Conditioning is an essential part of any hair care routine, and the hair on your face is no exception. Without adequate moisture, your beard will look brittle, feel dry, and may even begin to feel itchy and develop dandruff. The best beard oils for men will keep your facial hair soft and lush, and prevent beard itch by moisturising the skin underneath.
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What is beard oil?
Beard oil is an oil formulated specifically for beards. Beard oil is designed to be applied to your beard, scruff, or stubble to keep it hydrated and healthy while moisturising the skin underneath. As your facial hair is coarser than the hair on your head, it requires some extra attention, which is where a good beard oil comes in.
Why should you use beard oil?
The key benefits of beard oil are:
- Hydrating facial hair and moisturising the skin beneath it
- Preventing dryness, itchiness, brittle texture, and breakage
- Promoting healthy beard growth
- Providing your facial hair with a gentle scent
What to look for in the best beard oils?
The most important component of a beard oil is the type of oils used. Certain oils are heavy and aren’t properly absorbed by your facial hair and skin. Look for beard oils made with light oils like argan, jojoba, almond, and macadamia oil, as lighter oils sink into the hair and don’t leave behind a film or greasy residue.
When should you use beard oil?
Like most grooming products, how often you should apply beard oils is up to you. Lighter oils that absorb and wash out easily are suitable for daily use, while heavier products with more staying powder can be applied less frequently (think three to four times a week).
How to apply beard oil
When using beard oil, we’d recommend first washing your beard with a good beard shampoo. Towel or blow-dry your beard (depending on thickness), and then apply the beard oil as per the instructions on the bottle. Use your fingers to work the oil through your beard and massage it into your skin, then smooth out or style your beard.
Best beard oil recipe
If you want to take a DIY approach to beard oil, you can make your own with natural oils like jojoba, vitamin E, prickly pear seed, macadamia, and argan oil. If you want to add a scent, use a couple of drops of essential oils like sandalwood, cedarwood, or bergamot to add interest.
The best beard oils for men
These are the 10 best beard oils for men, no matter what type of facial hair you’re sporting.
1. Kiehl’s Nourishing Beard Grooming Oil
Scented with woodsy essential oils, this Kiehl’s beard oil offering is lightweight and absorbs quickly into your facial hair, while soothing the skin underneath your beard. It contains exfoliating salicylic acid which gently removes dry skin cells, preventing dandruff from forming.
Scent: cedarwood, sandalwood, eucalyptus
Main ingredients: pracaxi oil, salicylic acid, sandalwood essential oil, cedarwood essential oil, eucalyptus essential oil, manuka honey, red ginseng root
2. Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille Conditioning Beard Oil
This luxury beard oil from Tom Ford features a lightweight, easily absorbable blend of sweet almond, jojoba, and grapeseed oils, enriched with vitamin E. Available in four signature Tom Ford scents, our pick is the Tobacco Vanille.
Scent: tobacco, vanilla, tonka bean, cocoa, sweet wood
Main ingredients: grapeseed oil, jojoba seed oil, sweet almond oil
3. Baxter of California Beard Grooming Oil
Suitable for all beard types, a nourishing blend of vitamin E, avocado oil, and squalane work to smooth beard hair, promote beard growth, and moisturise the skin underneath your beard.
Scent: jasmine, sandalwood, cedarwood
Main ingredients: avocado oil, apricot kernel oil, squalane, salicylic acid
4. Aesop Shine Hair Oil
Technically not a beard oil, this all-rounder blends a mixture of plant-oils like borage seed, jojoba, grape seed, avocado, and sweet almond oils with linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid which is a key moisturising element. As with all Aesop products, it smells amazing, boasting citrus and floral notes.
Scent: green, citrus, floral
Main ingredients: borage seed oil, avocado oil, bergamot essential oil, bitter orange essential oil, linolenic acid
5. Beardbrand Old Money Beard Oil
Composed of a blend of Abyssinian, babassu, jojoba, and castor oils, Beardbrand’s lightweight beard oil absorbs into your facial hair and skin quickly. With six scents to choose from, there’s something for everyone; our pick is Old Money, a distinctly masculine fragrance which boasts notes of aged oak, black pepper, and amber.
Scent: aged oak, black pepper, amber
Main ingredients: jojoba oil, Abyssinian oil, babassu oil, castor oil
6. Ted’s Grooming Room Beard Oil
From the folks at Ted Baker, this lightweight beard oil uses meadowfoam seed oil, olive oil, and jojoba oil to soften and smooth facial hair, while soothing and nourishing the skin beneath it. Its gentle ingredients make it one of the best beard oils for sensitive skin.
Scent: neutral
Main ingredients: jojoba oil, meadowfoam seed oil, olive fruit oil
7. Le Labo Beard Oil
The New York City-based perfume house’s beard oil is crafted with sunflower, grapeseed, and jojoba oils. The plant-based oil is paraben and colourant-free, making it ideal for sensitive skin. Naturally, the Le Labo beard oil also smells wonderful, scented with bergamot, lavender, violet, and tonka bean.
Scent: lavender, bergamot, violet, tonka bean
Main ingredients: sunflower oil, grapeseed oil, jojoba oil
8. Cartier Pasha de Cartier Édition Noire Beard Oil
For the luxury lovers out there, look no further than the Pasha de Cartier Édition Noire beard oil from Cartier. This beard oil takes Cartier’s Pasha scent and combines it with lightweight oils to create an irresistible beard oil that doubles as a cologne.
Scent: citrus, amber, wood
Main ingredients: propylene glycol dicaprylate/dicaprate, mineral oil, squalane
9. Urbane Mess Beard Oil
Australian-made with all-natural ingredients, Urbane Mess’ beard oil is one of the best cheap beard oils out there. Hydrating ingredients like macadamia, sunflower, walnut, and avocado oils provide all-important moisture to your facial hair and skin, while eucalyptus oil lends the beard oil a gentle fragrance.
Scent: light eucalyptus
Main ingredients: sunflower seed oil, avocado oil, macadamia seed oil, eucalyptus leaf oil
10. Milkman Grooming Co Beard Oil
Another Australian-made product, Milkman’s beard oil is a well-balanced, easily-absorbed formula, using grapeseed oil, safflower seed oil, coconut oil, argan oil, and hemp oil to soften your beard and soothe your skin. Milkman offers their beard oil in sour scents, with our favourite being the Citrus Supernova.
Scent: citrus, spice
Main ingredients: grapeseed oil, jojoba oil, coconut oil argan oil, avocado oil, hemp oil, vitamin E
FAQ
In some cases it can, however, the main purpose of beard oils is to keep your facial hair healthy and soft, while moisturising the skin underneath it.
Start using beard oil once you’ve begun growing your beard out. Beard oil is suitable for everything from stubble to a full bushy beard.
Most lightweight beard oils should be applied daily. However, if your beard oil has more staying power and doesn’t wash off as easily, you can reduce your application frequency to a few times a week.
There’s a seemingly endless array of beard products out there. Our top picks for the best beard oils are: Milkman Beard Oil, Ted’s Grooming Room Beard Oil, Beardbrand Old Money Beard Oil, Urbane Mess Beard Oil, and Kiehl’s Nourishing Beard Grooming Oil.
Yes, when used consistently, beard oils work to soften and moisturise your beard hair and the skin underneath it, keeping it healthy and nourished.
Brands that sell the best beard oils for men include Kiehl’s, Aesop, Le Labo, Jack Black, and Elemis.
First, wash your face and beard. Then use your fingers to apply a small amount of beard oil to the hair, working it into your beard and paying attention to the skin under it.
Words by Theo Rosen