I Thought Washing My Face With Oil Was Crazy — Until I Tried It

You wash your face and pat it dry with a clean, fluffy towel. But instead of feeling clean and refreshed and ready for bed, your skin feels stretched out across your cheekbones and dry as the Mojave Desert. 

Ugh!

And I’m going to let you in on a surprising secret: you can lather on moisturizer until the cows come home, but you still won’t solve your dry skin crisis. Because the real culprit here is your face wash! 

Cue the dramatic music…

Dun dun DUN!

That’s right, your face wash is actually stripping away all the moisture that your aging skin desperately needs. 

Most of us have spent years grabbing whatever was nearby — bar soap, body wash, hand soap, generic facial cleansers — without realizing those are the very things that have been drying us out. And the older we get, the more our skin pays the price.

That’s what eventually led me to try something I would have called crazy when I was younger: washing my face with oil. Yes, oil!

And once I added a gentle water-based cleanser as the second step, my skin felt the way I’d hoped it would for years — clean, soft, and comfortable.

Ahhhhh…

It’s a simple two-step routine that takes about five minutes. And I can promise that once you try it, you’ll never go back to your old cleanser.

Why Adding Oil Is The Answer For Aging Skin

Most standard cleansers work by stripping away oil and dirt as efficiently as possible, which works fine when you’re 22 and actively trying to rid your face of acne-producing oil. But as we get older, our skin’s natural oil production slows down, which leads to skin that’s drier, thinner, and more sensitive. 

Aging skin needs cleansers that clean without stripping, which is exactly what oil cleansing does!

Oil cleansing is based on a concept you might remember from science class: “like dissolves like.” Oil can be a stubborn substance to remove from any surface, but as counterintuitive as it sounds, adding more oil can help lift it off the surface so you can wash it away more easily. 

So when you massage an oil cleanser onto dry skin, it dissolves makeup, sunscreen, sebum, and the day’s grime gently — without the scrubbing or stripping a standard cleanser requires. Then, when you follow with a gentle water-based cleanser, you wash away anything that’s left and rinse your skin clean.

The combination of the two steps does something neither product can do alone: it leaves your face deeply clean AND deeply moisturized.

Double Cleansing Made Easy

Double cleansing is simple in theory, but finding the right products — especially if you have dry, sensitive, aging skin — isn’t always so simple. And if you’ve been an OGT reader for a while, then you might know that I have extremely sensitive skin myself.

That’s why I created the Double Cleansing Kit in my Timeless by Jillee skincare line specifically for women with dry, sensitive, aging skin. Here’s what you’ll get in the kit:

Nourishing Oil Cleanser

This is the oil that breaks down everything sitting on your face at the end of the day — makeup, sunscreen, sebum, and grime. It contains 10 nourishing oils I carefully chose for their benefits to mature, dry skin. Here are some of the highlights:

• Avocado Oil: Deeply moisturizes and helps soften dry, depleted skin.
• Marula Oil: Rich in antioxidants and fatty acids that help support smoother, more supple skin.
• Argan Oil: Nourishes and restores softness while helping improve the appearance of fine lines.
• Jojoba Oil: Closely resembles your skin’s natural oils to help moisturize without feeling greasy or heavy.
• Rose Hip Oil: Rich in vitamin A and essential fatty acids that help brighten and support aging skin.
• Vitamin E: Provides antioxidant protection while helping keep skin soft and moisturized.

Purifying Daily Cleanser

After the oil lifts the day’s grime, this gentle water-based cleanser washes away whatever’s still there — without stripping the moisture your skin needs. The key ingredients include:

• Glycerin: Draws moisture from the air to hydrate and soften skin.
• Vitamin B3: Minimizes the appearance of pores, improves skin texture and tone, and restores and protects skin’s defenses.
• Urea: Draws moisture from the air while also acting as an emollient for softer, smoother skin.
• Cucumber Extract: Hydrates, protects, and soothes skin with its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

Your Nightly Routine In Three Simple Steps

Here’s the routine I do every evening — start to finish in less than five minutes.

Step 1. Squeeze two pumps of Nourishing Oil Cleanser into your hands and gently massage it into your dry face — makeup, sunscreen, and all — for about a minute. You can always dampen your hands if needed to get a good lather going.

Step 2. Wipe everything off with a damp makeup remover cloth (which I highly recommend because it also provides gentle exfoliation) or just rinse with water.

Step 3. Wash your face with the Purifying Daily Cleanser, then rinse and pat dry with a clean towel.

That’s it. Simple enough that you’ll actually keep up with it — which is the whole point.

This Is Why I’ll Never Go Back

For most of my life, I used just a water-based cleanser. But the older I got, the more I felt like a standard facial wash was drying out my skin and really working against me. So when I heard about oil cleansing, it seemed like the perfect thing for my super dry skin!

While I ended up loving how nourished my skin felt after oil cleansing, it just never felt completely clean. When I finally discovered double cleansing, it felt like I’d hit the skincare jackpot! Starting with an oil cleanser and then following it up with a water-based cleanser left my skin feeling clean and fresh.

I’m not the only one who’s seen the difference. Here’s what other OGT readers have said about double cleansing:

“I just hit a milestone birthday a few months ago and have been struggling with my skin being very dry. Now I do the double cleanse and ‘voila,’ no more dry patches. This regimen was the golden ticket for me.” — Ella H.

“With mature skin, I have been struggling with extremely dry skin. I was using multiple moisturizers, but once I tried my new oil cleanser, my skin is no longer dry and feels great. My face makeup looks better, and I glow for the first time in years.” — Michelle S.

“As a senior female (let’s just say 71 years young), I am always looking for natural skin care products for my face. I use the oil cleanser followed by the daily cleanser every morning and evening. I always say if the skin on my face feels good, then I feel good all around.” — Sharon C.

“I have been using the oil cleanser for three years, and it is amazing. It soothes the skin as well as cleanses it. I am a big fan.” — Pat B.

Try It For Yourself

I created my Double Cleansing Kit because I was tired of buying cleansers that left my face tight and dry, and layering on moisturizer to compensate for what they were taking away. I just wanted a routine that left my skin feeling clean AND comfortable — without the tightness, the dryness, or the guesswork.

If that sounds familiar, I hope you’ll give the kit a try. Whether your skin feels tight after every wash, struggles to bounce back from harsh products, or always seems a little drier than it should be, I created this routine for women just like you.

And just like everything in my Timeless skincare line, the kit comes with my 90-day money-back guarantee. So you can try it completely risk-free.

Now through May 18th, my Double Cleansing Kit is 30% off! You’ll get my Nourishing Oil Cleanser and my Purifying Daily Cleanser for just $44.79 (regularly $63.98).

Plus, I’m including a FREE 4-pack of my Fresh Face Microfiber Makeup Remover Cloths. That’s a total savings of more than $39!

CLICK HERE TO SHOP THE KIT

NEW! Can you guess the 5-letter word related to today’s post?