A Dragontree guide
We've done facials on tens of thousands of faces since 2003, and we've tested more oils than we can count. This is what we've learned.
Oil doesn't hydrate your skin, water does. What oil does is sit on top and seal the water in, so the moisture your skin already has stops evaporating. It also feeds your barrier - the outer layer of fats that keeps irritants out and moisture in. A good oil nourishes that layer up with the same kinds of fats your skin makes on its own.
The best oils do one more thing: they carry active ingredients that can transform your skin down into the skin instead of resting on the surface. That's the difference between an oil that feels nice and one that changes how your face looks in a month.
Every plant oil is mostly two fats, linoleic and oleic. Linoleic is thin and absorbs fast, and acne-prone skin tends to run short on it. Oleic is rich and heavy, and dry, mature skin drinks it up.
Whole coconut oil is the classic mistake. It's cheap, it smells like vacation, and it sits near the top of the pore-clogging scale. We've seen clients come in with a jawline full of bumps and a jar of it on their bathroom counter more times than we can count. (The caprylic/capric fraction of coconut is a different animal - more on that below.)
Plant oils go rancid. Rosehip and borage can turn within months of opening if not kept correctly. Rancid oil smells like old crayons, and it's oxidizing on your face instead of protecting it. Dark glass, a small bottle, and antioxidants like vitamin E and rosemary built into the formula are what we look for.
A drop of rose essential oil makes a bottle smell expensive and does little at that dose. We want the working ingredients in at the amounts the research used, which is expensive, which is why most oils don't.
If an oil leaves your skin feeling greasy, you'll stop using it, and an oil in a drawer does nothing for your skin ;)
What each one does, and who it's for.
| Ingredient | What it's doing | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Rosehip seed | High in linoleic acid and natural vitamin A - speeds turnover and fades marks | Oily, acne-prone, post-breakout marks, fine lines |
| Squalane | A copy of a fat your skin already makes - absorbs instantly, clogs nothing, carries other actives in with it | Every skin type; the base of a good blend |
| Jojoba | Closest match to your own sebum - but see the note below on dandruff | Combination, oily |
| Argan | Balanced fats plus vitamin E - softens without weight | Normal, mildly dry |
| Marula | Rich in oleic acid, sinks in fast - overnight repair for parched skin | Dry, mature |
| Sea buckthorn | Omega-7 and carotenoids - the deep orange that wakes up dull skin | Dull, mature |
| Borage | The richest plant source of GLA - eases flaking and tightness | Dry, flaky |
| Bakuchiol | Retinol-like results on lines and tone, without the peeling | Fine lines, uneven tone, anyone who can't tolerate retinol |
| Astaxanthin | One of the strongest antioxidants known - the look of more even, luminous tone | Dull, sun-stressed, mature |
Rosehip is an active oil. It carries vitamin A, fades marks, and can tingle on a bad day. Squalane is a blank hydrator that moisturizes and does nothing else, which is exactly what reactive skin wants.
A well-built blend uses both, rosehip to do the work and squalane to carry it in.
Retinol works and everyone knows the cost: weeks of peeling, sun sensitivity, no use while pregnant.
Bakuchiol, used in Ayurveda for 2,000 years, delivers a similar look on lines and tone without the peel.
The catch is dose - most oils add a smidgin of it for the label.
Check that the brand states its concentration.
A single oil gives you one fatty acid profile. A blend lets a formulator balance light against rich and add actives, which is why most of the oils we rate highest are blends.
The catch is that a long ingredient list can hide cheap filler up front.
Read the first four names on any blend. If they're sunflower, grapeseed, safflower, or whole coconut, you're paying for a fancy label.
Sol Ora
$128Why it won
It's the only oil we know that passes all five checks.
Peter spent 15 years working out what belongs in a face oil before he built this one, and it replaced our test clients' serum and moisturizer both. Velvet by morning, different in a week, and a guarantee if you don’t love it.
Sol Ora
Why it won
This is the skin it was built for. Rosehip, pomegranate, prickly pear and borage put back what dry air pulls out, so skin looks plumper and fine lines look softer.
Bakuchiol does the retinol job on lines without the peeling.
Dryness settles in week one.
Sol Ora
Why it won
That deep red-amber color is the actives themselves - astaxanthin, virgin pomegranate and sea buckthorn, all unrefined.
Astaxanthin is one of the strongest antioxidants known, and it's what gives skin the more even, luminous tone people start commenting on. Customers call it liquid gold.
Sol Ora
Why it won
The resin complex of frankincense and myrrh, plus bisabolol, calendula and gromwell root, is the soothing half of the formula.
That's what lets bakuchiol and the other actives work without leaving skin irritated.
Customers who react to most things, or who never see a difference from medical-grade products, report no reaction and real change in ten days. See testimonials below.
If you react to essential oils specifically (rose, geranium, frankincense are in it), pure squalane is the safer first step.
Sol Ora
Why it won
6-8 drops in the morning, pressed in, and foundation goes on within five minutes.
It sits over a plump, even base instead of grabbing at dry patches or leaving you looking like you’ve been working the deep fryer.
Sol Ora
Why it won
The first ingredient is rosehip, the linoleic-rich oil acne-prone skin runs short on, and everything at the top of the formula rates 0 to 1 on the pore-clogging scale.
Black cumin is in there for blemish-prone skin.
No jojoba, no whole coconut.
