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Do you really need face oil AND serum(s) in your skincare routine? Which is better, and what's the difference?
If you've wondered about these questions then this quick video is for you - and I use our beloved Glow in a Bottle Face Oil and Radiance Serum to talk through these key points:
- the key differences between face oil and serums
- the main purpose of each
- the benefits of each and how they work together
- how to incorporate into your routine
Video Transcript
Hi there, if you've wondered about the difference between face oils and serums, and whether you actually need both of them in your routine and how to include them into your routine, how to use them, then this video is for you.
Welcome to my channel, I am Ané from Ané Skincare and Beauty and the two products I'm gonna talk to you about today to illustrate the differences between oils and serums, are our beloved Glow In A Bottle, ultra light radiance face oil and then our Radiance Serum with Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Acid - and together these two make an absolute power couple.
Face Oils
The main thing about oil is I guess pretty obvious, it's an oil-based product made out of plant oils and you can find these products in a single face oil, for example like an Argan oil or a Baobab oil, whatever the case may be, or you can find them in beautiful blends like we've done with blending 11 plant oils, to make Glow In A Bottle face oil.
The main purpose of face oils is to deliver moisture, hydration, protecting the skin barrier and deliver nourishment through essential fatty acid content and amazing nourishment, nourishing properties that you find in plant oils, in vitamins and antioxidants and so on.
They are just beautiful, amazing ingredients to include into your skincare routine, and something that I specifically love about plant oils, face oil is the high essential fatty acid content.
Nourishing your skin through delivering that essential fatty acid content topically through your skincare routine can be really beneficial for your skin. We don't generate or make essential fatty acids ourselves in our bodies, that's why we need to ingest them through our diets, through healthy fats like avocado, salmon, nuts, but we can also apply it topically through our skincare routine and the best way to do that is through face oils.
Another difference, another key point about it is that because of the oils, is the molecular size is larger than you would find in a serum and I'm going to explain that in just a moment. So this would stay more on the top layers of your skin. It doesn't penetrate as deeply where it just moisture, hydrates and protect the skin barrier.
You may or may not know that I've avoided face oils for the longest time, then I used one, I fell in love with it so much that I actually started my own skincare range. So that's how much I love them.
Serums
Now let's talk about serums. Serums are essentially water-based products and they are treatment-based products that target certain skin concerns. The way they do it is is that these water-based products have concentrated levels of active ingredients in them.
Basically key differences between an oil and a serum now that I've been talking about this serum is that's, where the oil is obviously oil-based, this is a water-based product, it's got high levels of active ingredients. Active ingredients are those ingredients that we include in skincare that can actually change the function of our skin, so things like peptides or powerful antioxidants and vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin C, and they deliver targeted solutions for specific skincare concerns.
For example - if you want to target fine lines and wrinkles, pigmentation, dark spots, acne, maybe larger pores to minimise the appearance of those, whatever your particular skincare concerns are, you can search for a specific serum with active ingredients, combination of active ingredients that can help you address those. And also because it's a water-based product, it is able to be absorbed deeper into the skin and the active ingredients can go a little deeper into the layers of the skin where they then get to work and target these particular skincare concerns.
As you can see there's quite a difference between an oil-based and a water-based, mainly water-based product, it's not to say that serums can't contain any oil whatsoever. I've got a retinoid serum that I'm working on that contains certain plant oils, but it's just in terms of what their main source is and the main purpose and the main difference between the two.
Oils are a lot more about hydrating, moisturising, delivering nourishment - and serums are much more about targeting specific skincare concerns and it's much more kind of a targeted treatment solution.
Both of these as always need to be used longer term, long term, consistently to see real benefits and results for your skin.
That's it in a nutshell a very quick explanation of the difference between the oil and serum, and I hope that illustrated and explained why ideally you can and should have both serum and an oil in your routine. That's certainly my preference and it was part of the reason why I decided to launch with these two products first.
Some people don't like face oils, they don't get on with them at all, and clearly that's obviously not a problem if you prefer something that's more of a cream-based moisturiser, then that's fantastic too.
I would say having a serum or maybe a few serums because many people have more than one in your routine that you feel target your specific skincare concerns, can be really beneficial and then whether you follow that up with an oil or a cream-based moisturizer, that's completely up to you.
Whether you follow it up just with a cream, whether you mix your oil with your cream, so many different options. I still think the delivery of just a pure face oil is something that I really love, because I often find cream-based moisturisers are a little bit too heavy for my skin.
Saying all of that, sneak peek behind the scenes, at the moment I am testing our overnight barrier repair cream but again, it's very, very light.
There are a whole host of combinations of things that you can do. I think the key thing is just to understand the difference between serums, oils, cream-based moisturisers that I've just thrown into the mix just now because many of us use them as we go through our routines. Finding the right ones that work for you, that's how you can get the best out of your products.
Let's just talk through a very quick, simple routine because I love my skincare simple, straightforward.
I love products that do more than one thing and I love products that feel really light on my skin. I do not like anything that feels heavy and feels like it's dragging down my skin.
Morning Routine
In the morning I would cleanse and then follow with the Vitamin C Serum straight onto my cleansed face. It absorbs rapidly, it absorbs really, really fast, by the time you've done your whole face it feels like it's almost absorbed already.
But this will never be enough for me to just, just do a serum. I still feel like I need to seal all of that in and I do want the benefits of adding a plant-based face oil afterwards. So after this, once it's absorbed, I will then add my Glow In A Bottle face oil. It has an incredibly light texture, again so that it can absorb very, very quickly. And then that's basically it, that's my morning skincare routine.
After all of it's absorbed, then of course I add my sunscreen because that's really the last step in my skincare routine in the morning because neither serums or oils contain sunscreen - so just make sure that you do follow up in the morning with that.
Evening routine
In the evening I cleanse, I follow up with a serum, I unfortunately can't show you that just now, but it's a retinoid serum that's being tested for the Ané range.
In the morning I tend to use vitamin C and hyaluronic acid and in the evening the retinoid serum at the moment, but again, just cleansing, serum, and then oil and at the moment like I said I'm testing this barrier repair overnight cream as well in the process.
So it really comes down to what feels good to you, what you feel your skin needs at that particular point in time of the month, of the year, where you are in the world and what really fits with you and what works for you, so that's really the most important thing.
Bottom line, serum and oils are both important in your skincare routine. If you don't get on with oils, obviously then moisturiser is totally fine, but finding a good quality with a right level of actives, the right kind of actives for your particular skincare concerns and skincare goals, is crucial. And this is often where we spend a bit more money as well because there is that extra cost involved I guess, an extra investment in terms of those active ingredients that actually really make the biggest benefit to the function of our skin.
