I started an excel file with oil ingredients overย year ago in an effort to find something similar to Sunday Riley Artemis… which I LOVE but it is discontinued. I never found a perfect replacement, but I did find some other oils that I really loved. But in that journey to find the perfect facial oil, I also realized that there are a HUGE range of price points. Looking at the cost per ounce for some oils was a bit shocking! I actually love oils by The Granola Goat because she includes a very small ingredient list (so you know you are getting high concentrations of the various oils) and they are extremely affordable. But, and I think this is particularly important with facial oils, The Granola Goat is careful to source high quality oils. Sometimes I would find oil blends on Amazon and it was so cheap but it is hard for me to trust the quality of the oil.
Something else I learned as I was looking for an alternative to Artemis was to look for oils that were high in Linoleic acid, rather than Oleic Acid. I have oily skin, and I found that using oil blends that predominantly contain oils high in Linoleic Acid worked wonders on my skin–never leaving me overly greasy. That led me to team up with Natalie from @roadtoglow (she is also the founder of @alkimiskin) to create an infographic to help identify oils by their fatty acid profile. (You can find that infographic here).
One thing that has always bugged me if that if I found an ingredient that my skin loved, it was never very easy to search for products with that ingredient. So that is also why I kept adding to my facial oil excel file, and now I’ve decided to share it with you all!
I tried to make as comprehensive a list as I could. That being said, I am sure there are many oils that are not listed. If you see some that you think should be added, feel free to leave a comment.
Tips
- Please learn from my mistakes and DON’T stockpile oils.They do have a shelf life (which varies by bottle). But I have found that I really shouldn’t have more than two oils open at a time (one would really be ideal). That way you can use the product while it is at its freshest. I had way too many bottles open and because you really only need a very small amount to cover your entire face, it takes me a while to go through a bottle. So I have had to throw out oils that I didn’t finish because they ended up going bad.
- While I am talking tips, another tip of mine is you mist your face heavily before applying an oil. This will help the oil absorb. This is how I am able to wear an oil in the AM under makeup. If I didn’t mist my face before applying the oil, it would sit on top of my skin and my foundation would slide right off. Not a cute look.
Things you will find in the database:
- Brand and product name
- Price (in USD) and price per mL (which I always find fascinating).
- Complete ingredients
Note: You are able to add a filter to the excel file and search for specific ingredients and you can also sort each column as well. For the search function, you may want to play around with it and try variations of certain ingredients. For example, if you were searching for Black Cumin oil, you might want to first just try typing in “Cumin” or try the formal name (Nigella Sativa). You also should be able to search for more than one ingredient by including a space between words.
Click on this link for the Excel table
*Some links in the table below are affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, I will earn a very small commission (this commission is in no way added to the price you pay for any items purchased through these links). This compensation helps fund and support this blog and my time spent creating and maintaining content for you all.