It seems to me that one of the trends, that has transcended 2014/15, in male grooming has been the moisturising oil. In all honesty it has been a bit of an education for me, because the use of oil on my sometimes oily skin is somewhat counter-intuitive! But stick with me here because this really blew my mind!!!!
I guess my initial response was hell to the no! The idea of slathering my combination skin with oil, and making the oily bits oilier, did not fill me with joy! But there was one product that was the turning point for me, and that was the Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Concentrate.
My wife had been (and still is) a big fan of @essiebutton and in one of her videos her boyfriend Aslan @lionsmane featured and he was hilarious. It was mentioned on several occasions that Aslan had been using the Midnight Recovery Concentrate religiously, so I thought if it’s good enough for him, then it’s good enough for me!
This little blue bottle is filled with wonders, it is a concentrated dry oil formula that intensely moisturises the face. It is not harsh at all and I find that it sinks into the skin well (even the thinner stretchier skin around the eyes).
Overnight your skin can dry out a lot. Heating, bed linen moving around and changes in temperature can leave it feeling parched. As with all things prevention is better than a cure, so applying this aromatic intense moisturiser before you go to bed will:
A) prevent the skin drying out
Which will:
B) stop the skin from creating more oil to replenish the loss of moisture.
This is one of those products that is just great. It’s made by a reliable brand who have quality at their very core, and you will notice a distinct difference within a week (for me my skin was fresher and plumper when I awoke in the morning).
It’s not cheap (around £35-£40) but it lasts well because you only need a few drops each night, and it’s measured for you (unless like me you knock the bottle over and it seeps into the carpet!!!)
This for me is a product that I won’t negotiate on, it is at the centre of my grooming regime.
More recently, I have received two further oil based moisturisers, but more specifically for body moisturising, and I have been really impressed with the improvement I have seen over the last couple of weeks.
This Pecksniffs ‘Intensive Moisturiser Enriched with Argan Oil’ (grapefruit and citron) is a very dry oil that is sprayed into a fine mist for easy application. This is most definitely a ‘wake you up’ fragrance for the morning that leaves you feeling fresh and awake! This is so fine a mist, that it barely needs the be massaged into the skin. It works its way in, effortlessly and without any kind of pooling on the surface.
Again huge amounts of this product are not required, I would say use it sparingly for the best results.
Pecksniffs are fast becoming one of my favourite brands, their grooming range is diverse and innovative, another brand with quality at its very core.
My third body oil is a delicious hand applied oil in the fragrance earth. The brand is Elemental Herbology (the link to Harry Potter is not lost on me) and the best way to describe it is an aromatherapy oil for moisturising the skin. It’s a botanical body infusion that nourishes without leaving the surface of your skin greasy. More so than the pecksniffs spray, it requires being worked into the skin, so application time is a little longer. It’s says in the directions that this is the case and the massage process is actually beneficial to the plumpness of the skin so it is really a win/win. I will be adding this particular oil into my weekly regime, and really making the most of this product as a treat to my skin!
So oil moisturisers are NOT the spawn of the devil, but in fact a really beneficial and hassle free way of looking after your skin. There are loads in the market but maybe one of my suggestions might be a good starting place.
TIB
ThatIsBeyond 