Oil it up

Could your skin do with the final step of an oil glaze?

- Stuti Agarwal

Well before I took beauty to be serious business (is beauty obsessed but beauty blind a thing?), and it was all about finding the quickest hack to no dark circles, no pimple scars, goodbye pigmentation...you get the gist...I spent my first real paycheck on the smallest bottle of Kama Ayurveda Kumkumadi Oil I could afford. Why? I walked into the store and they sold me on the miracle in a bottle it was.

And it sure worked, as much as it could anyway (I now know my dark circles aren't going anywhere). I became a face oil advocate, and it became a constant on my beauty table until serums, overnight masks, and seven-step routines, which had little room for oil, took over. Then also came the myth of "you can't be using oils if you have oily skin", and "oil blocks pores (you mean coconut oil does) and acne causing enemies!" that dissuaded a whole lot of us from being part of the oil brigade.

THE RISING POPULARITY OF FACE OILS

Turns out, we all were pretty wrong about it all. Choose the right one and there could be room for face oils despite any and all routines and skin types. And while we could dismiss the current obsession with them as another fad, we may not want to. "Consumers are increasingly looking for products with minimal ingredients that are free from synthetic chemicals. Face oils fit this perfectly since they are often composed of pure, plant-based ingredients. Plus, the skincare industry has evolved with better formulations, allowing oils to be lighter and more easily absorbed, making them suitable for a wider range of skin types," says Dr Chytra V Anand, celebrity cosmetic dermatologist.