Myth Busting: Facial Oil

The world of skincare is difficult to navigate at the best of times. With new products, buzz-ingredients, and covetable packaging hitting shelves (and our Instagram accounts) 24/7, discovering what works and what doesn’t can start to feel like a bit of a punishment. Amongst all the noise, oil is one of the most enduring skincare ingredients in, well…history.

Despite your friendly neighbourhood beauty influencer telling you that it’s ‘the new thing’ it is in fact not the new thing and has been a thing for quite some time. We are big supporters of all the oils (good thing, considering MOTHER SPF is completely oil-based), and believe each have unique properties which help maintain a healthy skin micro-biome (more on the micro-biome, to come). That’s why we’re here to bust some myths around oil-based products, for our oil avoidant pals, and everyone else.

While natural ingredients were once reserved exclusively for those left-of-field, natural products have since come a long a long way in efficacy and covet-ability, and have become a permanent fixture among dermatologists, celebrities, and the general public alike. Oils are a deeply nourishing option for the skin and are super-star ingredients when looking to lock in moisture, boost your antioxidants topically, protect, and nourish the skin.

If you’re part of the oily-skin club and have sworn off using any oil-based products, it may be time to rethink your approach. We were once told that using oil on oil = an unhappy time for the skin, which is essentially outdated, and untrue! Using the right kind of oil on oily skin can actually regulate and improve the skin's natural oiliness, here’s how: in short, oily and acne-prone skin is deficient in a fatty acid called 'linoleic acid'. A result of this is hyperkeratosis, where the skin thickens and is associated with acne. Reintroducing linoleic acid to the skin by topical application of natural oils that contain this helps to reduce acne within just 4 weeks. Good news!

 For the rest of us out there who are simple sceptics, using oil on your skin can be highly beneficial as they have skin-identical ingredients and are high in natural active ingredients, whilst still respecting the skins biology. They are full of omega-rich fatty acids, high in vitamins and antioxidants, and can help restore the skin's barrier function, which is important for healthy looking and feeling skin.

 Enter: MOTHER SPF, (shameless plug) an easy peasy way to get your daily dose of good fats and antioxidants that will keep blemishes where they belong (AKA nowhere) and get you the kind of glow to write home about. The 100% natural oils in MOTHER SPF will work to keep your skin's barrier happy as a clam, while doing the hard yards of keeping the good stuff in (like hydration) and the bad stuff out (like free radicals and pollution), as well as the obvious one, protecting you from the sun so that your precious skin stays youthful and happy.