Top 5 Oils to Use in Your DIY Face Care Routine

A lot of myths exist about cleaning your face and what oils are best for facial skin. Let’s review the best oils for face skin and how to properly clean it.

If you’re like me and make your own facial products, you’ll know that oil is a part of them. Oils are necessary for many aspects of DIY projects, but all of them are different. Let’s take a look at what makes these different.

Facial Skin, Oils, and Proper Care

Face Skin vs Body Skin

Face skin is different than other skin. On your body, you have sweat glands. These help to remove impurities from your body and help to cool you down in warmer weather. Your facial skin has oil glands rather than sweat glands. That’s not to say you don’t sweat on your face, but it’s more likely that it will be oil.

Overcleaning and Over Moisturizing

One of the biggest misconceptions with facial skin is the need for over cleaning and over-moisturizing. You don’t need to scrub your face every day! Washing is ok, but when you scrub, especially in the morning, your facial skin reacts to the stimulation and produces more oil. In turn, many people think that oil is a sign of dirt, so they scrub more, making more oil and the cycle continues. And, when the skin is scrubbed more, there is often a tightness that follows once dried, so people tend to moisturize. Often, with this cycle, there will be breakouts, similar to acne. This cycle is called “acne over lubrication.” The good news is, most people can avoid all this by not scrubbing their face as often and not using as much moisturizer.

That reminds me, have you tried our homemade face wash?

Proper Facial Exfoliation

Facial skin can be exfoliated twice a week with something “scrubby”, like a rough washcloth. There are several other options, such as these. Sticking to the regimen at night will help reduce the amount of oil that is present during the day, allowing your face to absorb that oil during the night.

Oils and Facial Skin

It’s also a misconception that if your skin is oily, or you have problems with acne or oil, that you shouldn’t use oils on your skin. While some oils are comedogenic, meaning that they can block the pores and possibly cause breakouts, all oils are not created equally. In the next section, we’ll look at the oils that are the best for facial skin.

5 Best Oils for Face Skin

Many oils will work to help keep your facial skin healthy but these 5 are the best oils for face skin.

Rice Bran Oil

This oil can be hard to get locally but is available online from many sources. Rice bran oil contains two types of vitamin E and squalene. Squalene is beneficial to the skin as it can help reduce the signs of aging. It is a light oil that absorbs into the skin easily.

Apricot Kernel Oil

This oil is light and nongreasy making it one of the best oils for face skin. It mimics the skin’s own natural collagen and can help to relieve dryness. It is also a light oil and absorbs into the skin quite well.

Safflower Oil

This oil comes from the seed of the safflower plant. It is especially helpful in cases of eczema and psoriasis and can help to improve elasticity in the skin and help to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

Sunflower Oil

Like safflower oil, sunflower oil comes from the seed of the sunflower. It is very high in vitamin e, an antioxidant that can help to keep the skin from aging. It is a light oil and can be used as a makeup remover as well as a moisturizing oil.

Grape Seed Oil

This is one of the best oils for your face because it’s high in vitamins and minerals. Although it doesn’t contain resveratrol as grapes do, it still contains a lot of antioxidants. And like apricot kernel oil, it is very close to the natural collagen found in our skin.

Bonus Oil: Hemp Seed Oil

I didn’t include hemp seed oil in the oils above because it must be treated differently. Hemp seed oil is unstable at room temperature and must be kept refrigerated. It contains a wealth of vitamins and minerals that are beneficial to facial skin but should only be used in small amounts or be kept refrigerated to retard the onset of rancidity. If you make your own skincare preparations, try to keep hemp seed oil to less than 10% of the total volume.

Perhaps you’d like to try some of our facial skin recipes for creams, toners, etc.?

Using These Oils on Your Face

All of these oils can be used as part of a facial lotion or cream, or they can be used as a nourishing oil by themselves. For a makeup remover, I spread a bit on my face, wait a minute or so, and wipe off with a cloth. This effectively removes makeup as well as any dirt that may have gotten on my skin. You can also use them as a moisturizer without anything else.

Facial oils don’t need to make your skin greasy. Try each of these 5 best oils for face skin and see which works best for you!

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