I've been trying a lot of things since I was 11. From the moment I hit puberty, my oil glands just went into overdrive. Some people describe their skin as very oily, but until you understand what it's like to wash your face and then an hour later see oil ooze out of every pore in your face and never be able to go a day without washing your hair, I'm sure you have a completely different interpretation of what very oily skin is. I've tried a lot of oil control products which helped to keep my oil at bay. The best temporary fixes I've used for my oily skin are DermaDoctor's Tease Zone ($35) and Zinc PCA from Skin Actives ($5 a vial). I gently tap a bit of the Zinc PCA all over my skin, wait for it to dry, and then put a thin layer of the Tease Zone gel over it. I wait for THAT to dry, and correct any chalky streaks before putting on mineral makeup.

Recently, I got fed up with my oily skin and decided it was time to experiment. I wanted to find a more lasting solution to my oily skin using natural alternatives/methods. After reading through many forums, I purchased Pantethine from Puritan's Pride. I figured there wasn't much to lose, because at the time Puritan's Pride was having a buy 1 get 2 free deal. I'd tried B5 when I was younger, but that didn't really work for me, possibly because I hadn't taken it long enough (over a month, from what I remember). There were also side effects that weren't so pleasant, such as diarrhea, tiredness, and hair thinning. Pantethine is supposed to be a more potent form of B5, but does not have the same side effects, and technically should work for you if your skin really is oily from this vitamin B deficiency.

I started off with 300mg of Pantethine 3x daily along with a multivitamin, during which time I broke out horribly. My face looked worse than it had in a long time. After a week, I decided to increase the dosage to 2 300mg softgels 3x daily along with a multivitamin. My skin had stopped breaking out, but was still as oily as it had been.

I decided to incorporate more fruits into my diet by making smoothies to drink daily. It was easier for me to drink the fruit than eat them because I'm always on the go. The smoothies consisted of a cup of water (fruits alone would be to thick to drink and also clog up the blender) and a tomato, apples, bananas, peaches, strawberries, etc. I switched it up, but always included apples because I have a lot of them, and a tomato, because they help to protect skin from sun damage. I would make a blender-full, which filled three glasses and saved time by leaving a couple made in advance for the next two days. (Sometimes they ended up being so good, I drank both!)

My skin slowly started to change, and I tried a different method when washing my face. I'd rub the soap onto my face gently in circles with hot water to dissolve the soap and oil, and then repeat very gently to make sure that all residue was washed off. After that, I would "shock" my skin with a blast of cold water. When my skin was done air drying, I lightly patted JoJoba oil onto my skin with my fingertips, just enough to cover my face in a thin layer. I did this before I went to bed at night, and right after I showered/before I put on makeup.

I think the JoJoba oil may have been what made the most difference in my face. After I used it the first night, my acne scars and blemishes dried up, and I was able to peel them right off. I know, it's amazing that oil would be able to dry up your blemishes since it's oily, but it worked for me! I'm not sure at which point exactly the oil in my face decreased, but all I know is that my skin has made a huge improvement, and possibly due to a combination of things! I still use the Tease Zone gel and Zinc PCA as a backup since my skin is still oily, (although thankfully less than before) and my shine is controlled for A LOT longer. I'm continuing to experiment - I'm so excited and hoping the day will come soon when I no longer have to paranoid about oiliness!

Oily skin is my main problem that branches off causing other problems. I know it's Hormone related because I'm a guy who's 16 in puberty and i have lots of mood swings so it obviously hormonal. I don't want any internal thing b.c. I'm afraid of it limiting my overall growth, but i don't mind being persuaded if there's no risk to limiting growth. Topical application seems like a good idea but i don't exactly know much about the field of Hormones and Anti Androgens. Anyone know a good topical Anti Androgen that i can get w/o prescription?

I went of the BC bill a year 1/2 ago, and had the worst breakouts of my life during that year and finally by face has been coming back to normal (but not 100%). I get the most oily skin now!! I've tried numerous amounts of over the counter, Neutrogena products, just soap, not washing at all... and while they get rid of the oil temporarily, but it is right back on there in a couple hours. It's so irritating. I dab it off, but that's not really a long-term solution, eh? Anyone have any miracle workers they can dish out? Thanks guys.

So after a long struggle with my acne I finally have it under control for the most part, but now I need to get rid of my excess oil. I'm just about to run to the store to get some milk of magnesia because I've heard so many great things about it, but I have a couple questions for anyone who's willing to help.

-Do I put moisturizer on before or after the m.o.m?
-Did it make your pores enlarged at all?

