“Science-backed skin care” is a trendy term in beauty, but it has little meaning to a real scientist. Javon Ford is a cosmetic chemist who doesn’t believe every marketing term and claim that wanders into his Instagram feed. He separates fact from fiction in his highly addictive TikTok. This month, for Air Mail Look, he puts face oils under the microscope.
I don’t hate face oils, but I don’t use them, because I don’t feel like they’re doing anything.
Our face needs oil. Duh. We have sebum in our skin, but face oils don’t really mimic sebum. And for good reason, because sebum can clog your pores.
Most face oils are super-thin. They’re low-viscosity because if they’re thicker, they’re not going to feel nice. They’re usually filled with grape-seed oil, which absorbs quickly. People assume the oils lock in moisture. But only thicker oils can do that. The thinner oils get absorbed in skin and help cushion the skin and fill in the cracks. They feel soft, but they’re not locking in moisture.
One thing I hate is when face oils advertise saying they hydrate skin. I know it might be semantics, but hydrate means water. You’re adding water to the skin, and face oils can’t hydrate. They can make the skin softer, which is considered moisturizing. But hydration comes from water. If there’s no water, there’s no hydration. That’s just skin care.
If you apply a face oil to dry skin, your skin’s still going to be dry, because it needs moisture above anything else. A moisturizer has a combination of water-binding ingredients to hydrate. It has emollients to fill in the cracks. It has occlusives to seal in that barrier.
People sometimes use face oil to make their skin shine, but if it’s a light face oil it’s going to be absorbed, and that shine will disappear in 20 minutes. If you want that shine, you need something that’s going to leave a little layer on top of the skin to refract the light and bounce off the skin. Vaseline and Aquaphor do that, but they’re heavy.
For shine, you want a moisturizer with silicones, which have a high refractive index; they’re very shiny and they’re very light on the skin. Tatcha has a water cream with silicones. They don’t advertise the silicones, but they’re there, and they make a big difference because they help give you that shine.
If you want to do a full routine with the face oil, follow this order: Cleanser, toner (which is optional, I don’t care for toners), then all the actives, meaning any of the serums or ampoules or essences, then face oil and moisturizer. I would not wait until the end to add the face oil on top. Sunscreen comes last.
If you want a face oil, my philosophy is don’t buy one marketed as face oil, because you’re just going to be upcharged. Find the oil your skin likes—jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, and apricot-kernel oil are all lightweight. Grape-seed oil goes rancid really quickly, so don’t use that. Just don’t spend $80 buying a one-ounce bottle of face oil unless you really like the fragrance.
Javon Ford is a Los Angeles–based cosmetic chemist