Oily, Shiny Skin Even in Cold, Dry Weather? Here's Your Quick Fix.

I’m a self-proclaimed oily person. If you see me on my morning commute, I am quite literally shining to the moon and back. But by the late morning, my skin looks naturally dewy, controlled, and fresh.

It’s always comical to me when people say that my skin looks great because in my head, it’s always overly shiny and dewy. But outwardly, people are seeing it as healthy radiant skin. And I think it’s because I incorporate a few additional products to help reign the shine in.

The Context: Weather, Environment, and Beyond

To give you a little background, I do live in San Francisco, where the weather is pretty temperate: December is expected to be mid-40s (low) to mid-50s (high). And I am basically surrounded by bodies of water, so it’s a pretty humid environment (but not really because it doesn’t get warm enough for it to get actually humid). So I would say it isn’t desert dry, but it is pretty standardly acceptable dry-ness. But then I get into my office, where there’s an AC going, even when it’s freezing out.

And I am not proud to admit it, but my hands look like the Sahara desert because of how dry they are in the office.

So generally speaking, my skin is not getting any additional help from the environment, whether it is adding or taking hydration. The outside environment kind of cancels out the AC environment inside.

What’s Causing the Glow?

I’m a big skincare guy and a light makeup guy. The morning skincare routine has 6 products; the makeup routine has essentially 1 larger one (tinted SPF). The final result is a very wet-looking and shiny routine. And that’s on top of the oil my skin will continue to produce all day, naturally.

So during my entire commute and the first couple hours, my face is pretty shiny. But then as all the products soak into my skin, I get into the lunch hour with a pretty natural and healthy glow.

If I had to make a list of what’s giving my skin the most additional shine, it would be (in my current routine):

Both of these sunscreens have a very dewy finish, so combining them, it is a lot doing on… And the Odacite mist has a lot of oils within it, which definitely does not help with the shine. But the products all perform well, so I love to use them in my routines.

Key Products to Cut the Shine

There have been many mattifying products that have lied to me. They either say they’ll reduce shine but they don’t or they do reduce the shine but leave a weird cast behind. Ugh.

Thankfully, I have found a handful of products I can reliably count on to help fix my face so I can be presentable in general society.

Peach & Lily Oil Control Mattifying Moisturizer

This $17 moisturizer is a great way to start your makeup routine. I use this as the last step of my skincare routine, right before my Youth to the People sunscreen. So for reference, I have the Odacite mist, a niacinamide serum, a facial oil, and an eye cream before I put this Peach & Lily mattifying moisturizer on. So before I apply it, I already have a pretty high shine (thanks to the mist and facial oil treatment). But when I put just a pea-size dab of this moisturizer on my face, I see the shine reduce by roughly half. So now I am at a good place of a healthy glow without being overly radiant.

There’s no silica in this product, which is something you’d normally expect in a mattifying product. But the nice thing about that means there won’t be any risk of the white cast left behind. But what it does have is Zinc PCA, which helps immediately and over time reduce the oil. Zinc is also the reason why I often use mineral-based sunscreens too, as it continues to mattify the skin as you wear it.

I also enjoy this product because there’s a lot of great extracts in it, as well as oils. This works to improve the skin barrier too, so you’re getting a functional product (to reduce the oil) that also respects your skin barrier.

Milk Makeup Pore Eclipse Mattifying + Blurring Transfer-Proof Setting Spray

This product has quite literally been my biggest love-hate relationship. Love the product, hate the packaging. I’ve gone through two full-size bottles and one travel-size mini, yet I have had the same spray issue each time. It clogs when you get halfway through the product, making it so that you can’t actually spray a mist onto your face. Instead, its giant droplets essentially mess up your makeup. And no, even washing the sprayer with soap and warm water does not help.

But on my most recently opened bottle (as of 2 weeks ago), I have been washing off the spray nozzle after every single use, in the hopes that it actually stays clear… So wish me luck and I will keep you posted on that trial.

The reason I love this product is the way it controls shine over time. When it first sprays on (in hopefully a uniform fine mist, if your nozzle is not clogged), it looks like any old setting spray. But once it starts to settle down, you start to see the product really work its magic.

It makes pores disappear, it reduces the oily shine of your base products, and it makes your overall look seem polished.

Clearly, I have full faith this is the product that makes all the difference in my makeup routine because it just looks so damn good. And because I don’t use any form of setting powder (both in part because I am lazy and because I don’t want another product to keep track of), I have to put all my trust in just the setting spray.

If I didn’t have this strong love-hate relationship with the Milk Makeup product, I would want to see how the One/Size On Til Dawn and Urban Decay All Nighter Waterproof Matte Setting Spray (if we’re staying in the Sephora world). And one of my other favorites (which is not marketed as a mattifying setting spray but is still matte, so I didn’t include it as its own section): Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray. It has a great sprayer, makes the skin look absolutely poreless, and has a very natural finish.

Other Methods

This combination of the mattifying moisturizer and matte setting spray works well for my oily skin. But if you want to explore other possible options, the things I would look into include:

Your Oily Skin, Improved

Whether you’re grappling with your own naturally oily skin or a skincare routine that’s a little too dewy, adding in a couple additional products will help control that shine and keep you looking fine all day.

  1. Peach & Lily Mattifying Moisturizer: This will keep your skincare routine’s shine at bay, so you can go into your makeup routine with the best fighting chances.

  2. Milk Makeup Pore Eclipse Setting Spray: I like to use Kosas Dream Beam SPF 40 as my makeup base because of its sheer coverage and additional sun protection, but it also adds a healthy dose of glow. Topping it off with the Pore Eclipse Spray helps pull back the shine so that it ends up at a natural dewiness instead of an oil slick.

But again, everyone’s skin is so unique and everyone has different preferences when it comes to makeup. If you want to look entirely matte and not have an ounce of shine, you’ll likely want to reassess the products in your skincare and makeup routines to make swaps for more matte options. And you’ll probably want to nix any products that add additional oils (like my facial oil treatment and my facial mist that is a biphasic solution with oil) or things with pigments that are shiny (like the Kosas Dream Beam or Saie Glowy Super Gel have in them).

Optimizing your makeup routine to account for any sources of shine is a tough process, but it could be highly fulfilling when you find the right option for you. And if you overindex on a matte routine and look too chalky during the day, you can bring a little refresh mist in your bag so help get your skin back to a natural glow.

Cheers to a more matte future!





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