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What is castor oil?
Castor oil is a vegetable oil made from castor beans. It can also be used on the skin. To find out whether you need this lovely oil in your skincare routine, take our skin quiz now!
What is it best for?
Castor oil is excellent at hydrating and moisturizing skin. It has humectant properties, so it can draw moisture from the air into your skin, and its moisturizing properties mean it can reduce dryness, flaking and itchy from dry skin, sunburn, or eczema. Additionally, it can reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines.
When applied to the scalp, it can boost blood flow and speed up hair growth by as much as five times the usual rate.
It can also be used as a simple makeup remover that does not cause acne flare-ups.
What is the drawback?
Some people may experience rashes and skin irritation after applying castor oil. In addition, it is not absorbed as easily into the skin, and may make your skin feel oily and sticky. Avoid using it if you have oily skin, and don’t apply too much or leave it on for too long.
Oily skin occurs when the sebaceous glands in the pores are producing more oil, or sebum, than necessary. Sebum is natural in all skin as it keeps the skin moist and healthy. Over production of sebum can be caused by hormones, genetics or could even be a result of dry skin over-compensating by producing extra oil, in order to retain some measure of moisture.
Oily skin can also be caused by using the wrong products for your skin type. For example, if you are using overly drying soaps and astringents for your skin type, your skin may respond by over producing oil to compensate, as mentioned above. This can create an unfortunate cycle of using harsh soaps to eliminate oils, but instead exacerbating the problem.
On the other hand, overly oily makeup and products can also cause oily skin.
Ingredients that help exfoliate dead skin cells to keep pores unclogged and increase new skin cell production, such as Vitamin A/Retinol, glycolic acid, and salicylic acid, are good for treating acne as well. Benzoyl peroxide is a topical agent for fighting bacteria and unclogging pores. It is one of the longest-used medications to keep oily pores clean and healthy. Jojoba oil is also good for fighting bacteria trapped in oily skin and maintaining a moisture barrier to prevent over-production of sebum.
Castor oil may be effective for oily skin, but there are many other factors that may affect whether this ingredient would work on your skin or if there are better ingredients that may work for you. Take this skin quiz to find the best ingredients for your skin and build your skincare routine.
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