How To Reduce Sebum Production

Even if you don’t know what sebum is, you’ve definitely seen and felt its impact on your face. This oily substance helps to hydrate and protect your skin—but it’s also the main culprit behind acne breakouts, clogged pores, skin purging, and blemishes.

While sebum is a necessary part of healthy, happy skin, excess sebum can have some serious side effects. Here, we’re breaking down how to reduce sebum production and reveal a clear, balanced skin barrier.

What Is Sebum?

To get to the bottom of sebum’s function and production, you have to understand the layers of your skin and their functions. Your skin is made up of three distinct layers [1]:

• The epidermis – This is the outermost layer, which protects the body from dangers like pathogens or UV radiation.
• The dermis – This is the middle layer. It contains bodily structures like blood vessels, nerve endings, and sweat glands.
• The hypodermis – This is the lowest layer of the skin, which is made up of blood vessels as well as fat that provides insulation and warmth to the rest of the body.

In addition to sweat glands, your dermis is also home to sebaceous glands, which are attached to either hair follicles or sweat glands at the surface of the skin [2]. These glands are where sebum is both produced and released. 

Although they’re found all over the body, they’re most concentrated in the face and the scalp—that’s why your face might get oily and break out, or your scalp may get greasy, while breakouts on other parts of the body are less common.

The sebum produced by these glands is a fatty, oily substance, made up of [3]:

• Triglycerides
• Cholesterol
• Fatty acids
• Squalene
• Glycerides
• Wax

All of these molecules are lipids, or fat molecules. This fatty makeup is what gives sebum its oily, lubricating texture.

Sebum is vital to keeping your skin moisturized, lubricated, and protected. It also gives your skin a natural protective barrier against pathogens and dehydration. As frustrating as the overproduction of sebum can be, too little sebum means dry, flaky, and thirsty-looking skin.

What Causes Overproduction Of Sebum?

If you’re dealing with frequent breakouts or oily skin, too much sebum is likely to blame. While sebum is necessary to keep our skin hydrated and healthy, too much sebum can make the skin appear shiny and greasy. It can also clog your pores, trapping it, along with dead skin cells and bacteria, under the skin. While there are some factors that can impact sebum production, excess sebum production can affect people of all ages and can be affected by skincare and lifestyle choices, so it is important to invest in quality skincare and healthy lifestyle choices. 

Excess sebum can be caused by any number of factors, including [4]:

• Genetics – Everyone’s skin is unique. Some people have very dry skin, while others tend toward greasier, more oily skin types. If your skin is naturally on the oily side, that may mean you produce more sebum than others. While there’s not much you can do to change your skin type, it’s helpful to understand it when selecting skincare products. You may want to steer clear of richer creams or facial oils and opt for less heavy options, like the lightweight daily moisturizer with SPF.
• Hormones – Your body can experience major changes when you go through hormonal shifts during puberty, pregnancy, menopause, or even just different points in your menstrual cycle. Sebum overproduction is linked to an excess of androgenic hormones, like testosterone [5].
• Lifestyle factors – Sebum can also be impacted by anything from the food you eat to the temperature outside. For instance, oil production tends to spike in the summer and decrease in the winter. Sugary foods or extra stress can also cause your body to produce too much sebum.

What Are The Signs Of Too Much Sebum?

You’ll know you’re dealing with excessive sebum if your skin texture often goes from dry or normal to oily and greasy. You may also find that you’re dealing with more frequent, persistent breakouts. In fact, sebum overproduction is notorious for causing blemishes like [6]:

• Blackheads – Blackheads are the result of an open pore getting clogged with sebum, dead skin cells, and bacteria, causing what looks like a black dot to appear on the skin. Blackheads’ dark appearance is due to oxygen interacting with the excess oil clogging the pore and turning it black or gray.
• Whiteheads – Whiteheads, also known as closed comedones, are sebaceous glands or hair follicles clogged with excess oil and dead skin. This forms a closed bump (as opposed to blackheads, which form in an open pore) which can appear as a whitehead.
• Sebaceous filaments – Most often found on the nose, sebaceous filaments are often mistaken for blackheads, but they’re actually pathways for sebum to travel from sebaceous glands to the skin. While sebaceous filaments are totally normal and can’t be permanently removed, they do appear larger and more prominent when healthy skin is producing too much sebum.

How Do I Reduce Sebum Production?

Sebum overproduction can be tricky to tackle. Your skin is always going to produce sebum to some degree, and if you have naturally oily skin, there’s not much you can do to change that. 

However, there are plenty of steps you can incorporate into your skincare routine to combat excess sebum:

• Reduce lifestyle factors that may be triggering your skin’s sebum production. Stress and sugary foods can spike inflammation and cortisol (a hormone that can drive up sebum production), increasing the likelihood of uncomfortable acne breakouts and oiliness [7].
• Make sure you’re washing your face thoroughly, and consider adding a toner and a chemical exfoliant to help unclog pores and boost cell turnover. Our personalized facial cleanser acts as a toner and exfoliator, giving you everything you need to tackle excess sebum and prevent breakouts, all in one custom product.
• Moisturizing might seem like the last thing you’d want to do, but it’s actually key to balancing your skin. If the skin starts to become dry and dehydrated, your body begins to overcompensate by producing even more sebum to make up for the moisture it’s craving [8]. So, don’t skip out on nourishing your skin the right way—add a deeply hydrating night cream and eye cream to your daily routine.

Reduce Sebum Production with PROVEN Skincare

If you want to get a handle on sebum overproduction, trust PROVEN Skincare. At PROVEN, we tap into the skincare savvy of AI and our in-depth skincare quiz to create custom formulas designed to address your unique skincare needs and goals.

Sebum overproduction doesn’t have to mean a lifetime of breakouts. Face it head-on with the power of PROVEN Skincare.