By Melissa, founder & chemist, Lone Tree Tallow
Short answer: An oil cleanser cleans by dissolving, not stripping. Because makeup, SPF, and the day's grime are mostly oil-based, a well-built cleansing oil binds to them and lifts them away — then wipes off with a warm cloth, leaving skin clean but not tight. That "clean but still comfortable" quality is why oil cleansing works for almost every age, and why it's especially kind to perimenopausal and menopausal skin, which no longer has any extra oil to spare.
Oil cleansing isn't a trend — it's ancient
Long before foaming face wash existed, oil was simply how people got clean. The Greeks and Romans didn't have soap for skincare; they'd coat the skin in oil, let it lift away sweat and grime, and scrape it off with a curved tool called a strigil. That same logic carried forward through the cold creams of the last century and into the double-cleansing routines that made oil cleansing popular again. We didn't invent this. We just built a cleaner, simpler version of something people have trusted for thousands of years — because the underlying chemistry was always sound.
How does oil cleansing actually work?
There's a rule in chemistry that does all the heavy lifting here: like dissolves like. Oil and water don't mix, but oil and oil do. Most of what you're trying to remove at the end of the day — foundation, sunscreen, sebum, pollution, that film city air leaves behind — is oil-soluble. Water-based foaming cleansers struggle with it, so they compensate with strong surfactants that scrub everything off, including the healthy oils your skin actually wants to keep.
A cleansing oil takes the opposite approach. You massage it onto dry skin, and the oils dissolve the makeup and buildup on contact. Then a warm, damp cloth carries all of it away. Nothing has to be scrubbed or foamed off, so nothing your skin needs gets stripped in the process. You're left clean, not squeaky — and squeaky, as I've said before, is the sound of a barrier being scrubbed away.
Won't an oil cleanser leave my skin greasy or tacky?
This is the fear that keeps people away, and it's a fair one — a lot of cleansing oils do leave a residue, usually because they lean on castor oil or emulsifiers that don't fully wipe clean. Rinse No. 1 is built specifically to avoid that. No castor oil. No emulsifiers. No fragrance. No synthetic anything — just six clean ingredients, each chosen for a reason, that melt the day off and then wipe away completely with a warm cloth. What's left behind is skin that feels soft and clean, not coated. Not tacky, not tight. Just your face, comfortable again.
What's actually in it (and why it doesn't feel greasy)
Six ingredients, no filler. Here's the whole list and what each one is doing:
- Fractionated coconut oil (MCT): lightweight and non-comedogenic — it dissolves oil-based grime without heaviness or residue.
- Jojoba oil: structurally close to your skin's own sebum, so it cleans without signaling your skin to pump out more oil.
- Squalane: nearly identical to an emollient your skin makes on its own — it's what leaves you soft instead of slick.
- Calendula-infused sunflower oil: a soothing, calming oil for skin that reacts easily.
- Vitamin E and rosemary extract: a natural antioxidant pair that keeps the oil stable — which is how the formula stays preservative-free without any water in it to spoil.
Notice how much of that list is about being like your skin rather than acting on it. Jojoba mirrors your sebum; squalane mirrors your own emollient. That's the quiet reason it rinses away clean instead of tacky — you're cleaning with materials your skin already recognizes.
Is oil cleansing good for every skin type and every age?
Mostly, yes — and the reason is that "like dissolves like" doesn't care how old you are or how oily you run. What changes with age is why it helps.
- Teens and twenties: This is peak oil, makeup, and SPF season. Counterintuitively, dissolving oil with oil tends to leave breakout-prone skin calmer than harsh foaming washes, which strip the surface and often trigger even more oil in response.
- Thirties and forties: Life gets busy and skin starts its slow shift. An oil cleanser is the one step that removes a full face of makeup and sunscreen thoroughly without adding irritation to an already-tired routine.
- Perimenopause and beyond: This is where oil cleansing stops being a nice-to-have and starts being the sensible choice. More on that below.
