Oil cleanser sounds wrong, right?
Considering the entire purpose of washing your face is to get the oil & grime off – adding more oil seems weird – and one customer put it perfectly:
“It’s quite bizarre and not what we’ve been sold all our lives”
Add to that, the confusion in ‘beauty land’ with oil cleansing being part of this complicated double cleanse, multi step routine… And I dunno about you, but I’m lucky to find the bandwidth to clean my face once, let alone twice.
Also the foaming cleansers make my face feel tight & dry – which is what I’m trying to avoid.
So if you’ve wondered how an oil cleanser actually works – and how putting oil on your face can possibly make it cleaner – here’s the dealio.
How does an oil cleanser work?
Without getting too sciencey, remember the phrase ‘Like attracts like’?
Unlike water which wont play well with oils – oils & fats share similar molecular bonds and don’t repel the way water does.
Now, let’s consider that most gunk you find on your face is oil based (sebum, sunscreen, makeup etc). When we add cleansing oil – it mixes freely and helps loosen & disperse the gunk.
This is also why it’s so important to apply it first dry (dry face & dry hands) – because water at this stage would just cause oil/water arguments.
And if you’re wondering if you’ll just be left with an oil slick on your face – you wont & we’ll get to that…
It’s why the ‘two step oil cleanse’ people follow with a foamy cleanser – but to me that defeats the whole purpose of avoiding suds on my face.
The oil cleanser that rinses off with water.
The Desert Sage Cleansing Oil contains an emulsifier – which helps oil and water mix.
So after you’ve massaged the oil on dry, and it’s collected all it’s gunky friends – you wet your fingers, add some water and the oil becomes a milky liquid.
The next step is to keep working it around to collect all the combined oils – and then you just rinse the whole lot away.
Admittedly this is a terrible photo – but let’s not forget, my photographer is a wheelie bin. I
f you look closely on my cheek and jaw you can see white stuff – that’s the milky liquid doing it’s work.
Oil cleanser for sunscreen, sweat, grime & general life outdoors
It’s not just for removing makeup – It’s road tested for sunscreen, sebum, sweat, dust and whatever else you’ve encountered during the day.
And it’s particularly powerful if you’re diligent about SPF because sunscreen is supposed to hang onto your skin.
An oil cleanser gives you a simple way of breaking down oily, stubborn stuff before emulsifying and rinsing it away. Perfect if you’ve spent the day outside getting genuinely filthy rather than delicately accumulating environmental impurities
How to use the Desert Sage Cleansing Oil
This section feels slightly repetitive but I’ve put it here because an impressive number of people have admitted in the reviews that they didn’t read the instructions.
SHAKE THE BOTTLE. EVERY TIME. – This is how the emulsifier disperses through the cleansing oil .
Then:
- Put a small amount onto dry face.
- Massage it in with dry hands.
- Wet your hands.
- Massage your face again and watch the cleansing oil turn milky.
- Rinse it off.
Clearly I’m happy to toot the horn of my own products – but you’ll be amazed how well this works.
Not in a few days or few weeks either – You’ll notice how well it hoovers up gunk AND how nice your skin feels after will happen the very first time you use it.
If you’re still suspicious – check out the reviews on the product page here None are edited, incentivised or any of that garbage – just people (who I mostly don’t know) reporting back on how it works.
OIL CLEANSER – FAQS
Can you use an oil cleanser every day?
Use it with the regularity you’d use any other facial cleanser.
How often you cleanse is ultimately about your skin, what you’ve been doing and what you’ve put on it.
If I’m extra grimy and have spent the day wearing sunscreen, sweating, working outside or wearing makeup… I reckon it’s worth washing off.
But if you’ve spent the day doing bugger all and your skin already feels perfectly happy – there’s no need.
Does an oil cleanser leave your skin oily?
Not this one.
