Diagnosing Your Skin: How and Why It Is Important To Know If You Have Oily Skin
Diagnosing Your Skin: How and Why It Is Important To Know If You Have Oily Skin

Oily skin is a condition of great importance in dermatology and one of the main concern shown by patients. It leaves the skin with an unpleasant sensation and can be associated with blackheads and acne

It is not healthy to completely remove the skin sebum, as it is an important part of the balance that guarantees the correct operation of its functions but when in excess, some treatments can be applied to control this characteristic.

But sometimes we believe that the skin is oily or dry when it’s no. This way, some specialized devices to measure the oiliness in real time are interesting tools to start the right treatment.

One of the most popular equipment for this objective is the Sebumeter®, by the German company Courage & Khazaka. It is widely used for both cosmetic and medical evaluations, as it can prove if a product is changing the skin overtime or to evaluate the patient and determine what type of skin is present. It is a photometric technique, where a polymeric film has contact with the skin surface, making it go from opaque to transparent. The oiliness is determined by how much transparent area is present on the tape.

A portable option is the SebumScale, by the company Delfin. It measures the amount of sebum accurately in micrograms per 1 cm2 as there is a built-in microbalance. Based on quartz crystal microbalance technology, the sensor is placed briefly on the skin to absorb the sebum and only takes a few seconds to present the result.

There are many more options of similar devices and they can be used in different regions of the body too. Understanding the needs of our skin will make it possible to focus the treatment on products that will fill the gap and make the skin better and healthier. 

Read also: Devices to Measure Skin Elasticity – What Are They and How They Work

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Maísa Melo, MSci

About the Author: MSci Maísa Melo is a Pharmacist and a current PhD student in cosmetic technology, from São Paulo, Brazil. She has earned her master’s degree from the University of São Paulo and has been involved with the development, stability, safety and efficacy of cosmetics since 2013. She has specialized in the clinical efficacy of cosmetics by biophysical and skin imaging techniques as well as the use of alternative models to animal testing. Her research work has been published in several scientific journals and book chapters from the field.