Heck, why don’t I just fry eggs with it to get rid of my oily skin? Heck, why not bottle it up and “oil” paint my face in lieu of Dali’s famous melted clocks as “The Persistence of Oiliness”! I didn’t even bother to finish the video. I clicked the X at the top right corner of the window and went to bed, mad that I even wasted five minutes of my time looking for “cures” on Youtube. I dabbed my face and fell asleep.
The next morning, as I washed my greasy face in front of the mirror, I became fed up. Here I was, stubbornly accepting my fate because I wasn’t willing to try something new.
For all I knew, although this girl’s suggestion had to be the most ludicrous of all things I had ever heard, how could I know that she was wrong unless I tried it?
Doing nothing about it except for managing the problem clearly wasn’t doing anything for me. So I got back on my laptop and searched again, this time I found a video which explained the reason why using light, natural oils* on oily skin helped to curb or completely eliminate the problem.
Apparently, oily skin was the result of over-active sebaceous glands under the skin which produced an excess of sebum, our body’s own natural oil, resulting in the problem.
The use of natural oils*, as opposed to moisturizing lotions, creates a layer of oil on the skin which tricks these glands into thinking they have already produced this sebum, causing them to produce less and less, until eventually they are no longer over-producing the substance. My heart leaped!
Was it possible? Was it truly possible that there was a cure? I rushed out to Whole Foods that morning and bought a $15 bottle of Jojoba oil*—which I prayed to the skin gods would be worth every penny. Jojoba* was suggested because it was a light oil that would not promote more greasiness. Ladies and gentleman, that very day I threw out my dab sheets because after using the oil on my face, my skin remained normal all day. I never would have thought I’d ever say it, but oil cured my oiliness, and my skin has never been the same.
This experience opened my eyes to the power of natural beauty products. Combined with a little bit of self-awareness and knowledge about how our bodies function, the range of uses and abilities of natural products is truly endless.
Over the years and through my own experiences I have learned to trust nature over man-made products, because when compared, natural products have outshone where man-made products fell short or even caused more problems, time and time again. Do you have a problem with oily skin? What have you done in order to manage it?