The $5 Fix for Oily Skin
Photo: Ben Goldstein/Studio D
In pictures, I'm the one with the shiny forehead, shiny nose, shiny chin. My metabolism may be slowing, my eyesight may be going, but no one can accuse my sebaceous glands of slacking off. If Crisco sold Pure Facial Oil, I'd be their top supplier. Door hinges squeaking? Here, let me see what I can do. Some days I feel like the human Exxon Valdez. (Keep away, marbled murrelets and loons!)
And then one morning, after hearing me complain, O's beauty department changed my life. The miracle—and to me it really is: blotting sheets. These are little rectangles of whisper-thin, terrifically absorbent tissue (the crinkly kind, not the nose-blowing kind). Press one to your face, peel it off, and the oil is gone—with no disruption to your makeup and none of the telltale lint (classy!) that Kleenex-dabbing leaves behind.
I was given a dozen brands to try. Some of them—Bare Escentuals Shine Control Sheets, Nars Perfecting Powdered Sheets, Boscia Blotting Linens—made degreasifying sound like being tucked into a clean, crisp bed at a pristine spa.
With one brand, you tear off the sheets as if from a tiny writing tablet. Another brand comes in a lipstick-size tube that opens lengthwise to reveal a row of serrated teeth and a roll of blotting paper within; if my daughter's American Girl dolls used waxed paper, it would look like this. So cute!
Then there are the Clean & Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets—the blue rubbery ones I kept not trying. Their blue rubberiness conjures visions of hospital utility closets, fluorescent lights, industrial-strength disinfectant. And their un-spa-like name depressed me.
Of course in the end it turned out that for me, blue is best. The Clean & Clear sheets don't all cling together as you slip one from the package. The oil doesn't feel as though it transfers to your fingertips as you blot. And the rubbery sheets don't rip if, in your eagerness, you stretch them too tightly across your nose. I guess you could say I've taken quite a shine...
More skin savers: The cure for a dull complexion
And then one morning, after hearing me complain, O's beauty department changed my life. The miracle—and to me it really is: blotting sheets. These are little rectangles of whisper-thin, terrifically absorbent tissue (the crinkly kind, not the nose-blowing kind). Press one to your face, peel it off, and the oil is gone—with no disruption to your makeup and none of the telltale lint (classy!) that Kleenex-dabbing leaves behind.
I was given a dozen brands to try. Some of them—Bare Escentuals Shine Control Sheets, Nars Perfecting Powdered Sheets, Boscia Blotting Linens—made degreasifying sound like being tucked into a clean, crisp bed at a pristine spa.
With one brand, you tear off the sheets as if from a tiny writing tablet. Another brand comes in a lipstick-size tube that opens lengthwise to reveal a row of serrated teeth and a roll of blotting paper within; if my daughter's American Girl dolls used waxed paper, it would look like this. So cute!
Then there are the Clean & Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets—the blue rubbery ones I kept not trying. Their blue rubberiness conjures visions of hospital utility closets, fluorescent lights, industrial-strength disinfectant. And their un-spa-like name depressed me.
Of course in the end it turned out that for me, blue is best. The Clean & Clear sheets don't all cling together as you slip one from the package. The oil doesn't feel as though it transfers to your fingertips as you blot. And the rubbery sheets don't rip if, in your eagerness, you stretch them too tightly across your nose. I guess you could say I've taken quite a shine...
More skin savers: The cure for a dull complexion
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