Oil Cleanser VS Soap Cleanser: Which One is Better?

Compare All the Benefits & Drawbacks of Oil Cleansers VS Soap Cleansers For Your Face.

Most of us grew up using soap as our main body cleanser and certainly foamy cleansers are the most common facial cleansers, even if they aren’t soap-based. We learned to associate that removal of our natural face oils with being “squeaky clean.”

Nowadays we know that too much foam-based cleansing of our skin, whether face or body, can make for an unhealthy skin barrier. It can throw our oil production out of balance, as well as having a negative impact on our beneficial skin bacteria.

We need our oils and our microbe communities to be in balance for healthy skin and of course, healthy skin is good looking skin.

How many of you have experimented with an oil cleanser for your face?

The oil cleansing method uses a variety of liquid oils in different proportions. They usually, although not always, have a castor oil base. These are based on the principle that oil dissolves oil, gently unclogging pores & allowing surface dirt & dead skin cells to be wiped away, ideally without disrupting your skin barrier.

I’m not going to make you read through paragraph after paragraph after paragraph to find the answer to the title question. The answer to which cleanser is better is this - - the one that makes your skin look & feel the best!

If you’re curious to know more about why you would want to choose one method over the other, read on. Those of you with very forgiving skin may be able to play with both methods of cleansing, picking & choosing according to the season, your environment and the condition of your skin.

Keep in mind that I’m specifically taking about cleaning your face, although most of this would apply to your body, too.

Oil Cleanser VS Soap Cleanser: Which One Is Better?

Oil Cleanser: Why the Oil Cleansing Method Is Better

+When you find the right blend of oils in the right proportion for your face, your skin will be smooth & clear with good elasticity & moisture balance.

Important Note: I wasn’t able to use oil cleansing for my face until I made one crucial change, which I’ll tell you about in a few paragraphs.

+It’s a very cost-effective way to cleanse & a small amount will last a long time. It’s easy to source excellent quality ingredients.

+The ingredient list is short & simple, which is a huge blessing for anyone with skin sensitivities or allergies.

+There’s no need for emulsifiers or preservatives, or any of the other myriad of ingredients that make their way into our modern store bought formulations, which again, is better for our skin bacteria & for any sensitivity issues.

+It’s easy to source food grade & organic ingredients, if this is important to you. Ayurveda is one tradition that prioritizes food grade ingredients as being the most healthy for your skin.

+Very dry skin, dehydrated skin, rough, inflamed and other barrier impaired skin often does better with a non-foaming cleanser, whether lotion, gel, or oil-based. Paradoxically this includes many people with acne & oily skin. The right cleansing routine will help balance your oil production.

+Oil cleansers are more compatible with the acid mantle of our skin & support our beneficial skin bacteria. The presence of certain bacteria can either boost or decrease our ceramide levels, thereby strengthening or weakening our skin barrier.

The Cons Of An Oil Cleanser

x Oil cleansers can feel a bit messy until you get used to how much to use, as well learning the best way to apply & remove it.

x Finding the right oils for your skin & mixing them in the right proportions can be a challenge. Check out the next paragraph for my aha! moment.

x If you’re used to a foamy cleanser, an oil cleanser will tend to feel less cooling & “refreshing.”

x You’ll want to take a bit of extra care in washing your face cleansing cloths to remove the oil smell.

Oil Cleansers Never Worked For Me Until I Did This

So I told you oil cleansing never worked for me until I made one breakthrough change and that is true!

Many years ago I was at a point with my skin where it was clearly communicating to me that any kind of lathering cleanser was a big no-no.

At the same time, trying to use oil cleansers on my skin wasn’t working for me. Some oil blends made my skin feel too dry (who knew oils could even DO that?!) leading to more sensitivity issues with flaking, redness and itching. Other oils caused clogged pores or didn't absorb well.

It didn’t seem to matter which oils I tried and in what proportion. Even limiting my oil cleansing to only a couple times per week didn’t help. Oil cleansing was not giving me healthy, good looking, glowy skin.

With my esthetician training as my foundation, I dove deeper, researching what our skin cells need to thrive and I saw cholesterol on that list.

My aha! moment came as I began to consider animal fats as a foundation ingredient in oil cleansing & moisturizing for the face.

I played around with some formulations and discovered my clients, friends and family also experienced the fantastic results I was seeing when using animal fat as my base.

The most common animal fats used in skin care are tallow & ghee.

GreenSpirit Craft Face & Body Butters As Oil Cleansers

Those first formulating experiments eventually became GreenSpirit Craft seasonal face & body butters. Even my customers who are acne prone (including cystic acne,) enjoy using Summer Butter and Winter Balm with great success as a leave on moisturizer.

