Should We or Should We Not be Using Facial Oils?

Face oils have been having a real moment for the last decade or so. They’ve gone from a fringe product to a staple in the most mainstream of skincare brands, including clinical specialists. Natural, non-reactive and effective for even the driest and most sensitive of skin, they now have mass-market appeal.

In fact, during the COVID beauty product sales downturn, premium face oils were one of the few products that saw increased sales, most likely due to the at-home self-care trend. But should we really be relying so heavily on facial oils?

What Do Face Oils Do?

Think of face oils as being the best option for unprocessed, nutritious food for your face. The top layer of your skin is made of skin cells held together by lipids (made of ceramides, cholesterol and free fatty acids). Good face oils help strengthen this lipid barrier, creating a strong wall that protects lower layers of skin against pollution, weather, free radical damage, UV radiation and dehydration.

Do Face Oils Moisturise?

Oils are only one half of the moisturising game. Oils (along with heavy creams) are what is known as an occlusive, which helps to seal moisture in your skin so that it doesn’t just evaporate off like water does. Dry skin will benefit the most from facial oils, but already oily or acne-prone skin types need to be cautious about clogging pores with extra oils.

A thorough and effective moisturising system must include a humectant, like hyaluronic acid, which actually draws water into your skin. No oil can increase the water levels in your skin, and skin needs water as much as it needs lipids, so a humectant-rich serum or cream is essential.

From there, you can supplement with an oil to help lock in moisture (especially during winter, when cold winds and hot showers conspire to strip skin dry) or to take advantage of specific additional benefits in an oil—rosehip oil contains retinoic acid, while sea buckthorn offers ascorbic acid (active vitamin C). Keep in mind that scientists can’t control the amount that is present in a plant or the oil that is extracted from it, and the benefits of an oil will also be affected by the extraction process—not all oils are created equal.

So Do Facial Oils Actually Work?

All of the above means that while your average facial oil is a great addition to your skincare regimen, it can’t fully replace active ingredients for creating noticeable change.

That said, new, science-backed face oils may be a different story.

Developments in biotechnology and green science have allowed scientists to focus on extracting clinically active compounds from natural ingredients—allowing them to pull the bioactives from the botanicals and create completely natural yet effective lipid-soluble versions of the actives we know and love.

It’s exciting news for those of us that love oils, but we should acknowledge that not all oils will work for all skin types. If you’re determined to go the oil route, it’s worth looking at the kind of oils that will have the most benefit for your skin concerns.

Finding The Right Facial Oil For Your Skin

Start by choosing oils with smaller molecules, like argan oil, squalane oil and jojoba oil. Something like coconut oil, despite all the hype, has large molecules that sit on top of the skin rather than absorbing, leading to clogged pores and breakouts.

Different plant oils also contain different ratios of essential fatty acids, which gives each a different range of skincare benefits. Marula oil contains a high concentration of oleic acid, which is good for skin radiance, while borage seed oil has a lot of gamma-linolenic acid, which helps to soothe skin.

Some other things you might want to look for when choosing an oil:

Single-estate provenance (like a good wine), which usually indicates higher quality.
Oils from plants that live in extreme environments like deserts and the seabed, tend to be ultra-rich in vitamins and minerals, offering greater effect.
In blends, make sure the main ingredients are “good” oils (moringa, chia, baobab and rosehip are all good oils), rather than synthetic oils.
You want the oil to be extracted by cold-pressing, steam distillation or supercritical CO₂ extraction.
Check that any scientific claims are backed up by in vitro (test tube) and in vivo (on skin) clinical trials—it’s extremely easy for brands to make scientific-sounding claims without any basis in fact!

PSA: You should add these French pharmacy products to your beauty routine ASAP.