Any other tips on oily skin are much appreciated

Thanks in advance!!

Anyone familiar with hyperhidrosis ? (excessive sweating)

With my reeeally oily skin i feel like i share the same symptoms yanno the whole i'm sweating cuz i'm nervous and i'm nervous cuz i'm sweating.

Anyhoo the treatments consist of amongst others Aliminium chloride which is really effective and botox injections again really effective .

Do you think the hyperhidrosis treatments would be just as effective at treating excessive oily areas ? ......... anyone ?

Haha yeah i know i'm desperate does it show

Hello.

curious of other peoples thoughts, ideas, advice:

I am an adult male. I don't have insurance. My acne comes from my (recently acquired) very oily skin which I believe to be due to hormonal imbalances. Are you in the same boat?

When I did have insurance, the doctor wouldn't do accutane untill I had done everything else first, and by that time I lost my job

Even if I could see a doctor, they're not going to prescribe a male birth control or spiro

I know theres a debate over whether overwashing causes an increase in oil. All people do is fight over it, never actually coming up with a plan to help

I sometimes feel like overwashing does cause an increase in oil, but its very difficult to tell. I've gone "almost caveman" for close to a few days and that didnt seem to make any difference (i.e. less oil)

I've changed my diet so that it is pretty good. no dairy, cut out extra sugars, most bad oils etc....drink only water eating lot more of vegetables

tried all the supplements

feel uncomfortable about B5....feel as if it will have long term effects, end up making oil worse, messing up body even more...

And stress? yes stress is very high...one's face is not something that is easy to ignore, especially when oily....you feel it on you.

Every morning I wake up with an incredible amount of oil on my face. THis leads to clogged pores, lots of dried sebum, comedones, etc....

Every damn morning. If only I could get the oil under control, this wouldn't happen and I'd be acne free.

well anyway that went on rather long. Thanks for any help.

People who claim oily skin wrinkles less than normal or dry skin don't have a clue what they are talking about. Wrinkles have to do with collagen and elastin, not sebum which is absolutely useless.

That is all.

As said does it and if so how do i stop my face from being oily?

I feel good when i leave the house .......well to a certain extent and then within a few hours i can feel my skin getting oily , that's kinda when my self esteem starts to plummet n i cant wait to get home to freakin wash my face or sumfin .

Aww man talk about social suicide.

Anyone else feel this way ?

Read this once in a research article. Let's all try eating only one or two small meals a day and restricting water. Our oily skin will subside.

People went to the moon , PEOPLE invented the computer , PEOPLE invented the telephone where u can talk to somebody that is 100 million miles away ...Such great inventions and u still cant find a fuken simple cure FOR A NATURAL PROCESS?????

So why is it that there are 100 million products to fight acne , why is it that the dermatologist tells u to come in every week , why is it that he tells u to not eat this to not eat that, use this product, dont do this , do that,,,, ????? WHY!!!! why does he want u to come in every week ,

WHY? because this is a business , He needs u there all the time , If he told u the truth , he will go out of business , and all those years of study , all those years of college would go to waste.. Dermatologist wont tell u the truth , because that is pathetic, why would i tell u the truth when i need ur money , why???? the money is not in the cure , its in the medicine , I have to sell u things , I always have to sell u things, (believe me im a business man , i know) , I NEED U TO COME IN EVERYTIME, FOR WEEKS, WEEKS, MMONTHS,


Life is simple the face is simple , acne is simple ,,




So let me tell u how i got rid of the acne ...

Acne is formed by oil . Lol if u just remove the oil all the time gently , the acne will disappear
THATS IT, ITS THAT SIMPLE , its so simple thats why u dont think about it , ur made to believe its such a hard process ,


WHAT FUKEN BALLSHIT...


LISTEN THIS IS WHAT U HAVE TO DO, """"" GET SOME COTTON"""" wipe ur face very gently , dont go over the pimples, but go around the pimples, 5 times a day ...



Another main reason why ur face looks all chewed up, is because of stress, Ur always thinking about ur acne, acne this , acne that clear face this , clear face that, RELAX, JUST RELAX,
Dont make this a big deal, its so simple , its too simple , there is nothing simpler than acne ...
To have a relaxed face,(IM NOT TALKING ABOUT ACNE) Drink more water, appreciate ur body , eat vegetables, take PRIMPROSE evening oil , and FISH OIL , eat beans, lentils ,peas, carrots, NUTS , MILK, YOGURT, ........ (this is for a relaxed face)


For acne , wipe the face with cotton , thats it ,






WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE FACE IS NOT OILY ALL DAY,????? WHATS THE RESULT, PLEASE TELL ME WHATS THE RESULT, THINK OF HOW ACNE IS FORMED, WHY ITS THERE,
THINK , PLEASE




just do it ,





you will all not follow this , I bet non of u will , some will try it for 1 week and give up...
, GO ahead continue wasting ur money , this is ur life.

White male, 17 years old.

Background - Had bad persistent acne for 5ish years (unhealthy eating and bad treatments)

Current - Cleared of acne, just a few spots and red marks as expected (Left my damned skin alone to let it heal - yup it works. Also eating like a monk helps a lot)
--

There's something that I have noticed, and I've even tested it out before, but shook it off. First off - Masturbation does not CAUSE acne, so lets just get that out of the way. It's an absurd notion. But does masturbation aggravate acne/skin? Now we're pointing in the right direction.

I know that this thing has been discussed many times, and I know that it's probably boring some people, but lets keep an open mind about this.

Right, so there are people that are certain that masturbation has something to do with their acne. Why else would they query about it if they didn't have valid suspicions? Everyone knows their own body. [Note - yes, this may be a silly subject to some people, but since we're all anonymous, lets get some damned answers and have nice clear skin. Sound good?]

As a young, single, lad that gets bored sometimes - I like to masturbate. We can all agree that there's nothing wrong with it. It's my own body - I can do as I wish with it. During a busy college week, I don't masturbate too much when I get home since I'm too tired. I do notice when I don't masturbate that my skin feels very normal and smooth with zero oil. I don't think much of it, but this weekend I masturbated in the morning and noticed that my skin was feeling horrible, hot, oily and very blotchy for the rest of the day. Thinking that it was a one-off, I repeated it the next day and the same thing happened. I swear that masturbating is the cause of my skin feeling oily, blotchy, and generally just horrible.

For more validity - everything I do has been constant. What I eat, how much I eat. What I drink(water), how much water I drink. Care of my face. I've been to a food intolerance clinic and I know what I'm intolerant to (lactose intolerant) so I'm eating fine. I'm the healthiest person I know. Trust me - I'm doing everything right, so I can pinpoint what is affecting my face and when.

I'm not a scientist, but I do know that oily faces has something to do with acne. Though what triggers it? Hormones of course. Again, I'm not a scientist, but when you ejaculate and whatnot - it's BOUND to make your hormones tick a bit. Surely.

Yes, this has been done before, but I'm going for an entire week without masturbating. Maybe beyond. My willpower in these situations can sometimes crack, but since I've made a post about it, then it's going to give me more reason to stay strong. (lol).

Please share experiences and whatnot. Feel free to join in as the experiment may be more valid.

I'll be updating in the evening of each day.

Status right now - Since I masturbated this morning, my skin is feeling awful, overheated, and oily!

I predict that my skin will be nice and smooth for each day.

Begins 16/02/09
-------------

Day 1: Beginning of day face felt fine. Evening - Face slightly oily and a bit bothered, but nowhere as bad as the previous day. No new spots. Slight blotchiness. Mood - Alright.

So I am using something called duac , which is BP + clindamycin together

Lately it seems to be making my skin really dry but oil still comes through - i know that sounds wierd ... but its like my skin is trying to re-hydrate by beoming oily , but my skin is stil dry :/
nightmare !


help ?

It's OTC on ebay and is a seroius skin care product. I'll let you know my regimine and hoq my skin has changed. I'd love to help someone else!!!

Hi, I have extremely oily skin and today I really noticed It. I would work from 08:00 - 17:00 and with no time to do anything to my face It shows up really oily around the noise and centre cheeks almost like I'm covered In [well oil]

What I am wondering Is now I wash It once on the morning and then at night, what If i washed after 5pm as well or would that be over doing It? Also some advice If you've has past experience would be great!

If sebum/facial oil is the main cause of acne, then why not just regularly rinse it off?

Upon waking, every 2 - 3 hours you would rinse your face off with just warm water as the oil really started to gather on your face and dry with a clean towel. No soap, just tepid water.

I've been doing this for a while and it seems to work quite well.

The only flaw to this method is when going to sleep.

When we're sleeping for 6 plus hours it's not like we can rinse the sebum off unless we wake up every 2 -3 hours but that's just taking it a bit too far.

Anyway, discuss.

So after reading a bit about how Accutane is just like a high dose if Vitamin A, I'm wondering if a medium - high dose of Vitamin A such as 100,000-150,00 UI would effect oily skin? I'm clear of acne so I'm not bothered about it helping pimples; I'm just on the search for oil free skin..

I've also read that combining Vit A with B5 causes drying of the skin?

Any experiences ideas would be cool!

My derm has me on a great combo which has completely cleared my persistant adult acne, yet I was still left with the oil slick on my face. My skin has always been oily no matter whether or not it was clear or blemished. Anyway I decided I was sick of blotting papers, there had to be something. I have used Serious Skin Care products from HSN and was always happy. One night while on ebay I came across one of their products called A-copper serum for controlling oil. I figured " hey might as while try this " ! So, once it arrived I started using it. I was totally amazed at the difference. So was my derm! She could not believe the lack of oil. She even made sure she got the name of the product and how to get it, so she could pass it on to others.

I use it two different ways. First in the am, as my last step before my makeup. It is not greasy at all. The word serum always scared me. I thought more oil on this face? No way. After about 30 seconds it's dry and I start with the makeup. The other way I use it is, if during the day I feel that my face could use to be refreshed, instead of reaching for blotting papers and more finishing powder, I just pump a little in clean palms, and then pat it on my face.

I hope this can be of some help to someone else with the feeling that over active oil production is a battle you have to fight hourly. No more of that for me with this product~!

Many of you have read my posts in which I argued in favor of the idea that not only is human sebum not really important as an alleged "moisturizing" agent, it may not be important for anything at all. Prominent among the material I've cited on these forums have been the views of Dr. Albert M. Kligman MD PhD, probably the most renowned dermatologist of all time. To help support his own views of the insignificance of sebum as a moisturizing agent, he has focused on the fact that young, prepubertal children produce virtually no sebum at all, yet somehow manage to get along just fine without it. To drive home this simple but important point, I thought I'd post the following material (including a nice graph showing the actual sebum levels of all the participants, including the group of children) from an independent study in which Dr. Albert Kligman didn't even participate. They say that "one picture is worth a thousand words", so maybe that one graph will impress people with how very little sebum young children actually produce!

This material is from the study: "The Androgen Control of Sebum Production. Studies of Subjects with Dihydrotestosterone Deficiency and Complete Androgen Insensitivity", Julianne Imperato-McGinley, Teofilo Gautier, Li-Qun Cai, Benetta Yee, Jane Epstein, Peter Pochi. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 76: 524-528, 1993. Following the chart is some of the text from the study, describing the experimental setup, subjects, and the results.

[attachment=23049:sebum6.jpg]

Subjects and Methods

Subjects

"Sebum production was evaluated in 12 subjects with inerited male pseudohermaphroditism due to 5a-reductase deficiency (MPH); 9 subjects were part of a large Dominican kindred, and 3 were from New Guinea. The mean age was 27 yr (age range, 19-40). Eight androgen insensitve (AI) subjects were evaluated with a mean age of 45 (age range, 15-78). Six AI subjects had their gonads intact when studied, and 2 subjects were on cyclic estrogen and progesterone replacement therapy after gonadectomy at the time of evaluation. Twenty-two normal adult Dominican males with a mean age of 28 yr (age range, 17-39), and 21 normal adult Dominican females with a mean age of 29.0 yr (age range, 18-37), normal menses, and no history of hirsutism or acne, were evaluated. Preadrenarchal boys and girls were also evaluated. This study group was comprised of 10 normal healthy Dominican boys ranging in age from 2-5 yr (average age was 3.7 yr), and 12 healthy Dominican girls ranging in age from 2-6 yr (average age was 4.3 yr). None of the children had clinical signs of secondary sexual development.

Procedures

"Measurement of sebum production was performed with Sebutape (Hermal Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Oak Hills, NY), a hydrophobic, polymeric film that measures sebum activity through the use of air-filled micropores. When sebum from the skin surface comes in contact with the tape, numerous tiny air cavities previously filled with air become filled with sebum. Consequently, sebum-filled pockets become transparent cavities forming a pattern of sebum droplet deposition.

"The test was performed in the following manner. The forehead of each subject was thoroughly cleaned with alcohol swabs. A Sebutape patch was placed on the forehead for 1 hr. The patch was removed and the amount of sebum measured on a scale of 0-5 using reference patterns provided in the kit. A zero (0) pattern was equol to no sebum production, whereas a five (5) pattern signified highest sebum output. The patches were read by the investigator (LC) who was blinded to the identity of the subjects.

