I have oily areas, prone to large pores, and have found witch hazel works very well and is also inexpensive.
Any solutions for people with really oily faces?
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witch hazel does work for cleaning eyes but not the versions that have alcohol in them.
Baby shampoo is a very economical cleanser for your face and it won't burn your eye
While it might seem counter-intuitive put a tiny bit of vaseline on your eye lids before you go to bed. That will stop the gooey mess from sticking and keep your eyes from getting so irritated at night. Getting a little vaseline into your eye might blurr your vision for a few seconds but it won't sting, burn or harm your eyes. There are commercial eye "drop" formulas that are basically vaseline in a small tube but those cost a lot and a jar of vaseline does not cost much. Use a fresh swab or little wood coffee stir stick to remove the small amount of vaseline, don't put your fingers in the jar and don't reuse the sticks or swabs. You want to keep the contents in the jar uncontaminated. Buy the smallest jar they sell for this, do not buy the big economy sized jar. Fresh is better.
No vaseline? Olive oil will do but vaseline is better, less messy and it stays where you put it.
Another counter-intuitive solution.....Olive oil or other vegatable oils also make a great cleanser to remove the gunky mess. Then use facial wipes afterwards. Seems strange to solve an oily skin issue by adding more oil but fresh oil is a great solvent for oil that has gotten dirty and turned into goo. In industry where old gummed up oil needs to be removed from surfaces they often use products that are oil based as fresh oil dissolves hardened oil.
I know these things because I also have oily skin. But oily skin is a true blessing as well as a curse. My eyes are still a mess in the morning, but that is a small matter and easy to deal with. At the age of 60 I looked more than 20 years younger than my sister who is only 3 years older but has a dry skin type. I don't need to buy moisturizer but of course I do need to use sun screen. So while you are frustrated with oily skin just remember it is also a really nice thing and the older you get the more you will realize that.
Baby shampoo is a very economical cleanser for your face and it won't burn your eye
While it might seem counter-intuitive put a tiny bit of vaseline on your eye lids before you go to bed. That will stop the gooey mess from sticking and keep your eyes from getting so irritated at night. Getting a little vaseline into your eye might blurr your vision for a few seconds but it won't sting, burn or harm your eyes. There are commercial eye "drop" formulas that are basically vaseline in a small tube but those cost a lot and a jar of vaseline does not cost much. Use a fresh swab or little wood coffee stir stick to remove the small amount of vaseline, don't put your fingers in the jar and don't reuse the sticks or swabs. You want to keep the contents in the jar uncontaminated. Buy the smallest jar they sell for this, do not buy the big economy sized jar. Fresh is better.
No vaseline? Olive oil will do but vaseline is better, less messy and it stays where you put it.
Another counter-intuitive solution.....Olive oil or other vegatable oils also make a great cleanser to remove the gunky mess. Then use facial wipes afterwards. Seems strange to solve an oily skin issue by adding more oil but fresh oil is a great solvent for oil that has gotten dirty and turned into goo. In industry where old gummed up oil needs to be removed from surfaces they often use products that are oil based as fresh oil dissolves hardened oil.
I know these things because I also have oily skin. But oily skin is a true blessing as well as a curse. My eyes are still a mess in the morning, but that is a small matter and easy to deal with. At the age of 60 I looked more than 20 years younger than my sister who is only 3 years older but has a dry skin type. I don't need to buy moisturizer but of course I do need to use sun screen. So while you are frustrated with oily skin just remember it is also a really nice thing and the older you get the more you will realize that.
Well, I've been living on the road for almost two months now and I thought I would share an update on how all this oily face thing has worked out.
Turns out it isn't a problem AT ALL. In fact, it is less of a problem than it has ever been in my entire life.
I wipe my face down (starting with my eyes) with an un-scented, alchohol-free baby wipe (I use the Parent's Choice brand at Walmart), then I wipe my face with a slightly-dampened microfiber cloth.
That's it. I only have to do this twice a day. Once when I am changing clothes in the morning and once at night. This is actually less often than I used to have to rinse my face with water in the bathroom sink every day. My face doesn't get nearly as oily as it used to. Now, I lived in Tucson for over two years, and I still had the oily face problem when I lived there. So I am convinced that it is NOT the dry air that is making my face not get oily. I am convinced that my face was only getting so oily because I washed it every day. I did not use particularly harsh soap to wash my face. Nor was the soap especially made for oily skin. I just used Lever 2000 for everything.
Now, if I do not wipe with water, then whatever is in the baby-wipe will start to bother my eyes in about 8 hours or so. If I wipe with water, then my eyes never burn at all (remember my face-oils used to burn my eyes about 6 hours after normal washing), and I'm good all the way through to the next time I "wash" my face.
So the whole notion of not NEEDING to wash every day is not about learning to live with being dirty. It truly is about how human skin just doesn't need to be (and doesn't want to be) washed that damn often.
As to the microfiber cloth. If you have used one, you know that they don't want to absorb water if they are completely dry. So, I dampen my cloth by putting about 2 tablespoons of water in the bottom of my measuring cup, wadding up the cloth, stuffing it into my measuring cup, and letting it sit for a while. If I start the "cloth dampening process" just before I start washing up then it is ready to use by the time I finish my other washing up stuff. Usually in about five minutes. After I wipe my face, I just hang the cloth over my steering wheel to dry and use it again next time. The baby wipe has gotten all the dirt off my face and the cloth doesn't really accumulate any dirt at all. So, all total, I'm using about 4 tablespoons of water per day to wash my face. You can't beat that with a stick.
Turns out it isn't a problem AT ALL. In fact, it is less of a problem than it has ever been in my entire life.
I wipe my face down (starting with my eyes) with an un-scented, alchohol-free baby wipe (I use the Parent's Choice brand at Walmart), then I wipe my face with a slightly-dampened microfiber cloth.
That's it. I only have to do this twice a day. Once when I am changing clothes in the morning and once at night. This is actually less often than I used to have to rinse my face with water in the bathroom sink every day. My face doesn't get nearly as oily as it used to. Now, I lived in Tucson for over two years, and I still had the oily face problem when I lived there. So I am convinced that it is NOT the dry air that is making my face not get oily. I am convinced that my face was only getting so oily because I washed it every day. I did not use particularly harsh soap to wash my face. Nor was the soap especially made for oily skin. I just used Lever 2000 for everything.
Now, if I do not wipe with water, then whatever is in the baby-wipe will start to bother my eyes in about 8 hours or so. If I wipe with water, then my eyes never burn at all (remember my face-oils used to burn my eyes about 6 hours after normal washing), and I'm good all the way through to the next time I "wash" my face.
So the whole notion of not NEEDING to wash every day is not about learning to live with being dirty. It truly is about how human skin just doesn't need to be (and doesn't want to be) washed that damn often.
As to the microfiber cloth. If you have used one, you know that they don't want to absorb water if they are completely dry. So, I dampen my cloth by putting about 2 tablespoons of water in the bottom of my measuring cup, wadding up the cloth, stuffing it into my measuring cup, and letting it sit for a while. If I start the "cloth dampening process" just before I start washing up then it is ready to use by the time I finish my other washing up stuff. Usually in about five minutes. After I wipe my face, I just hang the cloth over my steering wheel to dry and use it again next time. The baby wipe has gotten all the dirt off my face and the cloth doesn't really accumulate any dirt at all. So, all total, I'm using about 4 tablespoons of water per day to wash my face. You can't beat that with a stick.
