Why Oil-Based Skincare?
What are the benefits of oil-based skincare?
Putting oil on your face is intimidating! We have all been told at some point in time that fat and oils are harmful in our diet and clogging for our skin. There is some truth to this. Many mass produced skin care products contain mineral oil, which is derived from petroleum. Mineral oil clogs pores, traps dirt, and accelerates the aging of skin, thus giving all oils a bad rap.
However, just like we now know that good fats (avocados, nuts, olives) are part of a healthy diet and are necessary for brain function, we also know that there are good oils that are essential to healthy skin: organic plant oils! Farm to Skin’s products are formulated with potent organic plant oils for the health of your skin. Read more about our ingredients here!
How does oil-based skincare work?
Over the course of a day, your skin produces oil that hardens and solidifies by nighttime. Your skin also collects dirt and debris that carry bacteria. So by the end of the day, you have oil—which is good!—solidified with a bunch of bacteria on your skin. It is the dirt, debris, and bacteria that give our skin issues: not the oil!
An oil-based cleanser refreshes your skin with healthy oils and helps your skin cycle out old oil. A harsh cleanser gets rid of all of it: dirt, debris, bacteria, and your skin’s natural oil. But you don’t want a cleanser that strips your face of oil—just the dirt and debris that contain bacteria. An oil-based cleanser bonds with that tough oil on your face and loosens it so that the old oil full of bacteria can be wiped off. The oil-based cleanser will replenish your skin with healthy oils as the dirty oil is wiped away.
If a cleanser takes all the oil off your skin, your skin will react by producing more oil to compensate. Many people think the opposite. For instance, many people with acne have heard that oil is the cause of all their skin problems, and they need to strip their face of all oil. That isn’t true! Stripping your skin will actually increase your skin’s oil production and make your acne worse! An oil-based skincare routine will help your skin produce less oil.
Why shouldn’t I use a foaming cleanser?
Our products don’t foam. Foaming agents—called surfactants—are often chemicals that are harmful and irritating to the skin. The most famously harmful surfactant is Sodium Laurel Sulfate, which is well known for causing skin damage and irritation. Nearly all surfactants have the same problem.
Sodium Laurel Sulfate and other synthetic surfactants damage your skin because they disrupt its natural pH level. Your skin naturally rests at a pH that is below 5; this is a part of what is called your skin’s acid mantle. The acid mantle is a barrier between your skin and the environment; it protects your skin from the dirt and debris that builds up over the day and prevents that debris from clogging your pores. Some of us really enjoy that tight feeling that we get after a good face scrub; this feeling actually means that your acid mantle has been removed. When the pH of the acid mantle is disrupted, your skin is busy trying to rebuild the acid mantle, and the mantle can’t actually do its job. This is a side effect of almost every chemical surfactant; their pH is too high for our skin! So they end up distracting our skin from protecting itself rather than helping it to protect itself.
The acid mantle is created and restored overnight during sleep. So harsh cleansers are especially harmful first thing in the morning! Even when it comes to our products, Patricia recommends just using water in the morning!
Switching to an oil-based cleanser:
The experience most people describe is that in the first few weeks, your skin improves greatly! Then there may be a bit of a rough patch. If you’re switching from a harsh cleanser, it will take time for your skin to stop producing the excess oil that we talked about earlier. This is the only period during oil-based skincare that your skin will have too much oil. Some people do experience breakouts here. However, your skin will learn! This period is necessary for your skin to rebalance its oil production.
After this rough patch, your skin will clear up and return to the way it was meant to be. Read our customer reviews! They speak for themselves.
How to use our products:
In the morning, rinse face with water or one of our essences. (Remember, we don’t want to disrupt the work that your body did overnight creating your acid mantle.)
At night, massage your chosen cleanser into your face for 1-2 minutes. Then, wipe the cleanser off with a dampened facial shammy. These come with your cleansers! Follow with an essence and a moisturizer.
Each of our products comes in a package with step-by-step instructions on how to use them! These instructions can also be found on each product’s webpage.
Thank you for learning with us! And reach out with questions on which product might be best for you; we respond to Instagram comments!