Properly cleansing oily skin can be a challenge. On the one hand, you want something that deeply cleanses to help eliminate excess oil and clear out clogged pores. But you also don't want to be excessively using something so harsh that it dries your skin out even further and causes it to produce even more oil. That's why you'll want to choose one of the best face cleansers for oily skin, since they were specifically formulated with your skin type in mind.
Surprisingly, it's not a super-long list of ingredients that makes these cleansers so great, but a few key components. Cleansers with glycerin or hyaluronic acid are great for oily skin types because they soothe and hydrate skin without clogging pores. To help regulate oil production, you'll want a cleanser with zinc or licorice root extract in the ingredients list, as they both help to reduce oil and also have anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties that can prevent breakouts from popping up.
Choosing a lightweight formula, like a gel or foam, can also help with oily skin as products that are thick or creamy aren't always non-comedogenic and can leave you with clogged pores. And since oily skin types tend to be more prone to breakouts, that can disrupt your skin.
There are also a few ingredients you'll want to stay away from. While gentle exfoliation is essential to removing dead skin cells and pore-clogging dirt and oil, harsh scrubs like apricot or walnut can actually lead to inflamed and dried-out skin. Alcohol is another ingredient that can dry out your skin, which just causes your pores to produce more oil to try to compensate. Talk about a vicious cycle.