Why is oil cleansing better for perimenopausal and menopausal skin?
Here's the piece most cleanser marketing skips. As estrogen declines through perimenopause and into menopause, your skin makes less of its own oil and fewer of the lipids that hold its barrier together. Skin gets drier, thinner, and more easily irritated — not because you're doing anything wrong, but because the chemistry underneath has genuinely changed.
Now think about what a traditional foaming, "deep clean" cleanser does to skin in that state: it strips away oil that your body is already struggling to replace. You rinse, and your face feels tight, papery, maybe a little raw. That tightness isn't cleanliness — it's your barrier telling you it just lost something it needed.
An oil cleanser sidesteps the whole problem. It removes makeup, SPF, and buildup thoroughly, but it does it without taking the healthy lipids along with them. For skin that no longer has oil to spare, that's the difference between ending the day cared for and ending it stripped. It's also why we tagged Rinse No. 1 for hormonal skin in the first place — it was built with exactly this stage of life in mind.
How do you use an oil cleanser?
- Start dry. Pump 2–3 pumps into clean hands and massage onto dry skin — no splashing water first. Dry skin lets the oil grip the makeup and grime instead of getting diluted.
- Take your time. Thirty to sixty seconds of slow, circular massage is where the actual cleansing happens. It's also the most pleasant part.
- Wipe, don't rinse-and-scrub. Wet a soft cloth with warm water, wring it out, and wipe everything away. For heavy makeup or SPF, repeat once. No foam, no second harsh step required.
- Follow with your hydration and seal. Clean skin is ready to absorb whatever comes next — a hydrosol, a facial oil, a balm.
Do I still need to double cleanse?
Only if you want to. The double-cleanse method — oil first, gentle water-based cleanser second — came out of heavy-makeup and high-SPF routines, and it's genuinely useful on those days. But for most people, most nights, a thorough oil cleanse with a warm cloth is a complete cleanse on its own. If your skin is on the drier or more reactive side, a single oil cleanse is often the better choice, because a second stripping step is the last thing a fragile barrier needs.
The chemist's bottom line
The best cleanser isn't the one that makes your skin feel the most scrubbed — it's the one that removes the day and leaves your barrier intact. Oil cleansing does that at every age, and it does it especially well for skin that's making less of its own oil than it used to. Clean should feel like comfort, not like a fresh start you have to recover from.
FAQ
Is oil cleansing good for oily or acne-prone skin?
Often, yes. Dissolving oil with oil removes the sebum and buildup that harsh foaming washes leave behind while triggering less of the rebound oiliness that stripping can cause. Patch-test anything new, and give your skin a couple of weeks to adjust.
Will an oil cleanser remove makeup and sunscreen?
That's what it does best. Makeup and SPF are largely oil-soluble, so a cleansing oil melts them off far more effectively than most water-based cleansers — without the tugging or repeat washing.
Does Rinse No. 1 have fragrance?
No. It's fragrance-free and made without castor oil, emulsifiers, or synthetics — just six clean ingredients. That's deliberate: fragrance is one of the most common irritants for sensitive and hormonal skin.
Is oil cleansing safe for perimenopausal or menopausal skin?
It's one of the gentlest cleansing methods for this stage. It cleans thoroughly without stripping the oils your skin is already making less of, so you finish comfortable instead of tight.
Can I use it in the morning too?
You can, though many people find a splash of water or a quick mist is plenty in the morning and save the oil cleanse for night, when there's makeup, SPF, and a day's worth of buildup to remove.
Full ingredients (INCI): Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Squalane, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil (and) Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Tocopherol, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract. Fragrance-free, essential-oil-free, water-free, preservative-free, emulsifier-free, castor-oil-free.
Lone Tree Performance Botanicals products are cosmetics intended to support the look and feel of healthy skin. They are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or skin condition. Honoring the balance of nature, craft, and chemistry.
