Ever wonder why your face appears shiny by midday? Your sebaceous glands produce an oily, waxy substance that moisturizes and defends your skin known as sebum. It’s the essential component in your natural oils and is an intricate combination of fatty acids, waxes, and sugars.
Those who naturally produce more significant amounts of sebum have more oily skin, and those who make less have drier skin. There are also those people who score in the middle with combination skin, producing more sebum in specific regions of their faces. Sebum often gets an undeserved bad reputation, so delve into what to know about your skin’s natural oils.
Sebaceous Glands
You must first understand sebum’s production and where it comes from before diving into its purpose.
Where Are Sebaceous Glands Located?
Your scalp and face hold the peak gland concentration. Your face contains approximately 900 sebaceous glands per square centimeter of skin! Sebaceous glands actually cover the considerable majority of your body, but are often clustered around hair follicles.
Your arms and legs naturally have a smaller number of glands. Your palms and the bottoms of your feet are the two areas lacking glands.
How Do They Work?
Each gland emits sebum. To provide a clear explanation, consider your tear ducts and how they secrete natural moisture to your eyes. While sebaceous glands are far tinier than tear ducts, they function similarly.
Sebum’s Purpose
Sebum not only provides moisture and protection for the skin’s barrier, but it also helps trap moisture within the skin. It helps maintain skin’s smooth and soft texture and even improves the appearance of wrinkles and lines.
Sebum also has antibacterial properties that help reduce the production of acne-causing bacteria. Additionally, it works as a defense against damaging agents such as UV rays, blue light, and allergens.
What Affects Sebum Production?
Several factors impact sebum production. Here are a few:
Hormones
Androgens and hormones help regulate or throw off your whole sebum production. Puberty often causes a spike in oiliness, but this effect should decrease over time.
Your adrenal glands and gonads produce extremely active androgens such as testosterone. Your pituitary gland controls your whole endocrine system, as well as your adrenal glands.
Extremely active androgens equate to higher levels of sebum production. Although the female hormone known as progesterone isn’t an androgen, it seems to also affect sebum levels. When progesterone levels increase, sebum levels also spike.
Climate
Outside temperatures also influence sebum production. For example, your skin reacts to heat by increasing oiliness. In theory, your body produces higher sebum levels during the summer months.
Handling Oily Skin
The key to managing oily skin is stabilizing it—not fighting it with harsh, moisture-stripping formulas. Consider a new routine for making the most of your skin’s natural oils.
Use a Cleanser
Our benzoyl peroxide wash is perfect for exfoliating and clearing dirt and dead skin away from your oily and acne-ridden skin. The mild formula helps fight bacteria to reduce surface breakouts and help with redness and irritation. Incorporate it into your daily acne-fighting routine for beautiful, glowing skin!
Stop Oil Before It Starts
Try a toner if you don’t love the greasy look accompanying oily skin. However, use caution, as several toners remove oil using harsh alcohols. Our oily skin toner does the trick! It clears out pores and removes excess shine, but it won’t dry out your skin.
Moisturize
Providing your skin with adequate moisture is crucial even if you have oily skin. Aloe vera relieves and reduces inflammation from the sun, and moisturizing elements work to repair skin’s natural balance without clogging pores or causing oily buildups. Feel the power of hyaluronic acid with our moisture gel. It’s great for all skin types!
Our specially-formulated moisture cream is also fantastic for any skin type. It delicately hydrates to restore moisture in your skin. It’s an excellent daily moisturizer to complete your skincare routine to avoid the oil accumulation that causes breakouts.
Be Gentle With Pimples and Blemishes
Pimples, blemishes, and sebum are natural and normal occurrences—so don’t stress! Choose a gentler treatment instead of aggressively trying to dry them out. Visit Jil Goorman Beauty’s website to purchase the complete acne kit for oily skin or for a further consultation.
Diet and Sebum Production
Specific foods link to a surplus in both acne and oil production. Dodging foods that affect your blood sugar or contain loads of saturated fat may help to reduce your oiliness internally.
Foods To Avoid
Do your best to avoid foods with a high glycemic index (GI), refined carbs, and fried foods. Some examples are:
- Bread or pasta made with white flour
- Cereal
- Chips or pretzels
- Pastries
- Onion rings
- French fries
Foods To Consume
While it seems like you must avoid everything yummy, there are plenty of delicious foods that help regulate sebum production and balance out the oiliness in your skin. Eat these instead:
- Cucumbers are full of antioxidants and water for hydration!
- Nuts and seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids that work to reduce sebum production.
- Citrus fruits such as oranges and lemons contain plenty of vitamin C and have detoxifying properties to clear the extra oil from your skin.
- Green vegetables such as spinach and broccoli contain little to no fat and oil. Instead, they are extremely rich in fiber.
- Whole grains are also high in fiber and aid in proper digestion
- Dark Chocolate contains antioxidants to prevent and control acne and oil production—
and it also tastes delicious!
Sebum is critical for healthy and strong skin. It soothes and creates a barrier for the exterior of your skin. Everyone has a different body, so ultimately, there’s no set amount you need. However, it’s still possible to produce too much or too little.
As you see here, there are many things to do to help repair your skin’s balance on your own. Learning what to know about your skin’s natural oils is essential for anyone’s skin health, regardless of their skin type. While maintaining a nourishing diet and staying healthy only benefits you, sometimes an excellent skincare routine makes all the difference in the world.
