‘I Tried 5 Natural Ingredients to Fight My Oily Skin—Here’s What Happened’

This article was written by Marygrace Taylor and provided by our partners at Rodale’s Organic Life.

They say that people with oily skin are lucky, because all that extra moisture acts as protection from wrinkles when you get older. Which is all well and good if you’re 50. But at 29, I’m still very much fighting the grease factory that seemed to turn on the minute I hit puberty.

Superastringent toners, drying clay masks, acne washes that suds up like dish detergent—you name it, I’ve tried it. Unfortunately, none of it helped.

(Find seasonal recipes, inspiring imagery, and gardening tips every day inside the Rodale’s Organic Life 2017 Calendar!)

But apparently, that’s not so surprising. “You’re not going to be able to change your skin type, but you can learn to work with it,” says Clara Williams, aesthetician and founder of the holistic skin-care line Cultivar. Using overly harsh products will only irritate my skin and cause it to rebel by producing more oil, she told me.

Sticking with gentler, more natural products is more likely to help keep the oil under control—and leave my skin healthier overall. So, I picked up these five options, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best. Here’s how it went.