Acneic skin can be so much of a bother. You try every home remedy from lemon juice to rubbing tomatoes on your face yet nothing seems to be doing the magic. You invest in expensive creams that promise to clear your face within weeks and still see no changes. The worst is when some product promises results only to cause more breakouts. Really devastating, isn’t it?
ALSO READ: Incredible benefits of sunflower oil for your skin
Coconut oil for skin
Here's the thing, one thing you should never do is to rush to every trending treatment that promises to clear your acne. Again, know that not everything will work for your skin type even though it worked on someone with normal or dry skin. For instance, some people swear by the ability of coconut oil to give them clear skin.
While coconut oil may do wonders on dry skin, it might trigger acne on someone with oily skin. This is because although most people will recommend using coconut oil for treating acne, it is highly comedogenic. This means it’s absorbed into the skin and easily clogs the pores. When placed on the comedogenic scale, coconut oil has a rating of 4 out of five.
Linoleic acid is paramount for acne treatment
However, all is not lost and if you are looking to giving your daily face cream a break and replacing with oil, there are still options for people with oily and acne-prone skin. These are not just oils that are just non-comedogenic but also ones with high amounts of linoleic acid. Linoleic acid is an essential acid which means that our bodies cannot make it. All the same, it’s important for the skin to have this acid yet people with acne have been found to have insufficient amounts of linoleic acid on the surface of their skin – hence the reason you should apply oils with this essential fatty acid.
Please have a look at the below simple guide to help you choose the best oils for your acne-prone skin.
Oils high in linoleic acid for acne
Pumpkin seed oil
Sunflower oil
Safflower oil
Argan oil
Hemp seed oil
Sesame oil
Poppyseed oil
Grape seed oil
Non-comedogenic oils for acne - The comedogenic scale
If your skin is fussy and it breaks out easily, go for oils with a comedogenic score of two and below. Here are some of them with their comedogenic rating out of five:
Argan oil -0
Safflower oil – 0
Shea butter oil – 0-2
Sunflower oil – 0-2
Hemp seed oil - 0
Amla oil – 1
Kiwi seed oil - 1
Castor oil – 1
Grapeseed oil – 1
Hazelnut oil – 1
Jojoba oil – 2