Skincare oils are the new BB cream: One day, nobody ever heard of them. The next, the question isn’t do you need one, but rather, which ones have you tried, which ones are you using next, and, most poignantly for this blog, how do you use them?
Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about skincare oils — the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Order In Which to Apply a Skincare Oil Depends on the Thickness of the Oil
There is a rule in skin care: Apply the lightest formulation first. This applies not only to serums and moisturizers, but also to skincare oils.
This is against what you may have heard elsewhere about applying oils “over the top” of other skincare products. While applying oils last may give your skin a “glow,” it also traps other ingredients into the skin, and the oil’s beneficial ingredients will not reach the skin very much at all if the underlying products are thicker than the oil itself.
From lightest to heaviest, here are my ranking of oils:
- Tea tree oil (lightest, apply first)
- Sweet almond oil
- Argan oil
- Jojoba oil
- Olive oil
- Sesame oil
- Grape seed oil
- Castor oil
- Avocado oil
- Coconut oil (heaviest, apply last)
By applying oils from lightest to heaviest, you ensure that the beneficial ingredients are able to reach the skin. You also ensure you’re not trapping a thicker oil with comedogenic potential against the skin, under the helm of a lighter oil.
Certain Oils Increase the Penetration of Other Ingredients into the Skin
It’s super important to make sure that skin care ingredients penetrate your skin. Even the most ingredient-rich skin care product does little to nothing if it doesn’t have the right delivery system! In fact, the effectiveness of topical skin care is dependent upon just two things: 1.) how much of the ingredient is retained in the skin, and 2.) how much is absorbed into the skin (University of California at Urvine).
Ingredient absorption is particularly important if you have a resistant skin type, or on certain areas of the skin. We all know that our knees and elbows can get rough and resistant, but so can sun-exposed areas of the face: upper cheeks, nose, and forehead. These areas tend to be more resistant to skin care, particularly after the summer months and with aging, so it’s important to use formulations that will actually penetrate the skin and be absorbed.
Oils that have been proven in studies to increase the absorption of other ingredients into the skin include jojoba oil, emu oil, and many essential oils. For better or worse, essential oils have been shown to increase the penetration of other ingredients in the skin up to 30-fold (International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 1989; Drug Discovery Today, 2007). I’ve written an opinion article on essential oils here.
Boosters Do Work
Because certain oils increase the penetration and absorption of beneficial ingredients into the skin, the newfangled skin care “boosters” do, in fact, work on most people.
The only caveat here is to make sure that you use boosters exactly as recommended. If you add just a drop or two more, you can end up with a product that has 20-30% actives, which may sound great, but it can also set you up for irritation, particularly in conjunction with penetration-enhancing skin care oils.
Even worse, if you let skin care boosters be exposed to air for too long, they will tend to dry out and become more concentrated. You see this a lot with glycolic acid-based products — leave them out in the air and they water-based ingredients dissolve, leaving you with a really concentrated treatment! So make sure you use them within a month or two of opening, and keep them tightly sealed.
Mixing Oils Together at Home is Only for the Careful and Meticulous
Over recent years, the oil cleansing method has become very popular on the internet. Those with oily skin are advised to use 60-75% castor oil mixed with 25-40% extra virgin olive oil, but those with very dry skin are suggested to use 25-40% castor oil to 60-75% extra virgin olive oil. [Read more: Does the Oil Cleansing Method Work?]
There is admittedly some valid science here. Castor oil has been shown to alleviate acne (Phytotherapy Research, 2002), while olive oil has protective antioxidant properties (Toxicology, 2003). But you should NOT mix these oils yourself.
Just like doctors go through rigorous training to treat your body, cosmetic chemists undergo years of schooling to concoct formulas for your skin. Many hold Ph.D’s and are doctors in their own right, while others learn the ropes through years of laboratory training. But the point here is, just like you wouldn’t mix your own drugs, you should not mix your own skin care at home. There are numerous reports of contact dermatitis and chelitis from castor oil exposure (Archives of Dermatology, 1961; Contact Dermatitis, 2000, to cite a few), as well as olive oil (Contact Dermatitis, 2006).
What’s more, a 2007 article in The New Yorker reported less than 40% of olive oil sold in U.S. stores contained the proper constituents. So do yourself (and your skin) a favor, and trust the chemists/professionals. For oil-based cleansers formulated by experts, I like [easyazon_link identifier=”B0012ZNKWM” locale=”US” tag=”cosmeticswiki-20″]Olivella Cleansing Wipes[/easyazon_link], the Amore Pacific Cleansing System (Cleanser & Oil), [easyazon_link identifier=”B001IIM5TC” locale=”US” tag=”cosmeticswiki-20″]Eve Lom Cleanser[/easyazon_link], and the cleansing formulas from Love Renaissance.
Avoid These Oils If You Have Dry Skin
It may sound counterintuitive, but some skin oils will not help dry skin. This is because certain oils act as occlusive agents, which trap existing moisture into the skin, not adding moisture. Dr. David E. Bank, M.D., the Director of The Center for Dermatology, Cosmetic & Laser Surgery in Mount Kisco, New York, explains it best:
“Dry skin is actually low in water, not in oil. That’s why most moisturizers list water as the first ingredient in the label. You need to realize that water, not oil, is the first ingredient you need to add moisture back into the skin.”
Oils that are occlusive agents and not great for dry skin include almond, apricot, avocado, sesame, and olive. So if you’ve been using these alone on your dry skin, expecting hydrated skin, think again.
…But These Oils are Beneficial for Dry Skin
Emollients help to hold onto moisture as well, but they go one step further, increasing skin’s permeability (and therefore the amount of water skin can hold) (Skin Therapy Letters, 2001).
However, not all emollients are created equal. For the really scientifically-minded, the best emollients have medium-to-long-chain hydrocarbons (Dermatitis, 1992), which include linoleic, linolenic, oleic, and lauric, which can be found in palm oil, coconut oil (Skin Therapy Letters, 2001), argan oil, and pequi oil.
Keep in mind that many oils have emollient and occlusive properties. In fact, most emollients will have occlusive properties if you apply too much (Skin Therapy Letters, 2001). However, when we analyze which are emollient and which are occlusive, we decide on the basis of a typical dose.
I Don’t Recommend Oil for Oily/Acne-Prone Skin, EXCEPT for Cleansing
Oil-based cleansers are great because like dissolves like in chemistry. So a oil-based cleanser can dissolve oils within your skin. Tremendous.
But oil-based treatment products are not great for those with oily/acne prone skin because they only contribute to pores that are already filled with sebum, overproducing oil. So do yourself a favor and nix this trend altogether if you have oily/acne-prone skin.
Bottom Line
Skin care oils are definitely here to stay. These formulations can increase the penetration of beneficial ingredients to your skin, and instantly give a dewy glow. But despite what you may read elsewhere, I don’t like using DIY oil-based formulations or using oils at all on oily/acne-prone skin, except for cleansing. So long as you have dry to normal type skin, use oils and boosters as recommended, and apply from the lightest formulation to the heaviest formulation, I see no issue with using them. Just follow the above guidelines and you’ll be fine!