Keep calm and carry on

Does the skin on your face always feel oily and irritated? This moisturising and soothing new skincare line from Laneige could help squelch the shine.

Here’s a beauty-related #rstworldproblem millennials will identify with: nailing skin that’s dewy, not oily – a tall order, given Singapore’s clammy climate.

Piling on multiple mattifying powders in the morning may work, but only for a while. By noon each day, a slick sheen (not the good kind) nds its way back onto your complexion, and your face feels ushed and unpleasantly sticky. Ugh.

Although it appears to run counter to logic, researchers from South Korean beauty brand Laneige say that oily skin (especially if you’re in your early to mid-20s) may actually arise from “inner dehydration”. It seems that parched skin overcompensates for a lack of moisture by cranking up sebum secretion on the surface – which means your skin is essentially “oily outside” and “dry inside”.

Tackling the root cause of oily skin requires getting it in balance so that it doesn’t overproduce sebum. The Laneige researchers say that balanced skin is able to continuously renew and repair itself and stay comfortably hydrated, so that what you see on the outside is a radiant complexion (which the hottest K-beauty stars are sporting now).

IN SEARCH OF BALANCE`

The new Laneige Fresh Calming range is formulated specically to soothe and moisturise skin. Two hero ingredients are included in all four products: antioxidant-rich litchi extract from lychee peel to counter free radicals from environmental irritants, and deepsea water, a hydrating ingredient to reinforce the skin barrier and encourage an even distribution of sebum and moisture. Used together, the Fresh Calming products promise to give your skin that little nudge it needs to be at its best, both within and without.