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Myth No. 13 - Oils will cause breakouts

You have acne-prone skin, and it's only understandable that you'd want to avoid breakouts at all cost. So I get it, putting oils on your already oily skin to help with your breakout problem may not be the most intuitive concept.

Before I get into busting this myth though, allow me to introduce to you the concept of comedogenicity - "co-med-do-gen-ni-ci-ty" (wow, 7 syllables!). Simply put, comedogenicity is the likelihood something can clog your pores. There's actually a universal comedogenicity scale, from 0 to 5. A rating of zero means an ingredient is completely non-comedogenic, and it will not clog your pores. Conversely, a rating of five means an ingredient is severely comedogenic, and most likely will clog your pores. Here are a couple of oils with low comedogenic ratings:

  Comedogenic Rating
Safflower Seed Oil 0
Hemp Seed Oil 0
Grape Seed Oil 1
Shea Butter 0-2
Squalane 0-1

 

Before you go around witch-hunting for comedogenic ingredients in your skincare products, let me assure you that in sufficient dilution, even the most comedogenic ingredient may not clog pores. At November Blossom, our products are formulated to suit even the most delicate newborn skin, and the ingredients are carefully chosen and balanced so the final formulation minimizes the risk of clogging your pores.

Now with this concept of comedogenicity in mind, let's go back to the concern around applying oils on acne-prone skin. We know that acne is caused by pores being clogged by oil, dead skin, or bacteria. And what you now know (if you didn't before), is that not all oils clog pores. This still begs the open question, if clearly your skin is producing too much oil, why would you want to apply more oil onto it?

As counter-intuitive as this sounds, it's because your skin is too dry. Follow me through this train of thought: My skin is oily -> I'm going to cleanse it more frequently, and afterwards, I'm not using a moisturizer to avoid more oils on my skin -> the natural oil (sebum) is stripped from my skin's surface from the cleansing, but it's not being replenished -> my skin produces excess sebum to compensate for the lack of oil -> I've trained my skin to produce excess oil on a regular basis, resulting in "oily skin".

Hopefully by now, we've firmly busted the myth that oils will cause breakouts. Yes some will, but not all. And if you have oily skin, try some of the the lighter, non-comedogenic oils to start re-training your skin's natural sebum balance.

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