Oily skin is easily identified by its areas of shine and sometimes lumpy, bumpy texture. The good news is that it ages far slower than other skin types, unfortunately it can be a frustrating skin type to deal with. Make up doesn't seem to last, shiny areas appear by mid afternoon and the inevitable breakouts really can bring you down. Oily skin is caused by the overproduction of sebum by the sebaceous glands. Sebum is absolutely essential to the good health of skin, in fact it is your skins natural moisturizer, it locks in moisture and keeps skin soft and supple. Sebum flows out through the pores and coats the skin, giving your skin unbeatable protection. Unfortunately when excess sebum is produced it coats the skin cells in your pores which causes them to stick together, blocking the pore. As this is happening sebum is still being produced in the lower level of your skin and its travelling upwards. The blocked pore causes a back up of sebum (its like when you are behind that incre...