Results

Sebum studies

"Ten normal boys and 12 normal girls between the ages of 2-6 years had no detectable sebum production by this methodology (Fig. 1), and had a sebum score of 0. Similarly, the sebum score of all adult subjects (with or without intact gonads) with complete androgen insensitivity was zero (Table 1) (Fig. 1)...

"The mean score for 21 control adult males was 4.4 +/- 0.6 which was significantly higher than the mean sebum score of 3.3 +/- 1.2, for 21 control adult females (P < 0.05) (Fig. 1).

"The mean sebum score of adult pseudohermaphrodites with 5a-reductase deficiency (4.5 +/- 0.6) was not significantly different from the mean score of normal adult males (4.35 +/- 0.6) (P < 0.05) (Fig. 1)."

Hello!

My acne problem has diminished a lot which I'm greatly thankful for. I don't know if this is due to my diet changes (cut out dairy, fast carbs and increased antioxidants) or just me growing out of acne (one thing I can say for sure is that the BP didn't do shit, cause when I quit my skin just got better). However, I still have to deal with excess oil. It's not extreme - but it's enough to make me feel like I have to shower every day to feel fresh. I limit this to once a day, though. Now I've started thinking about applying a moisturizer to keep the skin from drying out and thus over-activating sebaceous glands.

What I'm asking for is recommendations as to what moisturizer suits my skin type the best. The aforementioned oil is almost exclusively in the "T-zone" so I guess I have combination skin. I live in Sweden, so anything that could be obtained world-wide would be great.

Thanks in advance!

Oh, and I'm sorry if this is the wrong sub-forum since oily skin isn't an acne issue per se.

hi everyone i've been looking for days for a product that contains sulfacetamide 10% and sulfur 5% to control my oily skin! does anyone know where i could buy it? or even if it exists in the UK? many thanks

Not looking to make this a gender war, but I'm a 27 year old male and I was just wondering what other guys use to fight against an oily face.

I usually have a very oily/shiny looking face when I wake up in the mornings, and i try blotting it but but it seems like a half hour later it feels and looks oily/shiny again. It's getting kind of depressing seeing how I'm like 1 in a million with a oily/shiny face while everyone else has natural good looking, non-oily faces.

Give me some tips please, outside of the changing the diet (cause I know I should be eating more fruits and veggies, but I don't believe drinking a soda or two and having some pretzels is the reason my face looks flushed and oily during the day).

I just first heard of milk of magnesia today and I searched these forums and googled it and from what I read about 95% of the users have positive results using this for oil control. Wondering if you guys have any experience with it for oil?

My skin only gets oily and I dont have much acne anymore.
I'll be trying this soon looks promising.

okay so first of all i'm a guy and i have a really bad case of oily skin, like really oily and i was planning to take spironolactone but so worried about developing gynecomastia or man boobs since i already have a slightly enlarge boobs, spironolactone is a big no no for me.

After but researching a bit about the effects of spironolactone, i came across the drug called Tamoxifen which antagonized the estrogen receptor in breast tissue that will prevent man boobs and also breast cancer.

The the mechanism is that Spironolactone may act by displacing androgen from the androgen receptor and sexual-hormone-binding globulin, and by causing increased metabolic clearance of testosterone and higher estradiol production. So meaning when the testosterone is suppressed, the estrogen production will increase causing some Effeminate effect such as growing boobs.

While the mechanism of Tamoxifen is to prevents estrogen from binding to its receptor so it cant be activated and may prevent the formation of man boobs or induced gynecomastia.

So i need to ask you guys (male) if you had already tried this? feel free to comment below

I have lived with oily skin on my face for years. Pretty much the result of using just about every acne medication know to man since I was 15. I'm now 37.

I read this thread and decided to give MoM a shot since nothing else seems to be working. Today was my first application. I decided not to wash my face and put it on my already oily skin. The outcome was pretty good and it seem to absorb the oil I had. I will continue to try it and report back on the outcome.

Hi board, i'm a 24 year old male and i suffer from an extremely oily nose. I use proactiv blotting sheets every 2 hours or so, i hate it. Luckily i found this board and i see i'm not the only one suffering from this. Currently i'm using Purpose cleansing wash, followed by proactiv toner, repairing lotion and Diore Hydraction cream( wonderful product). I only put the toner and repairing lotion on my nose at night, not during the day. Any ideas you guys may have are welcome, thank you.

Allright I'm a male so it's normal to have oily skin (testosterone..) but it gets a lot worse when the weather is hot

Is it the same for you?

Just wondering if anyone has used Clean & Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets or any off brand. I have found that they do help with oily skin if used at the proper time of day. Anyone one else have good results? Wondering if I should keep using them.