Clients who've spent years with inflamed, breakout-prone faces report no reaction and calmer skin. If the price is the problem, pure cold-pressed rosehip in dark glass is the next best thing.
Pai Rosehip BioRegenerate
about $44Why Sol Ora lost
It's a blend, and this category is for people who want one thing in the bottle.
Of every single oil we've tried, rosehip does the most on its own: linoleic acid, natural vitamin A, carotenoids. Pai extracts seed and fruit with CO2 instead of pressing, and their third-party testing shows several times the antioxidants of other premium rosehips.
The Ordinary 100% Organic Cold-Pressed Rose Hip Seed Oil
$10.90Why Sol Ora lost
Price. For under eleven dollars you get pure cold-pressed rosehip in dark glass, and a bottle small enough to finish before it turns.
Sol Ora is $128 for about two months, roughly two dollars a day for something that replaces a serum and a moisturizer. Fair, and still more.
| Botanical | What it's doing in the bottle |
|---|---|
| Rosehip seed oil | Linoleic acid and natural vitamin A - turnover, fading marks, softer-looking lines |
| Squalane (olive) | Matches your skin's own oil - carries every other active in with it |
| Pomegranate seed oil | Punicic acid - the look of plumper, more elastic skin |
| Caprylic/capric triglyceride (coconut) | The light 8-10 carbon fraction - thins the blend so it sinks in; safe for flake-prone skin |
| Prickly pear seed oil | High linoleic and vitamin E - fine lines and the look of dark spots |
| Sea buckthorn fruit oil | Omega-7 and carotenoids - brings color back to dull skin |
| Borage seed oil | GLA - eases flaking, tightness and that pulled feeling after washing |
| Black raspberry seed oil | Ellagic acid and carotenoids - antioxidant defense against daily stress |
| Black cumin seed oil | Thymoquinone - calms redness, good for blemish-prone skin |
| CoQ10 | An antioxidant your skin makes less of every year - put back |
| Calendula flower extract | Soothes irritation |
| Mixed tocopherols (vitamin E) | Keeps the oil, and your skin, from oxidizing |
| Bakuchiol | Retinol-like results on lines and tone, no peeling - at twice the studied dose |
| Astaxanthin | One of the strongest antioxidants known - more even, luminous tone; it's the red |
| Bisabolol | Chamomile's calming compound - reduces redness and helps the actives absorb |
| Frankincense resin extract | Half of the resin complex - soothing; the look of firmer skin |
| Myrrh resin extract | The other half - calming, supports the look of repair |
| Gromwell root extract | Shikonin - traditional calming root for irritated skin |
| Burnet root extract | Astringent and calming - the look of firmness |
| Rose flower oil | Soothing; the scent |
| Frankincense oil | Soothing; the scent |
| Geranium flower oil | Balances the look of oily patches; the scent |
| Rosemary leaf extract | The antioxidant that keeps the bottle fresh |
| Nerolidol (cabreúva) | Helps the actives penetrate; a soft woody note |
After 23 years of running spas we'd tried nearly every facial product made. We kept looking for one that carried real actives down into the skin instead of resting on top. We never found it.
So Peter built it. He's a botanist, a scientist, and a doctor of natural medicine with 30 years of clinical practice. For about 15 years he'd been asking one question: what actually belongs in a facial oil. Reading, sourcing, testing single ingredients, ruling things out. The formula came together over the past year. Twenty-four botanicals, every one of them in there working.
It went straight onto the faces of people we love. Our families, then a testing group, then our clients. The first 500 bottles sold out in a week.
6-8 drops, morning and night, pressed in. Velvet by morning. Different in a week. Other people notice in a month.
I've done everything to my skin, including the medical route, so I don't have patience left for products that promise things. Sol Ora is one of the only things I've put on my face that made a real difference. People comment on my skin now. The only other time that ever happened was two weeks after my facelift.
Marianne Harrington
They sell me the very fancy medical-grade things and I never notice anything. I felt a difference with this after the first day. My skin isn't flaky and dry anymore, and it feels like it's plumping back up.
Jenny Sandler
I've struggled for years to find skincare that doesn't leave my face inflamed or cause breakouts. After 10 days using Sol Ora, I've had no negative reaction. My skin feels deeply nourished and moisturized.
Gordon C.
We guarantee you'll love it or your money back.
Shop Sol Ora $ 128With Sol Ora, no. Our test clients stopped using both. With a single-ingredient oil, keep a water-based serum underneath; the oil seals it in.
6-8 drops, morning and night. Warm them in your palms, then press and massage upward.
Both. At night it does its deepest work. In the morning, press it in and makeup or sunscreen can go on within about five minutes.
Skin feels different the first night. Dryness settles and skin looks plumper in a week. By a month the difference is obvious enough that you'll want before and afters.
Yes, with the right one. Pick high-linoleic oils like rosehip and skip whole coconut. Many of our acne-prone clients saw clearer skin once they stopped stripping their barrier and started sealing it.
It was built with a soothing resin complex for exactly that reason, and clients who react to most things use it without trouble. If you're reactive to essential oils, patch test on your jaw for two nights first. If it isn't for you, the guarantee covers it.
The color is the actives. It disappears into skin within about 20 minutes. Used right before bed, a little may come off on your pillowcase, and it washes right out.
Sol Ora is a cosmetic formulated to beautify and condition the skin and support its healthy appearance. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. References to traditional use describe historical botanical practice.