A lot of my customers also use it for oil cleansing their face. Because it’s a solid cream type product, it’s more like doing an old-fashioned cold cream cleansing, although you only need a tiny amount. It’s the only cleanser I use for my face and I use it every day.

When using GSC face & body butters, you can adjust your oil cleansing routine for different seasonal & environmental conditions by adjusting the amount you use and also by switching back & forth between the Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter formulas.

I have customers who live in warm, humid places who are using Summer Butter for 3/4 of the year. Other folks are using their Winter Balm from the first breeze of Fall and well into Spring.

Soap Cleanser: Why Soap Is Better

+Some folks with oily skin may find their skin feels better with the regular degreasing that soap gives, especially if they live in a hot humid climate.

+Soap cleansers are great for anyone who consistently needs to remove oil & grime from their skin, such as professional cooks, people who work outdoors, dedicated gardeners and so on.

+Bar soaps are inexpensive considering the number of uses you’ll get out of them, although you’ll pay more for a high quality bar.

+Bar soap (as opposed to liquid soap) is super eco-friendly, with minimal packaging and no plastic to dispose of. Liquid soap can be more eco-friendly if you have access to bulk refills for your container.

+A good quality soap will have simple natural ingredients, with all the hydration of the naturally occurring glycerine preserved in the formula. Many will have organic ingredients.

+Soap is very good at removing & killing certain types of bacteria & other organisms which, as Adrian Monk will tell you, is a blessing & a curse!

That’s why it’s on both the Pro & the Con lists. :)

The Cons of Soap Cleansing

x Soap is very good at removing & killing certain types of bacteria & other organisms, which means it can deplete your beneficial organisms as well, leaving your skin less protected.

x If your bar soap is allowed to stay wet, getting soft & slimy, it will harbor & spread bad organisms rather than eliminate them.

x If you persist in using soap out of habit even though your skin is telling you to cut back, or stop, you wind up with out-of-balance, irritated, unhealthy, less attractive looking skin.

x Soap is alkaline, which is a serious skin disadvantage. Healthy skin is mildly acidic, so soap is one of the main reasons facial toners have been part of skin care routines for so long, to help adjust the pH of the skin after washing up.

x Soap can leave a film on the skin, due to the chemistry of the soap interacting with the minerals in your water.

Choosing A Good Quality Soap Cleanser

When I say soap, I mean a traditional saponified oil product such as an olive oil Castile soap, which can be liquid or solid.

If soap is a must have for you, I recommend 2 things:

1) Choose a well made moisturizing cold process soap with ingredients that will suit your skin. A properly cured CP soap will tend to be more gentle on the skin and retain more benefits of the oils, herbs, clays, or other ingredients.

2) Use a mildly acidic facial product after washing up, to re-balance the pH of your skin. That could be a hydrosol, water based serum, or other type of face tonic or toner. Apply your face lotion, cream or balm last.

A fabulous example of high quality CP bar soaps are the ones made by my colleague Jen Black of Alchemy and Herbs Healing in Asheville, North Carolina.

I tried out one of her full size bars for body cleansing. It lathers luxuriously, smells fantastic & doesn’t dry out my skin. Like myself, Jen infuses her products multiple times during the crafting process with Reiki (Life Source Energy.)

I love that she encourages all her customers to use her soaps as a way to anchor & weave loving intentions into their day, every day. Protection is the bar pictured above.

You can explore her products & services here: AlchemyandHerbsHealing.com

If your skin enjoys variety, you have the best of all worlds.

Switch between soap and oil cleansing depending on your location and environment - Airports & hotels? Beaches or mountains? Consider the season and the condition of your skin.

Non-Soap Foam Cleansers

If you want a foamy cleanser that is more skin compatible, which is to say mildly acidic, you do have choices.

Some are basically synthetic and many are are a mix of plant and synthetic ingredients. There are gels, lotions and micellar cleansers.

Some can be purely plant based, like a soapnuts liquid or gel, for example. All of these will be on the more expensive side, and generate a lot of packaging that needs to be disposed of.

Forget Following Skin Trends Just to Be Trendy

Listen to your skin & you do you. I know someone who can’t use any oils on their face except MCT oil or squalane. Some find their skin seems healthier with occasional use of soap. My facial skin won’t tolerate foam cleansers at all.

Pay attention to how your skin looks & feels when you cleanse and do what works for you.

Watch the video below to see how to use GSC face & body butters for a basic oil cleanse.

You can purchase here: