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Best Vitamins For Oily Skin For Men

There are a ton of reasons why your skin might be producing more oil (sebum) than it needs. But regardless of the cause, using some of the best vitamins for oily skin for men can help you keep your symptoms under control. Worst case scenario, you can pair them with skincare products for oily skin.

Table of Contents

Best Vitamins For Oily Skin

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is THE best vitamin for oily skin. It directly reduces the amount of sebum (oil) your skin produces, which can in turn help prevent acne.

Foods like sweet potatoes, carrots, leafy greens, fish, and dairy products are our main dietary sources of vitamin A. But it’s easier to ensure that you’re getting enough vitamin A by either taking a supplement, or using a topical cream that has a retinol. Retinols are the form of vitamin A that your body can use immediately, rather than having to break it down and process it.

Just be sure not to overdo it with vitamin A. Read ingredient labels, and don’t exceed 10,000 IU (internal units) or 900 mcg (micrograms) daily. If you do consume too much, you may experience skin irritation, dizziness, headaches, and more. Long-term overuse of vitamin A can lead to heart issues.

My recommendation is to take a vitamin A supplement every other day, and increase or decrease depending on your results. Be patient. Vitamins take a while to kick in, so you’ll want to monitor your oily skin situation for at least a month before you make any judgement calls (Fun fact: It’s possible to use vitamin A to help tighten skin for older men).

Vitamin B

Vitamin B is a wild card. Different types have vastly different benefits for your skin, so be careful if you’re taking a specific vitamin B supplement – you’ll need to double check that you have the right one. 

For oily skin that might be tied to a hormonal imbalance, try vitamin B6. Not only will it help you regulate hormones, but it’s also good at reducing inflammation and redness, sometimes tied to excess sebum. If you’d rather not take a supplement, you can find B6 in poultry, beef, tuna, bananas, and potatoes.

Some dermatologists also recommend vitamin B5 and B12 for oily skin and acne. The catch is that too much B5 and B12 can actually cause acne, so I don’t recommend leaning on those two. It’s not a bad idea to just take a vitamin B complex daily if you think you might be suffering from a deficiency that’s causing excessive oils or dryness.

Vitamin C, D, and E

Vitamins C, D, and E aren’t necessarily going to help you out with your oil situation, but they are necessary for repairing skin damage (especially sun damage) and helping your skin produce collagen.

Collagen is the component that gives your skin that young, taut look. It fills out wrinkles. Vitamins C is especially good at helping out with collagen production, but D and E are also necessary for reducing blemishes and maintaining healthy skin. Deficiencies can weaken your immune system, though you won’t necessarily see immediate symptoms.

While you’re at it, it’s not a bad idea to make sure you’re getting enough zinc and iron as well. Their benefits are similar to C, D, and E, helping repair skin damage and giving you that healthy glow. Zinc is also known to help reduce oil production.

What Vitamin Deficiency Causes Oily Skin?

Vitamin B2 deficiencies can cause oily skin. B2 helps you regulate the mucus in your skin, which in turn prevents dryness. That dryness is often what forces your skin to produce more oils to moisturize itself, so preventing dryness may prevent excess oils.

You can find vitamin B2 in dairy, lean beef and pork, chicken, salmon, and eggs, almonds, and spinach. If you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, you might need to purchase a fortified cereal to make sure you’re getting enough B2.

While you’re trying to balance your vitamin intake to regulate oils, be sure to use one of the best face washes for oily skin, and exfoliate your skin often to prevent clogged pores. Refining your diet is just one step of many that you’ll want to take to fix oily skin.

You also might want to stay away from creatine since it can cause oily skin.

In addition to oily skin, vitamin deficiency can lead to your skin getting darker even when you’re not out in the sun (aka hyperpigmentation). So if you want to avoid this, you need to take all the vitamins mom said you needed.

Frank Edwards is a men's grooming & style expert who is "internet famous" for being able to simplify complicated grooming routines into easy, yet effective rituals any man can do. As a professional analyst, he has spent years researching the biggest brands, products, experts, best practices, and breaking news in the space. He takes this analysis, tests it out on himself, and then documents everything in his writing. As a result, his experience-based articles are considered by some to be the gold standard in men's grooming and men's style.