Time to shop for a face oil for aging skin?
A quick google search will lead you to many articles with long lists of products to consider buying.
However, getting informed about ingredients will help you find the best results. For example, aging and mature skin has some unique requirements, but also the chance to witness major improvements in skin quality from adding a face oil to your natural anti aging skincare routine.
Before you burn a hole through your VISA, there are some fundamental principles to know to make the best choice for your skin type and skincare goals. This article is part of our beginner's face oil guide if you want to learn more.
The Challenges of Mature Skin
As we age, skin goes through various changes that are caused by a combination of internal and external factors. As a result, the cells in our skin begin to deplete in both number and effectiveness, leading to a decrease in the efficiency of our skin's natural repair systems. This process is known as 'chronologic' aging. The visible results include thinning, loss of fat volume, increased fragility, and reduced elasticity.
In addition to chronologic aging, there is also 'photo-related' aging caused by exposure to UV radiation and sunlight. This type of aging differs from chronological aging as it results in skin thickening, excessive or abnormal elastin and collagen production, and a leathery appearance.
Both chronologic and photoaging are accelerated by factors such as sun exposure, smoking, pollution, and genetics. Hormonal changes can also play a role in the aging process.
Anti-aging skincare products target the various structures and processes of the skin that are affected by aging, such as skin thinning, loss of elasticity, and loss of fat padding. They aim to improve the overall health of the skin, and to reduce the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines, and other signs of aging.
How Do Oils Help Aging Skin?
Adding a face oil to your regimen can help slow or reduce some signs of aging. Getting started with facial oils at any age can have a nourishing and protective effect.
While we hate the term anti-aging and prefer to think of it as supporting skin health through all of life's stages, using the best oils for anti-aging face care is both proactive and protective.
Since the fatty acids in face oils are antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, soothing, and moisturizing, they automatically have many benefits for mature skin. Add in the fact that powerful phytochemicals and active botanicals can target specific concerns like dark spots, collagen production, collagen quality, fine lines, and wrinkles, and you can see impressive results.
When using facial oils for aging skin, the types of benefits you could hope to see are:
- Improved moisturization and hydration
- A skin barrier that is repaired and strengthened
- A more even skin tone, reduced discoloration, improved brightness
- Improved texture, firmness, and elasticity revealing fewer fine lines and wrinkles
Of course, it's important to remember that carrier oils are still fairly passive regarding visible results. Oil serums have more active ingredients which translate into more visible changes, which is why learning to decipher ingredient labels is important.
Choosing the Right Oils for Your Skin Type
If you have a skin type with special needs, you must factor that into your oil and ingredient choices.
Highly irritable, allergic, or sensitive skin will need to take priority. All the best oils for sensitive skin will still have benefits for anti-aging, so don't worry about missing out.
Since retinol is oil soluble, many brands that design face oils for aging skin have decided to include retinol. This needs to be something you consider when looking at ingredients, especially if you have sensitive skin. We recommend splitting them up and using a separate face oil over the top of your retinoid. That way, you can adjust how often you use retinol and still be able to use your face oil every day.
If you have acne-prone skin or are naturally very oily, some of the best oils for aging might not be the best for you. None of the oils we recommend are very likely to clog pores, but if you have oily skin at baseline, you might prefer oils better for oily or acne-prone skin instead.
Best Anti Aging Face Oils
Each of these carrier oils is unique, and we are working on writing deep-dive spotlight articles to help you understand each one more thoroughly.
Some of our most-favourite carrier oils specifically for mature skin include:
Drawing special attention to evening primrose oil, it has some added potential benefits for post-menopausal skin. For those who have experienced menopause skin changes, including itchy and dry skin, there is a theoretical benefit to adding evening primrose oil to your skin care routine.
There is debate about the effectiveness of taking evening primrose oil as a nutraceutical supplement for menopause symptoms, and more research is needed. However, evening primrose oil contains high levels of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), which contributes to the production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins and eicosanoids. The association of GLA with hormones and prostaglandins makes it an interesting oil to try if you're searching for post-menopause skincare. Borage oil has even higher levels of GLA if that is what you are looking for.
Since mature skin is usually dry, all the same face oils we recommend as being the best for dry skin make it onto this list too. These include squalane (which makes its way onto the top of every "best face oils" list we've written), oat, jojoba, plum, apricot, avocado, cloudberry, and argan oil.
Shopping for the Best Face Oil for Aging Skin
Now that you know about the right carrier oils to look for, you can start shopping, which is the fun part!
If you like the idea of sticking with carrier oils, you could take a DIY approach by buying and blending your own mixture of oils from the details above.
However, if you want to elevate things and look for an oil serum that has active ingredients, active botanical extracts, and other oil-soluble additives that will enhance your visible results, then the options start to become endless.
With the explosion in popularity of waterless oil serums, there is a growing list of exotic specialized oils, oil-soluble botanicals, and active ingredients becoming available to manufacturers. As a result, there are plenty of options for people shopping for anti-aging face oils.
If you're shopping for an oil serum that has more visible results than just simple carrier oils alone, here is a list of just a few of our favourite specialized ingredients you might see:
