5 Best Face Oil Friendly Plant Oils for Dry, Sensitive Skin

Make your life easier. Care for and nourish your skin in an honest way

Dry sensitive skin? This is the number one complaint amongst my customers.

Often exacerbated by other skin conditions such as acne, eczema, and rosacea, it's just another unwelcome addition to midlife shenanigans.

Dry, itchy bits around the hairline? (My absolute favourite… not) Sore, bumpy bits on your cheeks. Flushed cheeks?

And to top it all, dry skin leaves you looking older, parched and stressed and depleted of any glow factor.

But there are plenty of natural helpers available that make a real difference, with plant oils being my favourite way of delivering high concentrations of active ingredients to your skin.

And you don't have to wait forever to see a difference.

If you’ve tried facial oils before and found they left your skin feeling greasy, irritated, or somehow worse than before, you’re not alone. Many women come to face oils after years of dryness or sensitivity, only to give up because the results didn’t feel right.

In most cases, it’s not that oils don’t work — it’s that the oils weren’t chosen with dry, sensitive or midlife skin in mind. Understanding which plant oils genuinely support the skin barrier, and which ones can quietly aggravate it, makes all the difference.

These are five of my favourites that I use in my facial oils for dry and sensitive skin that pack a punch and hydrate & soothe naturally.

The Best Oil For Dry Skin

1 - Jojoba Oil For Your Face

One of my top choices, jojoba is a true multi tasker in the world of natural skincare. It's absorbed extremely easily by the skin and because it is a wax and not an oil, it's non greasy and great for hydration but without giving that too-rich feel.

Because it's deep penetrating, it's also super-stable; some of the botanicals we use are potent but fragile, and it's always a balancing act between fabulous benefits of an ingredient versus its' stability.

Jojoba reduces wrinkles, helps to treat psoriasis, acne, and dermatitis, and brings the skin back to its normal vitality and gives it a healthy glow (read pretty amazing).

You can find it in our Deep Nourish Facial Essence, and it's also a key ingredient in our organic Body Oils. Look out for it in its inci format, Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil on the label.

2 - Rosehip Fruit Oil For Your Face

Rosehip Oil for Sensitive Skin

Rosehip is one of the best oils for seeing a visible difference with your skin, helping both acne, rosacea prone skin, and countering dry, itchy and inflamed skin.

It's full of essential fatty acids and vitamin A - both of which give a clue to its effectiveness in reducing lines and wrinkles. The essential fatty acids hydrate the skin and help smooth out wrinkles plus they are crucial for maintaining healthy skin. And it's these same fatty acids which give a rejuvenating and regenerating effect to the skin.

It also feels great on the skin; it is known as a 'dry' oil because it does not leave any sort of oily feel on the skin, instead it is hydrating and fast absorbing.

Best of all there have been a number of clinical trials carried out which does bear out its reputation. In trials, it has been found to have a positive effect on the skin of people with wrinkles, UV damage and even scars, regenerating the skin, slowing the down the signs of ageing and improving the skin's natural colour and tone.

3 - Blackcurrant Fruit Oil For Your Face

Vitamin C packed and GLA rich, this is a superb skin hydrating oil, softening, smoothing and texture improving.

For stressed skin, this sexy purple little number does the business. Dull, chapped, too much time in the sun?

Eczema, dry itchy skin? Due to its essential fatty acid content and anti-inflammatory properties blackcurrant can help sort all of these.

These potent little berries, that you can still find in British hedgerows if you look hard enough, are seriously good for skin. You can find it in our Deep Nourish Facial Essence, and it find it on the label under Ribes Nigrum (Blackcurrant) Fruit Oil

The Rose Tree's Face Oil with Blackcurrant Oil

4 - Argan Oil For Your Face

Argan Oil has seen a huge jump in popularity, and with good reason. It is Vitamin E and fatty acid rich making it great for treating skin topically.

It pumps and smooths skin , restores skin tone and elasticity and protects skin from environmental impacts. It is sebum regulating, and can help with acne prone skin.

The nuts from which argan oil is produced are hand dried for days in the sun before being smashed by hand to get the oil out, an ancient technique still sued by Morocco's Berber women.

You can find it in our Deep Nourish Facial Essence, and our Intensive Balm. Look out for Argania Spinsosa Oil on the label.

5 - Avocado Oil For Your Face

Rich and soothing, this is one of my favourite oils for dry an sensitive skins. It particularly helps to hydrate parched skins, to add glow and revive tired skin.

Rich in vitamins A, D and E, it is rich in oleic acid, deeply penetrating and hydrates nourishes and softens. Because it is such a rich emollient, it's great for dry, itchy and thirsty skin.

You can find it in our Radiance Facial Essence with Rose & Marula. It appears on the label as Persea Gratissima Oil.

The Rose Tree Face Oil with Avocado for Sensitive Skin

A note on oils that don’t always suit midlife skin.

Not every plant oil is a good match for dry, sensitive or hormonally changing skin — even if it’s popular or widely recommended. Many skincare formulas rely on lighter, fast-absorbing oils because they’re inexpensive, easy to work with, and readily available. They’re not bad oils, but when they form the bulk of a face oil, they don’t always offer the level of barrier support that midlife skin often needs.

Some of these oils can feel pleasant initially, yet over time may contribute to tightness, dryness or imbalance in skin that’s thinning, drier, or more reactive with age.

Oils such as sunflower, grapeseed, fractionated coconut oil, or sunflower oils are often praised for their texture or skin feel, but I find they’re frequently used to fill out a bottle cheaply rather than to truly nourish the skin.

That doesn’t make them “bad” — they can have a valuable role as carriers, for infusions, or as part of a more complex blend where they support and deliver richer, more active oils.

But for midlife skin seeking comfort, resilience and deep nourishment, I prefer to build formulations around higher-quality, organic plant oils that genuinely support the skin barrier, and use simpler oils only where they add clear purpose.

Dry, sensitive skin can be managed.

It's all about finding the ingredients and products that suit your skin, and choosing plant oils that suit your skin type.

Have you tried any of these ingredients in your skin care routine?

If your skin feels confused, this is a good place to pause.

When skin is dry, sensitive or changing with age, adding more products or chasing trends rarely helps. What does help is simplifying — choosing ingredients that calm, nourish and strengthen the skin barrier, rather than overwhelm it.

If you’re new to face oils, or unsure where to start, beginning with a small, well-chosen routine can be far more effective than layering multiple products. Taking the time to understand what your skin actually needs is often the most powerful step.

Less is more - a little simplicity

The idea behind The Rose Tree is grown up beauty. Less about looking 10 years younger and more about feeling amazing. The best ingredients for the job, not the cheapest. The finest natural and organic plant oils and butters, selected for their effectiveness.

I am all about being small, because small means personal, and comes with great service. I want finding beauty that works to be easy. I am passionate about manufacturing in Britain, sourcing ingredients ethically and being able to give a little back to the world.

My customers tend to fall into two groups.

They're either in their 30s and 40s juggling kiddies and jobs.

Or they tend to be in the 40s, 50s, and upwards - and are juggling busy lives with and adapting to their skin's changing needs, perimenopause, menopause and beyond.

I'm all about ignoring the rules, must have products, must have ingredients, it's exhausting. Let's ditch this idea that you need tens of products and a 10 step skincare routine.

Simplicity is good.

At The Rose Tree, I'm here to make your life easier, to care for and nourish your skin in an honest way. To nurture and coax tricky into looking the best it can. To calm and soothe and give your skin a natural glow.

My face oils, balms and creams are all designed to nurture and protect.

For skin that is dry, dehydrated, or mature pick my Facial Essence with Rose & Blackcurrant. It's all about feeding your skin, nourishment, and satiny plumped up skin with generous amounts of Argan, Blackcurrant, Baobab, Camellia and Cranberry oils but no heavy or greasy feeling.

For skin that is prone to oiliness, breakouts and rosacea, or just a little fiddly pick my Facial Essence for Rose & Marula. Think super soft skin. Clear skin - with the hand selected essential oils which are inherently anti-bacterial and particularly suited to oily, combination skins. Plumped up, cushiony, comfortable skin. It helps keep breakouts under control. It's perfect if you suffer from red-ness or rosacea.

I'm Olga, founder of The Rose Tree, and I'm more about making your life easier, to care for and nourish your skin in an honest way.