Walk into a drugstore and the lotion aisle is twelve feet long. Glycerin, dimethicone, urea, ceramides, oat extract, niacinamide, retinol, lactic acid, hyaluronic acid. Every product solving a slightly different problem. Most of them solving the same problem.
Lotion is mostly water. The job of all those ingredients is to (a) hold water against your skin and (b) prevent water from evaporating off it. Oil does the second part by itself, with no water to evaporate in the first place.
The case for an oil
Three reasons.
Occlusion is the only category of moisturizer with consistent evidence. The molecules that hold water in skin (glycerin, hyaluronic acid) work for hours. The molecules that prevent water loss (oils, silicones, petroleum) work all day. If you only have time for one, the second category wins.
Oils carry fat-soluble actives. Vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin K, plus the entire class of essential fatty acids (omega 3, 6, 9). Lotions can carry these in tiny amounts — a few drops in 200ml of water-based emulsion. Oils are these molecules.
The shelf life is longer. Water-based products need preservatives. Pure oils need antioxidants but not antimicrobials, because there's no water for microbes to live in.
What's actually in our body oil
Three lipid classes in our body oil: omega-3 (mostly from sea buckthorn), omega-6 (sunflower-derived), omega-9 (olive-derived). The 6-9 ratio is what gives it the "glow" name — high omega-9 oils have more visible sheen and lower oxidative damage in lab settings.
It is not a face oil. (For the face we use the jelly serum + overnight cream stack.) The molecular weight is wrong for facial skin and it would cause comedones in oily skin types. We made it specifically for body application, where pore size is larger and the trade-offs go the other way.
How to apply
The single most important detail: damp skin, not dry skin. Step out of the shower, towel-pat (not scrub), then apply oil within 60 seconds while skin is still slightly humid. The oil traps the surface moisture. Apply to dry skin and you get a slick layer that sits on top.
Pump 4-6 drops into a palm. Warm between hands for two seconds. Apply to one limb at a time, working from extremities inward. The whole-body application takes about 90 seconds. You don't need much.
What it replaces
For most people, the oil replaces three products: an after-shower lotion, a separate hydration step (e.g., serum), and any nightly elbow/knee/foot cream. One bottle. One application per day. ~3 minutes.
What it doesn't replace: a clinical eczema cream if you have eczema, a foot cream with urea if you have very thick callus, a stretch mark cream if you're using one for a specific reason. The companion product is the volcano scrub for weekly exfoliation. Those have actives that an oil doesn't carry.
Storage
Cool, out of direct sunlight. Don't keep it in a steamy bathroom for years — oxidation accelerates. A 6-month bottle on the bedroom dresser ages better than a 12-month bottle on the shower shelf.
Originally published at orrbody.com
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