you change all your products at the same time, not only are you more likely to see irritation or other rebellions from your skin, but you’ll have no idea if one particular product is the troublemaker.

Instead, take it one step at a time. Start by changing one product, like transitioning to an oil-free cleanser . Give that updated routine a month or two to settle before you move on to changing the next product in your lineup like your moisturizer or eye cream.

View & Shop: La Roche-Posay Toleriane Hydrating Gentle Facial Cleanser

Giving Up the Grease with Oil-Free Skincare

“I wish my skin were greasier,” said no one ever. Oil-free skin care products can help you skip that greasy feeling altogether and get more benefits from your products. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself and enjoy!