Your skin makes its own oil! Sebaceous gland cells fill up with oil, called sebum, that keeps your skin and hair soft.
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Sebaceous glands are tiny pouches in your skin. Most of them sit right next to a hair, and empty into the little pit the hair grows out of.
The cells inside, called sebocytes, are round and puffy. As they get older, they fill up with little drops of oil.
The palms of your hands and the soles of your feet have no oil glands at all!
When a sebocyte is completely full of oil, it bursts. Its oil, called sebum, oozes up along the hair onto your skin. New cells take its place.
Gently press a clean tissue on your nose or forehead for a few seconds. Hold it up to a light. A faint see-through spot means sebum!